Description: Once upon a time, Tenma Kiryuu met Vanessa during a Saturday Night Fight, and dubbed the older woman 'Auntie'. Now... She gets her revenge?!
Southtown Village! A nice, relaxing place where there's nothing too much to worry about, really. The schools in the area are a little rowdy, but it's nothing completely unreal (unlike, for instance, the complete insanity that is the /ninja fortress/ Raizo Imawano continues to assure the neighborhood association is actually a school).
The point is: Vanessa Lastnameirrelevant wanders the streets in an old tee shirt and jeans, padding along quietly with her strong arms in her pocket, mostly just...listening to what people have to talk about at this time of evening. It's nice to get a walk in, she thinks - helps her clear her head, keep her energy up, and most importantly, keep her ear to the ground. She'll have to hit a bar later, of course, for the real good stuff. Come to think of it, she hasn't been back to Metro in a while...
Speaking of people who come from unruly schools...
Tenma Kiryuu, one of the strongest students at Gedo High - and nevermind how long he's been there, it's almost like the flow of time is somehow actually largely irrelevant to the lives of people everywhere - is out and about this fine evening in Southtown, perhaps /on patrol/. He's wearing what is, ostensibly, his 'winter uniform': Eschewing the traditional, puke-coloured Gedo uniform entirely, he wears instead the blue-grey slacks and high-collared jacket of his previous school in Osaka, an untucked white dress shirt underneath. He has, at least, swapped out the collar pins for Gedo ones, but otherwise... Well, it's not like anybody else at Gedo wears the actual uniform either.
Except for Kenji Ashima, anyway.
Like the rest of his fellows in the Gang, though, and particularly members of the Guardian Kings, Tenma keeps his eyes open for trouble, in the hopes of keeping Southtown's streets relatively safe for normal folks. He also keeps his eyes open for other things, of course, which is why when they fall on Vanessa, he--
--No, hang on, wait a minute. Okay, so eventually his blue eyes track /upwards/ enough for him to see Vanessa and--
--a toothy grin pulls at the lanky young man's mouth. "Oh, hey," Tenma calls, now that he's recognised the redhead. "Auntie!"
Vanessa is still not entirely certain Gedo /has/ a uniform.
Either way, the Boxing Queen yawns lazily as she wanders, arms stretching up, arcing out her back. After about ten seconds she gives up on that, rolls her shoulders lazily, and...sees Tenma.
She waits patiently for him to notice there's a face attached, giving the kid a vague smirk. "First look's free," she says, tolerantly, hands finding their way to her pockets.
He calls her 'auntie', and her lip ticks downward a single degree. "Hey, kid," she replies, blithely, wandering a little closer. "So this your haunt? I guess you did say somethin' about that. Hah, that whole thing's a blur, though."
'Auntie' is a perfectly respectable way to address a woman of Vanessa's moderate years! Tenma certainly doesn't mean any offense by it - which is unusual in and of itself, because most of the time the nicknames he provides others in place of giving them their actual names are meant to be insulting, or at least flippant - although he could probably phrase it more politely.
But, you know, rowdy delinquent highschool gang member.
Tenma is, of course, carrying his habitual wooden practice sword, the solid hardwood bokken slanted casually against his shoulder. He used to have a cloth sheath for it, but somebody stole that. Now he just carries it around quite openly... In the long run, it helps speed things up, anyway.
He tilts his head slightly to one side as he's referred to as 'kid' - which is probably a fair appellation under the circumtances - and shrugs one shoulder. "Usually closer to Gedo," he explains, although that doesn't inform Vanessa as to where that /is/. "Guess I shouldn't be surprised to find you here. I mean, where else is a fighter gonna be, right?"
Vanessa's eyes follow Tenma's frame up to that sword. Interesting, as always. Fighter kids carry the darndest things. You'd think they were ready to fight, or something.
"Ah, Gedo," Vanessa says, shrugging. "That seems a little more your speed, yeah," she says, grinning a bit. "Bit of a ways out, but with all the mess going on, lately, I don't think I blame you makin' rounds out here." --wow, she figured that out fast. Then again, old ladies are crafty.
"You're right, though, where else would I be?" She laughs, good natured. "It's kinda nice, comin' to the slow parts of town, I guess?" Shrug! "Not as many gangers to put through walls, y'know."
If Tenma didn't think Gedo High was the coolest thing in the world, and that the other schools in Southtown were terrible and filled with wusses and horrible screaming red-headed half-Spanish harridans, he might actually be insulted when Vanessa decides that Gedo is 'more his speed'. Instead, he puffs up a bit, because Gedo is awesome and so is he.
"S'right," Tenma confirms, tapping the bokken against his shoulder. "Gotta keep an eye out for any shifty guys causin' trouble. Never know when a buncha psychos might try to take over the city again, or that Pervert Kidnapper Ninja might turn up, looking to start some shit."
He's still miffed that he didn't get to feed Seishirou Ryouhara his own feet in Taizhou. One day, though. /One day/.
After a moment or two of thought as Vanessa agrees with his sentiment about where else she'd be, talking about the slow parts of town and such, Tenma's dark blue eyes hood, and he glances sidelong at Vanessa. "Hey, Auntie. I've been wondering... You any stronger than when we fought those two weirdos on that movie set?"
Vanessa, having gained great wisdom in her old age, can no doubt see where this is going.
Vanessa gets away with sassing a muscle-headed highschooler. ...Point??
"Good man," Vanessa says with a laugh. "Means the rest of us can slack off and get drunk." She grins a bit, hands in her pockets. "Pervert Ninja?" Vanessa can think of a lot of those. That Raizo guy, she thinks, he seems like someone you wouldn't want to leave your kids around...
A hum, though, at Tenma's look, and Vanessa's own eyes slide shut, a little grin sliding onto her face like a snake. "Pretty forward, for a young man," she says, as if he'd asked something else entirely. "I've gotten a bit tougher since then, yeah." She hums, cracking a single eye, razor thin, at Tenma. "You wanna go?"
Though Tenma has only had limited experience with the deadly Princibear, it was memorable, but no, that's not who he means.
"Yeah, you know," Tenma says, although this does not really answer Vanessa's question in the least. "That Jinchuu guy, Ryouhara or whatever." How did he end up giving Seishirou a nickname like 'Pervert Kidnapper Ninja'? Well, that's a long story, but it mostly involves Seishirou kidnapping people, and Tenma in particular.
Long, but not /complicated/.
When Vanessa counters his words with a deadly ~double entendre~, the tall young man lets out a faint 'heh'. "Haven't you heard, Auntie? I'm all sorts of foward." His smirk broadens, too: These sorts of things don't work on him like they should, it seems.
Otherwise, though, he's already in the process of lifting his left hand to his mouth, white teeth sinking into the flesh of his thumb and setting red blood to running out of the small wound: He draws that thumb down along the wooden blade of his bokken, painting a red stripe along it, creating the chi link between himself and the weapon. A moment later, he completes the little ritual, sweeping the blade through the air and initialising the link, a misty, crimson aura of blood and chi emanating from the wooden blade.
So, there's Vanessa's answer.
Vanessa's grin stays strong. She has nothing to say of Ryouhara; she only met his proxies. But she does laugh at Tenma's barreling right past her teasing. "Are you? Maybe you'll show me, sometime?"
That might or might not have been pre-emptive smash talk.
Because she's totally suggesting he's not going to make a very good showing tonight.
She watches him take that bite out of his own thumb, tipping her head thoughtfully. "Huh, I remember that now. Neat. Well, then..." She rolls her neck, sliding down into her stance, hopping back and forth between her feet to be sure the muscles are nice and limber. "I was in the mood for a little civil disturbance, anyway," she laughs.
And then she lunges forward, instantly blurring across that distance almost too fast to track, one arm slung back swing a rapid punch right the hell into Tenma's chest.
COMBATSYS: Vanessa has started a fight here.
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Vanessa 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Tenma has joined the fight here.
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Vanessa 0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0 Tenma
COMBATSYS: Vanessa successfully hits Tenma with Dash Puncher.
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Vanessa 0/-------/-----==|====---\-------\0 Tenma
It seems that Tenma's attempt to charge headlong through Vanessa's teasing /backfires/, as it just gives the red-haired woman ammunition to get /worse/. When she responds the way she does, the always confident Kiryuu is visibly taken aback for a moment. That's not supposed to happen! She's supposed to get all offended that he would speak to her that way, and call him a jackass or a pervert or something!
He should've learned his lesson when she didn't get mad at him for eyeing her particulars.
Fortunately for everyone concerned, though, Vanessa is taking the initiative in the violence department, rushing at him with ridiculous speed to punch him in the chest. He moves as she does, pushing back to put a little more space between them, to give himself more time to continue to react; he sweeps his bokken into the way of that fist, aiming to deflect the punch, but what /happens/ is that he gets hit in the chest with his own weapon, with Vanessa-level force behind it, sending him stumbling.
"Ha ha, shit, that's crazy," Tenma says, suddenly squinting suspiciously at Vanessa. "Hey, you don't have a... I dunno, a daughter, or a niece named 'Marisol', do you? Goes to Pacific High?" They both have red hair, monster strength and the ability to fill a sweater, so it's an innocent mistake on his part.
There's no time for standing around and doing nothing, though, so Tenma swings his bokken again, nowhere close enough to actually /hit/ Vanessa with the blade; when he slashes at the air, though, a red afterimage of energy trails after the blade, and from /that/ is birthed a crescent of roiling red blood and chi, already rocketing towards Vanessa as it forms.
COMBATSYS: Vanessa reflects Dharmapala from Tenma with Parrying Puncher.
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Vanessa 0/-------/----===|====---\-------\0 Tenma
Today, Tenma has learned a terrifying lesson:
People who are comfortable with their sexuality are far more powerful than any mere teenager's innuendo.
He has also learned that Vanessa hits like a truck, so that's kind of cool. Once Vanessa sends Tenma back, she stays where she is, hopping back and forth a little to keep her legs loose. "Crazy, huh?" she laughs. "I think people have called me that, sometimes!" She grins, sly and playful.
Blink, at daughter or niece. She /does/, but... "Uh, no," she says, blinking. Admitting she has a daughter is bad. NESTS killed her husband; she's not sure if they realize the other half of her family is still alive. Telling random high schoolers secrets: Not cool. "Though Pacific is my kinda place..." she says, instead, covering easily.
And then Tenma's attacking. Vanessa tips her head at the oncoming blood chi wave, humming a bit even as she hops her feet again. "Neat trick!" she says. "I don't normally see size like that out of kids like you. But..."
Then she hauls off and punches the crescent. Rather than, for instance, burning her hand, it...bounces off. And shoots right back at Tenma.
"...You gotta have technique, too!" she laughs.
COMBATSYS: Tenma Toughs Out Vanessa's Reflected Dharmapala!
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Vanessa 0/-------/--=====|=====--\-------\0 Tenma
Okay, that is not supposed to work like that.
Tenma's eyes narrow faintly when his blood projectile is /punched back at him/ in a clear violation of the admittedly cursory and heavily abused laws of physics that professional fighters are aquainted with. He's pretty sure Marisol O'Connell can't do /that/, so maybe his comparison of the two is unfounded... Or maybe this is some sort of power red-headed boxer chicks only develop later in life?! Truly, a universe of fearsome possibilities.
Tenma Kiryuu, of course, knows a lot about technique. He also knows a thing or two about being crazy. Which is why he just bull rushes right /through/ his own returned bloody projectile, the power splashing against him largely without effect, his tremendous chi proving to be pretty effective in protecting him against, well... Itself.
"That was a pretty good trick, Auntie," Tenma says, as his run turns into a lunge, his bokken thrusting out point first at Vanessa; the blood chi focuses on the tip of the blade, and if he manages to touch the woman with that, it /sticks/ to her, which is sort of weird. Naturally, he has some dangerous intent behind this, twisting around and swinging his sword - and, ideally, also Vanessa - overhead before releasing her and sending her flying. "But I'm just getting started!!"
COMBATSYS: Vanessa blocks Tenma's Asura.
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Vanessa 0/-------/=======|======-\-------\0 Tenma
Vanessa is surprised in turn. She did not really expect him to do that. She figured he would be too surprised by the whole punched-a-thing-back-at-him business to handle it. But no!
"Wow," Vanessa says, big-eyed. "Impressive!" She laughs, and then ohhhh god he's doing the two things she hates, nooooo
Tenma swings that sword around her, and Vanessa manages to catch the blade's edge on her forearm, letting it skid along tough skin and fail to go much further. Tenma's moving fast, so she's got to time this right--
"Good!" Vanessa says, and hauls back and swings hard with her free hand, arcing 'round to lodge it in Tenma's jaw before he can do too much with the 'sending her flying' thing. "If that was all you had, I'd be pretty depressed!"
COMBATSYS: Tenma blocks Vanessa's Hook Punch.
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Vanessa 0/-------/=======|=======\-------\0 Tenma
It's probably not very surprising given the nature of his fighting style, but at least one of those things that Vanessa no doubt hates encompasses a large portion of what he does, in a fight. However, when Vanessa gets wide eyed and admits that his feat was 'impressive', well, the brash young man can't help but note:
"Yeah, I hear that a lot."
Still, the brunt of his technique is securely deflected by the thirtysomething boxer, and he's left in a potentially dangerous position as she seeks to further injure him with one of her deadly fists (of death) which on the whole Tenma has figured out is probably bad. With his sword engaged, though, what can he do about the punch?
What saves him is that it was a one-handed sword technique.
Just as Vanessa punches with her free hand, Tenma moves his /own/ free hand to intercept it, catching the hooking punch with his open palm, a stinging pain running down his arm at the impact. "Jeez... You're one dangerous lady," the Kiryuu 'demon' hunter mutters, thinking quickly and doing one of his favourite things: Improvising. Using his hand on Vanessa's fist, he tries to tug the woman off-balance, ducking his other shoulder and pulling his sword arm in as he does so. His intent by this point is basically to pull Vanessa's weight /onto/ his shoulders, and then in the same motion flip her off of himself and onto the sidewalk on her back.
Because he knows something about boxers: Being in their face just gives them a chance to punch you in yours.
COMBATSYS: Vanessa blocks Tenma's Medium Throw.
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Vanessa 1/------=/=======|=======\-------\0 Tenma
Vanessa's fists are fairly deadly, it's true.
"What, the depression?" Vanessa laughs back, choosing to misinterpret his retort. "There's medication for that~"
Eyes widen a little at that catch of her punch. Strong...but she's stronger, she gauges; his chi is far better than hers, but the tradeoff is that her punches sting a lot more. That's a nice trade, she decides, but there's still the small matter of the fact that he's more or less matching her right now. Hmmmmmmm. "Heh heh," she chuckles back. "You think I've even /started/?" she laughs, with a smug little grin, and then she adds "WHOA!" as Tenma attempts to yank her off-balance.
Vanessa knows if he gets her into that throwing position she's screwed. She can't let him get that far. So she digs in with those surprisingly powerful leg muscles, glancing over at the building they happen to be brawling next to, and grins. "Nope!" she jeers, resisting Tenma's strength just long enough to yank HIM back with her own prodigious strength. Her arms are occupied and she's frankly off-balance, so there's not much she can do as far as punches go, so there's only one thing to do:
She grins at Tenma and then slams her face into his.
COMBATSYS: Tenma fails to interrupt Headbutt from Vanessa with Head Breaker.
- Power fail! -
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Vanessa 1/------=/=======|=======\-------\1 Tenma
If one were to look at the fighting history of one Tenma Kiryuu, leader of the Guardian Kings and member of the Gedo Gang under Daigo Kazama, one would notice a glaring and, in some cases, distressing trend:
Tenma can't resist a headbutt.
Sometimes this leads to amazing things, and other times this leads only to pain and tragedy, but as he remains rather awkwardly in close with Vanessa and her many dangerous extremeties, the tall young man has few options in dealing with the impending head on head collision, so what he does is...
Well, he tries to headbutt Vanessa's headbutt, basically.
On occasion, this has been known to actually be an effective tactic, but it seems there are people in the world with harder heads than that of the Kiryuu heir, as he smashes his forehead into Vanessa's and... Staggers!!
"Geh!!" Tenma exclaims as he stumbles back, his brain fairly rattled, and for a moment the teenager is quite bewildered, as he sees double - /four/ Vanessas!
See, because he's looking at her--You know what, nevermind.
Tenma discovers that in this world - sometimes there are those whose heads are just harder than yours.
Vanessa slams her skull into Tenma's, and she pulls back with a slick little grin when she dazes him to the point where he releases her, and she scoots back, giving him a few feet to ogle her with, while she hops back and starts bouncing back and forth at the waist, which A) probably makes Tenma's vision problems even more acute, and B) makes it hard to tell what the hell she's going to do next. "Ha ha!" she laughs. "I wonder how many you see, kid!?" she jeers.
And then she lunges forward, abruptly, and swings a sharp jab at Tenma's neck...
ANd then her fists blur, impossible to track for a solid thirty seconds as she buries her knuckles in Tenma's entire upper half in a sudden, insane blur of bone-crushing force, yelling vigorously as she empties out her strength into his /innocent organs/, before finishing off with a savage haymaker meant to send him /flying/!
And then she hops up and down and shakes her hands out, hissing, "ow ow ow ow /ow/!"
COMBATSYS: Vanessa successfully hits Tenma with Crazy Puncher.
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Vanessa 0/-------/-------|=======\====---\1 Tenma
Under other circumstances, Tenma would probably appreciate Vanessa's current maneuver more, but part of him realises - the part of him which is not, in fact, the finesse-free punk kid he usually affects to be - that what Vanessa is doing right now is very bad for him, because she is a lady boxer and lady boxers - well, all boxers really, but /especially/ lady or perhaps foxy boxers - rely on surprising speed and misdirection in addition to their strength. There's not much time for the dizzied Guardian King to make a decision, so he goes with the first thing that comes to mind.
He stands there and /takes/ it.
Tenma is thus well and truly pummeled by Vanessa's assault, hammered by repeated punches all over his body, but he's not thinking about that. He's not even thinking anything /dirty/, which is unusual in and of itself. He's trying to focus. It's difficult, of course, with somebody punching the bejeezus right out of you - Tenma wouldn't have expected to have a bejeezus, being a heathen by most any standard - but he's almost got it when that crazy haymaker slams into his face, putting him into a whirling flight backwards.
Uh, /into/ a storefront, whoops. Thank goodness for Fighter Insurance!
There is for a moment, no movement whatsoever out of the storefront - could that have finished it? Could Vanessa have scored such a decisive victory already? But then there's a... Well, a /pressure/, as Tenma Kiryuu's tremendous, unrestrained chi spills out, the young man's lanky form rising up to a standing position, and climbing back out onto the street. "You really don't hold back huh, Auntie?" Tenma says, spitting a gob of blood out onto the sidewalk.
The blood seems to be... Steaming?
Tenma settles into a different stance than usual, facing Vanessa sidelong with his left hand extended towards her, his fingers contorted in a mudra position, his pinky and ring fingers curled in while his middle finger is extended, his index finger slightly bent against its back; his right arm stretches back behind him, holding his bokken in the Gyakudou position, the curved wooden blade stretching horizontally and perpendicular behind him, as the bloody aura around the blade envelops it whole and entire, and Tenma seems to be grasping a weapon formed purely out of crimson energy.
"Guess I'll have to go all out, too."
There's a momentary /tension/, and then Tenma erupts into forward motion, swinging his bokken around in a wide one-armed slash: There's a lot of physical power behind the strike, of course, and all that gathered chi, but that's not the /real/ danger here. The real danger comes if the bokken strikes true, when Tenma's chi passes through Vanessa instead of spending itself in a raw impact of power, suddenly stopping the flow of energy through the older fighter for a few precious heartbeats, momentarily halting the very flow of /life/ in her body, robbing her vitality and leaving only numbness in its wake...!
"BE SEALED!"
COMBATSYS: Vanessa stops The Sealing Sword from Tenma with Parrying Puncher EX.
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Vanessa 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Tenma
Tenma decides to stand there and just /eat/ Vanessa's ridiculous barrage, and for his bravery he receives a savage beating.
Vanessa watches him go, breathing deep through her mouth while she waits for him to rise up. "C'mon," she notes, "I didn't hit you /that/ hard." /She totally did hit him that hard/. She shakes out her hands at the wrists, still, open fisted. Her knuckles ache. "Ha ha, ow, I keep forgetting how much it /hurts/ doing that..."
And then, she blinks as she senses, dimly, Tenma's rising chi, watches him slowly grind himself to his feet, one fine red eyebrow rising. "Well, it's no fun if we hold back, is it?" she wonders, with a little grin. It grows more teasing as she adds, "Adults play a little rougher, you know?"
And then he's...steaming, and Vanessa's eyes re-narrow, watching him work. Chi, or at least high-level chi like this kid uses, was always a little beyond her. She's just no good at it, barely more sensitive than the stone walls behind her to its motions. She watches him work, taking it in but not fully understanding, other than that he has just gotten serious.
She senses that tension, and tenses her own body in turn, setting her feet, clenching both fists, readying herself, watching him -- come! She grits her teeth, watching, waiting for the moment...
THERE! She swings around her entire body in the weight of the counterpunch, one fist against Tenma's entire soul, as Vanessa slams one black-gloved fist into the blade of his bokken, and that red light sprays around her like a punctured pressure vessel, seeking to go somewhere - directed by Tenma, redirected by Vanessa, both pouring their all into it, and as a result the energy simply...sparks away, harmlessly, while two hollered cries thunder into heaven! Eventually, the energies abate; Vanessa follows through her punch, then swings back, skating away from Tenma almost too fast to track, to buy herself some room, huffing and puffing. "Sh-shit, kid," she laughs. "That was a good one!"
It's important to note that, as a rule, that isn't supposed to happen.
Tenma's strongest attack, the 'secret technique' handed down in his family for generations, is still incomplete - but even then, it's rare that the attack is stopped so /completely/. In the past, that technique has been able to best the defenses of some of the most dangerous fighters out there: Once, it apparently killed the 'demon' Marise, although her fate proved to be less than final. But it never ceases to be amazing when it's completely defeated, like that.
Tenma's eyes widen and his focus falters as Vanessa manages to halt the attack with one precisely-placed punch, forces discharing impressively but ultimately harmlessly as the boxer proves that sometimes age and experience really /do/ trump youth and talent.
Skidding back from the impact, Tenma breathes raggedly - that took a /lot/ out of him - and looks over at Vanessa. Where was she hiding /that/ trick? "Not good enough, though," Tenma notes, not so arrogant that he's incapable of self-evaluation like that. It seems like a pretty dire situation, and a lot of other fighters would probably throw in the towel right here, but... That would be neglecting a key part of Tenma Kiryuu's psychology:
The idea, in any situation, that he /absolutely cannot win/, that there is /no chance at all/, does not even occur to him.
Instead, once Tenma's regained enough energy to move right, he hurls himself headlong right at Vanessa again. He rushes at her with his bokken in a two-handed grip, held back over his shoulder, and when he gets in close, the very first thing he does is... Swing one leg up in an attempt to knee her right in the kidney, which he would then follow up with by smashing the hilt of his bokken right into Vanessa's forehead, to drive her off balance; then, and only then, would come the actual strike, his bokken whirling in two powerful strikes, up to down then down back to up, each tracing an arc of red in the air.
COMBATSYS: Vanessa reflects Deep Strike from Tenma with Puncher Weaving.
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Vanessa 0/-------/----===|==-----\-------\0 Tenma
Vanessa has trained her body and mind for combat with the greatest of the greats - Igniz, the so-called god among us, is on her personal hit list, and he is by no means the only big fish she wants a piece of. For this, she has trained herself with these techniques, to respond to incoming assault and turn it aside with her own body and soul. But with the way she laughs and smiles, you'd never guess how hard she's worked to be able to so completely turn aside Tenma's greatest gambit. That is as she prefers it; if people underestimate her, that works in her favor.
Tenma gives himself that plain assessment, and Vanessa laughs. "Well, don't sell yourself too short. Nooot a lot of people can do that."
It's a friendly match; his best is beaten. She thinks he /should/ surrender...but she doesn't expect it, and so she just stands there, one fist still clenched, while he recovers. "Take yer time," she offers.
Then he's ready, and Vanessa drops low, quickly bobbing and weaving. God, she's /fast/--strikes sweep at her and she just jerks her head out of the way, her body slides back in a sudden surge that seems only barely possible, Tenma's blows missing, missing, missing---
ANd then, as he swings that bokken again, Vanessa ducks low, fist clenched, drawing on the energy Tenma is positively /leaking/ and sucking it into her fist, letting her rising punch to Tenma's chin guide it right back into his body! She sniffs, sharply, a boxer's kiai, as that blow is thrown.
The thing about taking a risk like that is... Sometimes it pays off, and sometimes it really doesn't.
Tenma's own energy is rebounded back on him into a powerful uppercut from the boxer, his head snapping back and the force of it lifting him up off of his heels. It's... Well, it's a /lot/ like fighting Marisol, come to think of it, although Vanessa has the better of the younger redheaded boxer in experience (because she's old, ha ha ha) and finesse, demonstrating the sort of techniques he's sure his archrival couldn't manage.
He staggers back and stumbles, his legs wobbling and trying to give out from under him, but...
"Ha ha, shit... Looks like you got me beat," Tenma admits, uncharacteristically self-aware for a fighter of his type. Maybe he's grown more mature over the course of his recent experiences... It would be hard to remain the same, unchanged, after the things he's done and seen.
"But..."
Tenma steadies himself by pure willpower, taking one lunging step /into/ Vanessa, trying to get inside the boxer's guard, half-crouching for a second and holding his bokken down and across his body.
"...I'm not the sorta guy who just lies down!!"
Tenma then leaps up and into the other fighter, whirling around in a rising, twisting strike with his chi-emanating bokken that aims to lift Vanessa into the air /with/ him, before smashing her down and away. "...VAJRA!!"
COMBATSYS: Tenma can no longer fight.
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Vanessa 0/-------/----===|
COMBATSYS: Tenma successfully hits Vanessa with Vajra.
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Vanessa 1/-------/=======|
Vanessa grins at Tenma when he gives her that self-aware admission, tipping her head at him. "Y'did good, kid," she says, slipping slowly out of her stance. A kid like this has seen a lot, Vanessa decides. He's a good kid. Rough. Creepy chi, too. But not...bad, or anyth--
"DICK MOVE!" Vanessa decrees, hands snapping up to block the incoming lunge, but she can't divert it in time and he just...rises up with her, with that power, and then SPIKES her back into the dirt, and Vanessa cries out and skids along the ground from the strength of it, groaning in pain for a few seconds.
"ow," she decides, then laughs, sliding her feet back under her and rising. She's beaten up, after that one, a little bloodied and definitely battered, but...she doesn't even look that winded, in the long run. She could go for a while yet.
"You're a tough cookie," she notes, grinning. "That one hurt."
His ~cunning maneuver~ proves to be a success, and Tenma catches Vanessa with a powerful attack, but... Well, it would probably be considered 'too little, too late'. That's not the /point/, of course, the point is something else entirely, something about showing his resolve, and his unwillingness to back down.
Also that he's kind of a jerk?
But even as Vanessa ends up crashing into the ground and skidding along the sidewalk, Tenma himself lands in a heap, the the student rolling onto his back with a groan. The aura around his bokken dissipates, with a sound like a slowly exhaled breath, and once it's gone it becomes clear that the red stripe he painted on the blade in his own blood has already vanished, too.
His dark blue eyes slide over towards Vanessa, who's getting up and looking worse for wear but clearly able to still go a few rounds. "You're not too bad yourself, Auntie," Tenma notes, which is high praise from him - although not high enough for him to actually use her actual name.
If... He even knows it.
Vanessa got that hit hard, alright, but by now she's back on her feet and watching as Tenma's chi aura fades and he returns to a state somewhat approximating Not Ready To Kick Ass.
"Nope, I ain't," Vanessa laughs. "But you did pretty well, there, er. ...Tenma, right?" She meets so many scrappy young men, after all.
Two. Three. Four. Five. "Vanessa," she adds, smirking.
Well, if she wore a 'hello my name is' badge, then nobody would ever forget her name, would they?
See it works on multiple levels.
A bit creakily, Tenma starts to get to his feet, because he did get punched a whole lot - including through a storefront, which fighter insurance or no fighter insurance he's pretty sure gang rules state he's going to have to help pay for - so he's not exactly as spry as he usually is. The bokken is picked up as well, rarely seen without the weapon as he is, and soon enough it's resting casually against his shoulder.
How hurtful that Vanessa doesn't remember who /he/ is. "That's me," Tenma confirms, his confident demeanor proving reasonably unflappable. It's not her fault that there's so many young men his age who like getting into fights and who also have superpowers of some description, after all. Especially since her memory must be going already, on top of that. So tragic. So very, very tragic.
"Don't worry though, Auntie. Next time, I'll make sure to kick your ass."
See? Young people today, they're resilient! And goal oriented!
Vanessa just kind of watches Tenma get up. He's beat up and tired, obviously, but watching how someone conducts themselves AFTER a fight can be quite enlightening. He's back in position for another round before a minute is up. It's just ingrained into him, she decides; that's not the kind of thing you do when you're putting on airs.
"Yeah?" Vanessa says, laughing. "I'm sure you'll show me a great time, then!" She gets a big smirk on her lips, hands sliding back into her pockets - until she hits her knuckles and flinches, instead hooking her thumbs in the belt loops, instead. "In fact," she muses...
"Why don't you start right now? I haven't seen Southtown with a handsome young guide in a while~" ... And then she cocks an eyebrow, noting, "If you do well, I'll show you a little place I know that doesn't ask questions at the counter."
Well, now Tenma's just going to have to find a way to make good on his promise, when next they clash, isn't he? Fortunately for him, he absolutely intends to. It's a matter of /pride/.
But those concerns are for another day, as Tenma finds himself in the at least theoretically enviable position of getting dragooned into being Vanessa's 'guide' around Southtown. He tilts his head back as he regards the older woman sidelong, weighing his options here. He /could/ always just be a big ol' jerk and take off, but just patrolling was getting pretty dull, anyway.
The tall young man heaves a sigh and then straightens up, the possibility of underaged drinking possibly contributing to his agreeability on the subject. "Sure, why not?" he decides out loud. "I'll be sure to not keep you out too late, Auntie," he says as he starts to lead the way off to mystery, because old people have early bedtimes.
LITTLE DOES HE REALISE.
Log created on 20:45:36 11/07/2010 by Tenma, and last modified on 20:15:24 11/09/2010.