Description: In which the current makeup of the New Face team is arguably explained but certainly not justified, Yashiro's psychological condition continues to decay to almost Tran levels, Tran frightens small children, and Shingo teaches everyone about the power of friendship. Sorry, did I say 'friendship'? I meant 'violence'.
Yashiro is a problem-solver.
The lanky, muscular pop star smirks with questionably-restrained self-satisfaction at the polished wood of the bar, a frosted mug of beer in his hand as he reflects on the coup that the last couple days have been. After recovering from his League-related wounds and realizing he would be unable to acquire invitations to King of Fighters in that way, he was at last compelled by his own pride to think that the post office must have somehow failed to deliver his team's invitations. What ensued involved a lengthy set of brawls worthy of Final Fight in major various post offices around the world, Yashiro being repeatedly told 'Your invitations are in another office', and many seriously injured government employees. But his endeavors, haphazard though they were, were hardly in vain. He finds himself now the proud possessor of not one, not two, but /five/ King of Fighters invitations, some or all of which may or may not have been intended for entirely different individuals. Alas, what might have been, had the New Face Team decided not to cut out the middleman.
It was then that Yashiro was poised to tackle Problem Number Two: their insufficient numbers. While a tempermental asshole who vacillates between stoic indifference and vengeful fury, Yashiro recognizes strength when he sees it. Though he would have preferred to forget the sausage debacle in its entirety -- and has forgotten the vast majority of it already, no thanks to the constant migraines he continues to inexplicably suffer -- he knows exactly who would fit the bill of a worthy candidate for the New Face Team.
Powerful. Simple-minded. Easily manipulated. Lacking in star power.
Stooges, basically.
It wasn't an easy sell, persuading this man to join him, but the offer of free beer is not to be discounted. Yashiro, of course, having not thought much farther ahead than that, just went to the first place that showed up on his obscenely expensive smartphone's Yelp application as having cheap drinks. And now he is here with his prospective teammate/tool, mentally dangling a King of Fighters application before him, eminently pleased with his progress, and pretty sure Shermie's going to be pleased too.
"King of Fighters, man."
Of course, 'here' is not... exactly... a bar. There's a bar /here/.
"Once in a lifetime. ...Well, not for me, but."
Imagine the camera zooming out from them, and the laughing of playful children beginning to emerge as three of them scamper past, one of them knocking into a harried salaryman trying to watch sports on the wide-screen TV. There happens to be a bar, yes, and it is /theoretically/ separated from the part of the restaurant that is 'family-oriented', but needless to say, most of the kids here cannot be controlled. Yashiro, if only because he is feeling so pleased with himself, nonchalantly ignores the ruckus, preparing to unleash his secret weapon.
"Tough guy like you... will really impress my teammates."
Yashiro wanted to find a way to appeal to Tran without admitting that Tran beat him up, because that was a fluke and totally fucked up and Yashiro was in a bad place and it'll never happen again. He decided quickly, in the form of the slip of paper that he places next to Tran's beer. It's a photograph from a clearly wild party. Yashiro and Chris are in it, sort of, though Yashiro's face is cut off and Chris is just peeking out from behind him, barely noticable. Yashiro's face is cut off because the frame is angled low.
It's mostly aimed at Shermie's cleavage.
You may not like the music, but CYS has plenty to offer everybody.
Dr. Tran totally beat Yashiro's ass into the dirt.
He doesn't really remember the details, so much, just that there was sausage everywhere and it was the obvious outcome once they started to fight, because he is Dr. Tran and Yashiro is a Valentine's day themed male stripper. There was basically never any doubt. He's pretty sure that's how it happened, anyway. Almost one hundred percent.
Normally, the doctor would never bother with the man again for /so many reasons/, but for one very important reason: King of Fighters. It's not that he /wants/ to go and fight, exactly, being positive that he won't win anyway and every round would just be a gauntlet of schoolgirls that would make him miserable. It's that he /wasn't invited/ for some inexplicable reason, and that is /completely unacceptable/.
SOME TIME AGO
Dr. Tran tightly grips a rope that is wound through a complex system of pulleys, terminating in a postman who is dangling upside down by his ankles over a pit filled with crocodiles who are even now shredding his mailbag to bits. He is crying. Tran is laughing maniacally.
"TRY TO DELIVER MAIL TO ME, WILL YOU!? HA! YOU WON'T FOOL ME TODAY, OLD MAN!"
NOW
"Yeah...yeah." You can hear Tran's teeth grinding as he strives to be patient, to keep his anger in check amidst this /hell/. All he has to do is hold out for long enough to get the invitation from this tool, get out, and fight in a round or two of KoF to prove his point. He glosses over what point that is, exactly.
"I can see how you would need it. Alright." The beer and the picture help, at least. Short term. A little.
This scene... IS TOO SERIOUS!
So serious that it must be UNSERIOUSIFIED!
And who on this earth will ever be up to such a task?
"Please, Mr. Bouncer, sir, I know I'm underage, but the bathrooms in the restaurant are all full!"
That's right. This guy. Shingo Yabuki.
Dancing from one foot to the other, knees a'knocking, he really has to go! His mother suggested to try the bar - with all those kids running around all willy-nilly, they'd surely let a seventeen - nearly EIGHTEEN - year old pass by just to use the facilities. He promises not to drink!
But the bouncer holds up is hand and says a final, absolute, "No."
Shingo looks crestfallen - those brown eyes go wide and he doesn't know what to do! He can't just-- "I'm so sorry!" The teen says, ducking under the man's arm and completely outrunning him. He even vaults an unoccupied table!?
Ten minutes later, Shingo emerges, and the bouncer's hand grabs him by the collar. Ah, his mother is going to be so mad at him...
Yashiro is in an obscenely good mood.
"Heh heh," he chuckles to himself at Tran's acquiescence. The guy is clearly bottling up his emotions, no doubt unable to admit to himself how incredibly intimidated he is by Yashiro's presence and physique. At last, the man clearly understands how unworthy he is to be in Yashiro's cohort. A scampering child bumps into the hulking star, but Yashiro only calmly nods in acknowledgment, still smiling, Christ-like in his endless generosity.
Slipping the photograph back in his pocket -- hell if he's giving that away -- he turns back to his new friend. "You're going to love the perks of traveling with the band," he announces magnanimously, for now that Tran understands how important Yashiro is, the best plan is just to pile it on. "We never get in trouble for beating anyone up, for example." Actually, quite by accident, by mentioning Yashiro's own favorite part, he may have actually said something appealing. "And if you're pissed off about something, the babes think you're brooding and sexy." That might be a good one too. "You can drink all you want, and the more you live it up, the more they love you. Plus, all the underage girls go for Beiber, so I don't have to deal with any of that bullshit."
He's really on a roll here.
"Frankly," he adds, as his mug is refilled, "I think that..." Abruptly, his brow furrows, the star's smirk fading for once. Maybe it's the beer, but-- maybe it's the headaches, too. Yashiro's been thinking more, thinking about himself, his friends. It tends to be best when they don't think too hard about it; none of them do, or at least, none of them show that they do. Why question what works? But all of them come from such strange places. All of them... "...none of us would fit in, if we weren't famous. None of this would work, if we couldn't do as we pleased... like we just don't... belong as normal people. Like... civilization, and shit, doesn't have much of a place for..."
You know what. You're right. This has gone on too long.
The bouncer, restraining Shingo, bumps into Yashiro's back. The man's beer sloshes slightly. And, as though he has a sixth sense tuned entirely toward actual disrespect, the man who had been enduring the jostling of kids somehow for a half-hour now explodes screaming from his seat, upending his stool.
"WHAT THE FUCK, MAN!?"
He fells the poor bouncer with an outrageously overextended punch, brutally slamming the man against the counter with a swift but wild swing before rounding on Shingo with eyes manically widened. "I was in the middle of pouring my FUCKIN' heart out! Who the HELL are you!?" Three children are crying. "Shit!"
He clenches and unclenches his fists, twists his head back and forth, and then suddenly darts his gaze over to Tran, a wide and twisted sneer beginning to light up his arrogant features. "Hey! Doctor!" he barks. "Kick this guy's ass!"
He's the team leader, after all.
A child bumps into Yashiro. Tran spasms ever so slightly, so sensitive to the disrespect of youth that he doesn't even have to be the target to get angry anymore.
But he reigns it in. Controls it. He can't just go around beating up children for no reason, the police /hate/ that shit. Although if what Yashiro says is true...
Tran silently mulls it over, helping the thinking process by guzzling more beer, on account of its proven medical properties as a brain-smart-drink-drug-thing. It sounds good. Maybe /too good/, but he'll get to that later. After Yashiro stops talking about his angst and feelings and bluuuuuuuugh how old is this guy anyway don't most people get this out of their system sooner?
"I just have one question. Do I--" And then Tran is interrupted by Yashiro somehow being even more moody and unpredictable than he is, but in the most /fantastic/ way possible.
"Oh finally. FINALLY." Swaying slightly as he stands up, ignoring the downed bouncer who is partially embedded in the bar, Tran turns to Shingo and gets biblical all up ins. "I hope you're ready to die for your peoples' sins!"
And then he tries to break a stool over the perky young lad's perky young skull.
COMBATSYS: Tran has started a fight here.
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Tran 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Shingo has joined the fight here.
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Tran 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Shingo
COMBATSYS: Tran has left the fight here.
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Shingo 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Tran has joined the fight here.
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Tran 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Shingo
COMBATSYS: Shingo blocks Tran's Large Random Weapon.
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
Tran 0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0 Shingo
Five seconds ago, Shingo was being escorted back to his parents like a naughty toddler. Now? He's a heap on the floor, because as the bouncer is struck, he drags the teen - who is choking, ahhhh, let go - along with him. The man's grip relaxes eventually, and the Japanese boy scrambles to his feet from the floor, blinking and bewildered as he's just totally shouted at by this GUY. This GUY with a HEART CHOKER.
"Th..Huuuuuuuuh?" Is all he can really say, lost entirely. Shingo's jaw sags - why do they want to fight him!? And there's a stool descending upon his head!
There's nothing else he can do. The teen just throws his arms up to protect himself, and his elbows somehow wind up locked with the stool's legs, wrenching it from Tran's grasp. Shingo is now ten feet tall. "What did I do!" His chin is digging into his collarbone, and it's kinda uncomfortable, but the boy is PAINFULLY polite, "Please, let's just talk this over!"
It is due to the Japanese's WEAK NATURE that the teen bows respectfully, but he also might accidentally bring the stool crashing down on Tran's head. Is Shingo some sort of MASTERMIND?!
Yashiro is laughing.
Maniacally, really.
"Ah ha ha ha ha haaaaa!"
Crossing his arms in front of his chest, he booms his approval of this violent turn of events as children begin to scream and waiters flail and dishes are overturned and frankly it's kind of incredible how much chaos begins to promptly ensue. To encourage it, Yashiro begins to pick up nearby stools and starts chucking them heedlessly in various directions. A young mother is felled. Two large windows shatter. The screams of the fleeing mingle with Yashiro's unabashed mirth.
Sadistic, yes. Evil?
Well--
"Kick his ass, Doctor Tran!"
Perhaps in the way that a schoolyard bully is evil, or a child burning ants with a magnifying glass is evil, or a man infected with a contagious disease who refuses to quarantine himself is evil...
"Ha ha ha ha!"
Destructive-- but dark? Sinister?
Grasping the last stool in their vicinity with a wide, shit-eating grin, Yashiro casually, without giving it much thought at all, promptly brings it down on the head of-- Tran, who is facing in the opposite direction. "Fight! Fight!" he shouts as he attacks, as though this strike is meant to be some form of encouragement.
He is an agent of devastation. An unconstrained force of nature. A volcano, a plague, a foreign force that, almost accidentally but undeniably all the same, exists in opposition to the rest of humanity.
The Yash is a stampede.
COMBATSYS: Yashiro has joined the fight here in the center.
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Tran 0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0 Shingo
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Yashiro 0|-------|-------
COMBATSYS: Yashiro successfully hits Tran with Large Random Weapon.
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Tran 0/-------/---====|=------\-------\0 Shingo
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Yashiro 0|-------|-------
COMBATSYS: Tran interrupts Large Random Weapon from Shingo with Strong Punch.
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Tran 0/-------/=======|====---\-------\0 Shingo
[ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ]
Yashiro 0|-------|-------
What's a little disaster between friends? If being violent and breaking shit for little to no reason makes you a bad person, then Dr. Tran is like a dozen Hitlers combined into one mega-Hitler, and then condensed down to form a single droplet of pure omniHitler.
Even omniHitlers get suckerpunched by chairs, sometimes. As he finds his own stool taken away, Tran discovers a beautiful new stool, or maybe it discovers him. Upside the head. THWAM. Thrown off-balance, the doctor staggers forward, suddenly blurred vision making it appear that not one, but TWO Shingos are bowing to him.
If there's one thing that Dr. Tran hates more than disrespectful teenagers, it's respectful teenagers. This is a valuable service to the community, because it teaches the youth of the world an important life lesson...
"HRRRRRAGH!" Freshly enraged by the Yash's COWARDLY ASSAULT, Tran moves into Shingo's attack(?), forehead smashing THROUGH the stool like tinder, down to the tender Yabuki center concealed just beyond.
The lesson that Tran is teaching here, his eyes wide and bloodshot, face peppered with splinters, is a simple one. Sometimes, you just can't win.
It's like... the most violent comedy sketch ever. Yashiro's throwing chairs around, people are getting hit, Shingo is frowning, and the stool connects with Tran's head. The THUMP of wood on skull signifies to the teen that he has perhaps made a very grievous mistake; he is very quick to apologize, "Oh my god, I am--" But whatever Kyo Kusanagi's best and only student has to say for himself, the world may never know.
At least Shingo's arms are freed, despite his meeting of the minds with the good doctor, "--hurgaaaaah!" The boy stumbles back, hands clamping over his forehead in shock, and... He won't take this laying down, you know! Chucking stools, refusing to talk things over - if violence is the only form of communication they understand, so be it! He'll just have to be the voice of reason!
And is likely the most inexperienced fighter here, so this could wind up all kinds of ridiculous.
"All right!" The teen slaps his cheeks and pulls out, from his pant pocket, two black gloves. Both bear the sun emblem of the Kusanagi clan. Carefully drawing each onto his hands, Shingo twists over, foot coming up in a crazy, flailing, "SHINGO KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK!"
COMBATSYS: Yashiro interrupts Shingo Kick from Shingo with Dual Upper.
- Power hit! -
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Tran 0/-------/=======|=======\-------\0 Shingo
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Yashiro 0|-------|-======
Yashiro won't stop laughing.
"Ha ha ha ha! You guys are great!!"
He's fine dispensing compliments as long as he's not losing.
Needless to say, in the space of about twenty seconds the surrounding twenty yards are now a scene of total devastation. People are still scurrying to escape, but the general vicinity now contains only the three of them, as well as several felled parents and a few crying children. One wanders in a daze through the melee. Yashiro, fortunately, ignores her.
For the first time, his attention actually fixes on Shingo as the youth suddenly gets into gear, whipping on-- are those Kusanagi gloves? Is this guy some kind of fanboy? What the hell? Yashiro, conscious thoughts somehow making their way through the sheer ecstatic pleasure of destruction, squints at his adversary as he leaps into a dramatic kick. "Hey, don't I know you? You're--"
DON'T ATTACK HIM WHILE HE'S TALKING HE'S TALKING OKAY.
"Hrraaaahhhh!"
Cutting off his own words with a scream, Yashiro furiously punches Shingo's leg, because it is a moving object, thereby knocking Shingo's entire attack askew and rendering it mostly futile, and follows in a split-second with a second blurring follow-up right under Shingo's jaw, launching the poor lad back in the general direction of Dr. Tran. "I SAID," he shouts, because maybe Shingo couldn't hear him, "DON'T I KNOW YOU?"
Furrowing his brow, taking a brief interlude in the few seconds before the bloodlust welling within him will demand more blood for the blood god (how true), the tall musician crosses his burly arms and grimaces in thought.
"You're that... Kasugano? Sakura Kasugano?"
No, that doesn't seem right. Wait a minute--
Yashiro's eyes flicker, as something dawns on him. Slowly, dangerously, he begins to grin, his white eyebrows lifting sketchily.
Who cares who this guy is? What matters is that he seems to be able to hit hard, and to be able to take the kind of punches that put that bouncer out in an instant. This is just the kind of guy that Yashiro needs.
A stooge.
"Sure you want to mess," he says casually, "with a /King of Fighters?/"
Panting heavily, Tran gets a momentary break as Shingo decides to fling himself at the Yash. The last several seconds catch up to him, and he shoots an irate glare at his new team leader. Is he patronizing? Is Yashiro patronizing Dr. Richard Q. Tran?
Honestly, Tran can't tell. So while the CYS...guitarist? Drummer? What does he even do? Whatever. WHILE THAT GUY deals with the religious kid fanatic (shingo is a japanese religion, right?), Tran decides the time to achieve petty vengeance for the stool incident is nigh.
"What are you even talking about?" The doctor rushes the Yash, hand raised so that he can tenuously grasp the larger man's neck, itself more to knock him off-balance so Tran can then spin-kick him right in the stomach.
"I thought you had to win before you can call yourself that!"
He..hey! He's not a fanboy! He is the unwilling Kyo's dedicated pupil, a student of the Kusanagi-ryuu Kobojutsu. One day, Shingo will rival his master and maybe even SHOOT FLAME!
Or so he dreams. It's a damn awesome dream.
And his kick was pretty cool at first too, if intended for the entirely wrong person.
Leg swinging in, the young man GACKS as he's clubbed in the knee, and then struck under his chin, Shingo flying away with an, "Ahhhh, miss, watch out!" Luckily she does, and he soars past Tran to bowl through tables and chair legs. /STRIKE/! "Ooooowwwwww, ow ow ow ow!" Mom, he doesn't want to go to school tomorrow-- Oh no, that's right! His parents are probably wondering what's happened to their dear son!
"Kasugano?" The teen asks rhetorically of the MAN IN THE CHOKER, brown eyes flashing in a blink before he's crawled--er, climbed to his feet, sorting those precious gloves, "My name is Yabuki Shingo and we have never met!" Perhaps having forgotten himself and what he's doing here, the Japanese boy bows again, right in the middle of the fight. OH GEEZ, STOP THAT.
"I mean, uh..." Shingo now knows that he looks foolish, and he's embarrassed, but the nice young man wises up, and likely after Tran has had his say, the teen swings a fist in at Yashiro, move reminiscent of his teacher, but lacking the brilliant red flames, "Oryaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"
COMBATSYS: Yashiro endures Shingo's Aragami Mikansei.
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Tran 0/-------/=======|=======\=------\1 Shingo
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Yashiro 0|-------|=======
COMBATSYS: Yashiro interrupts 3 2 1...Dr Tran from Tran with Jet Counter.
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Tran 1/--=====/=======|=======\=------\1 Shingo
[ ||||||||||||||||||||| ]
Yashiro 1|-----==|=======
Yashiro ignores Shingo, and his reply to Tran is simple.
"Nope."
As it turns out, Yashiro ignoring Shingo is a /defensive technique/, insofar as he is able to begin lumbering over to the oncoming doctor even through the strike, the smirking star completely unruffled by the earnest youth's assault. "Weak!" he says, managing to sound equal parts bored, scornful, and amused. "Too weak, kid!" The doctor, however, is more relevant for the moment, if only because--
"And /you/!"
Yashiro needs to put him in his place.
Even as Tran is reaching out to grasp at his neck, Yashiro's fist is blurring out. Though slightly unbalanced by Tran's twist, his spinning kick is promptly pre-empted by the attack already in progress, a punch that impacts meatily into Tran's midsection.
"Don't you attack--"
He roars, as though in an improvised battle cry.
"YOUR TEAM LEADER!"
He straightens as the force of the blow casts Tran away.
"Well," he quickly amends, "I guess it's fine if you attack me from time to time, but try to do so respectfully."
The Yash has sensitive feelings.
"HURKK!" Dr. Tran's reply is equally simple because he has just been punched in the stomach, /really hard/. He goes flying back into a table, which shatters, and a bystander, which doesn't.
Somehow, picking himself back up, Tran doubts his team leader's quick response. It can't be right, isn't there some kind of /law/ or something? Not that he even cares so much, at this point.
"Respectfully? That's the stupidest shit I've ever heard." Mostly he just wants to Yashiro to be wrong. He also wants Shingo to stop being so.../Shingo/.
"And you, kid, stop being so goddamn polite!" Tran's face has become somewhat flush, as his emotional state, ever precarious, begins to tip. "Do you not understand that we just assaulted you for basically NO REASON? Be a man, for god's sake!"
And then he points at Yashiro. "Hit him like you mean it! Come on!" In the meantime, Tran will just...stand there. And be angry. At everybody. Even people who /aren't even here/.
COMBATSYS: Tran focuses on his next action.
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Tran 1/--=====/=======|=======\=------\1 Shingo
[ ||||||||||||||||||||| ]
Yashiro 1|-----==|=======
Why are these people still hanging around, purposely placing themselves in danger!? Oh my stars, Shingo thinks of his loving parents as he punches uselessly at Yashiro; it's not very effective. Tran is on the receiving end this time.
"Yes, I'm sorry!" It would appear that the good doctor's words have had the complete opposite effect, because he scrubs at the back of his head, eyes downcast, turning to face the very, very angry... angry person. "I will try harder!" Shingo then pumps his fist into the air, encouraging himself, and swings his elbow at this 'team leader'.
Twisting further, provided that his aim is true, Shingo has no clue that Yashiro is a musician and that he shouldn't be PUNCHING THE MAN IN THE NOSE, or hip-checking him in a rising twirl, but don't be a fighter if you rely on your face for income!-- wait, that's a model, not a musician.
WHATEVER, MAN!
COMBATSYS: Yashiro fails to interrupt Nie Togi from Shingo with Million Bash Stream.
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Tran 1/--=====/=======|=======\==-----\1 Shingo
[ ||||||||||||||||| ]
Yashiro 0|-------|--=====
"Yeah, hit me like you mean it!"
Yashiro, suffused in a strangely playful bloodrage, completely indifferent to the destruction and havoc being wreaked, seems to almost play the role of Bizarro Fraternity President here, egging Shingo on in his reckless assault. The big guy, having fought with abandon these entire few minutes, could do with a little calming down, a little taking stock, a little preparation to make sure he can maintain his advantage. But the howling within him demands further violence, further intensity, an unrelenting assault.
"Hrraaaa--ughh!"
Yashiro steps directly into Shingo's fist, his own fists beginning to blur, and this time it turns out to be a terrible idea. Briefly poleaxed by the eager young man's newfound energy, before he can redirect his own force Shingo is able to hurl him to the ground, sending him crashing down and splintering a hapless stool that happened to be beneath him. Dazed, the CYS guitarist briefly forgets what the hell he was even doing, and his rage falters, confusion replacing determination.
"What-- ha--"
And, uncharacteristically, rather than some spiteful comment or explosion of irritation at this completely unfair and unjustified turn of events, Yashiro begins to laugh again, booming through the now-empty restaurant.
"Ha ha ha ha! That was good! That was a good punch! Not weak!"
It's not in Yashiro's nature to be so magnanimous, but he's /genuinely/ indifferent to the pain, in a manner beyond even his usual disconnect. Furthermore, he has a cynical ploy. A ploy to built this kid up.
"What the hell did you say your name was? Yabuki?"
He's probably /heard/ that name. Maybe.
"Think you're tough enough to beat--"
And, not even bothering to rise from his seated position, he jerks a thumb over at the seething, ranting Tran, quirking a white eyebrow even as a thin trickle of blood dribbles from his split lip.
"--/that/ guy?"
Oh now what the hell. That /ass/. Why is he laughing? Is he crazy? That must be it. The Yash is just straight up balls-insane.
Strangely, reaching this conclusion has a somewhat comforting effect on the doctor. It's not that he really understands Yashiro at all, or anything, but now that Tran can just let go and stop worrying about it, everything seems...so much better. And hey, even the kid there is doing what he's told! Unprecedented!
But rather than let all those good feelings get in the way, Tran focuses on what's really important: Yashiro thinking he can turn this around again and get Shingo to beat him up instead.
"Are you retarded!?" Tran snaps, steam erupting from his body, sheathing him in a luminescent white curtain. "A: there's no way in hell I'd lose to him, and B: go to hell for even trying, you son of a bitch!"
With a scream, Tran launches himself at the Yash, open hand extended to slam the seated man's head down into the ground with a complementary explosion of chi, just to ensure that the bar is /even more/ wrecked than it already was.
Poor Shingo. Poor, gullible Shingo.
He lands, wobbles, catches onto a table, then nearly topples over with it anyway. "Ano...?" Blinking at the laughing Yashiro, has he gone completely around the twist? But the man is complimenting him, and soon the teen is smiling in a friendly, amiable way, lured in and believing that he has truly gotten through to this individual. DIPLOMACY WILL PREVAIL! "Thank you." Shingo is embarrassed again, ears reddening, but happy all the same-- what?
The Japanese high schooler's head swivels and he sizes up MAD TRAN, a true hater of haters. Who is shouting. Loudly. Shingo doesn't really go along with the suggestion to beat him up, because the doctor had a point before - Yashiro did attack him for no reason.
Wait, so did Tran!
OH GOD WHAT WILL HE DO?!
He will... make his own destiny, like a true warrior, and get these two to sit down and talk through their differences. That was Shingo's original plan. "Hang on a minute!" The teen goes running after angrypants, attempting to catch him around the legs.
COMBATSYS: Yashiro fails to interrupt Quick Throw from Tran with Dual Upper.
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Tran 1/-======/=======|=======\==-----\1 Shingo
[ ||||||||||| ]
Yashiro 0|-------|--=====
"I'll retard your--"
The Yash doesn't have time to finish. He's a little disoriented right now. Okay, he's a lot disoriented. The surge of violence that was fueling his every movement previously seems to have abated in a manner inimical to his success in battle. His limbs feel oddly heavy, his body and mind warring with itself over the strange sensations that he was so comfortable with only moments ago. What the hell is going on? Why is his memory so shot? Why is he fighting people he doesn't care about? Why did it feel so good, and now it feels so bad? Yashiro's a violent guy, but even this is a bit much. Only months ago, he was more than content in his lifestyle, his lumbering bulk devoted to performance, the occasional beating of shit-talkers, babes, and his two compatriots.
What happened to him?
Whatever thoughts he might have had on the matter are driven forcibly out of his skull as Tran grasps the confused musician and plows him in the general direction of the bar, causing the drunken-seeming Yashiro to collapse heavily to the ground, dazed. When he sees Shingo going for it though, he forgets it all and raises a fist in a hoarse cheer.
"Go Kasugano!"
That's right, he has to keep encouraging the kid.
He had a plan, or something.
COMBATSYS: Shingo successfully hits Tran with Quick Throw.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////// ]
Tran 1/=======/=======|=======\==-----\1 Shingo
[ ||||||||||| ]
Yashiro 0|-------|--=====
It's a good feeling. Smashing somebody's head through something, that is. Hell, when you get right down to it, everything's a good feeling when you're Dr. Tran and you just don't give a shit anymore. The vindication he feels is such a rush, it /almost/ makes up for the fact that the shit he's getting revenge for happened in the first place.
"Hah! That shut you up!" Tran recovers somewhat to see how Shingo is doing, only to find that the lad is /already here/, taking his legs out from under him. The doctor hits the ground hard with a grunt, pushing himself up a moment later, embracing the pain as fuel for the fire that is Dr. Tran.
"So, you think you can take me?" The chi swirling around Tran begins to shrink, drawing inward. Not vanishing, but coalescing around his hands, growing so thick as to completely conceal them. He points a hand that more resembles a softball at Shingo.
"LIKE HELL YOU CAN!" And then the doctor is moving, fist crashing upward to strike at the Kusanagi-wanna-be's chin like a freight train, the gathered energy EXPLODING upon contact.
Then he does it again with the other hand, aimed right at Shingo's chest like a bazooka shell, with alarmingly similar aftereffects.
COMBATSYS: Tran successfully hits Shingo with Here Comes Dr. Tran!.
[ \\\\\\\\\\ < > /// ]
Tran 0/-------/---====|>>>>>>>\>>>>>>>\2 Shingo
[ ||||||||||| ]
Yashiro 0|-------|--=====
Wait. WAIT!
Dr. Tran, all he wants is for the two of you to settle down! Look at Yashiro! He doesn't really seem to be into this whole fighting mind-frame anymore, huh? Shingo oofs though, landing on the other man's legs, heels digging into his chest, scuffing up the front of his - shut up - Gundam t-shirt. It rips just a smidge at his collar. His mother bought that for him last year. On his birthday, even. How will he explain this to her!?
"My name isn't Kasugano!" How could this guy get it correct the second time, but not the third? He will have to ponder this at length.
Oh hey, he's getting yelled at this. Slowly growing accustomed to all this shouting, Shingo doesn't look much surprised anymore, but he does still blink at Tran, then, "No no, please don't misunderstand! I just--" POW.
He was just trying to help. Do a good deed. Awwwwwwwwww man.
Chin-seeking fist-missile of chi plows into his jaw, and before he can even think about smashing through the seeing, the Japanese teen is instead blown through one table and the door to the ladies' bathroom.
SHRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEK!
"AHHHHHHHHHH!" Screams Shingo as well, bolting out as he's pelted with rolls of toilet paper, obviously some 'babes' having taken refuge in there, charging straight at Tran and trying his very, VERY best to lay into him with a whirlwind of fists and kicks. Why? Because in the deep recesses of his mind, there's that part of the boy who enjoys this sort of thing, too...
But not random brawls like this! Or the collapse of diplomacy!
I refuse to make sense.
COMBATSYS: Shingo has reached second wind!
[ \\\\\\\\\\ < > /////// ]
Tran 0/-------/---====|=====--\-------\0 Shingo
[ ||||||||||| ]
Yashiro 0|-------|--=====
"AAAAAAAHHH!"
Yashiro also screams. They're all screaming pretty much simultaneously. Only that Yashiro is the only one cradling his head in his hands as he lurches to his feet, his eyes wild, nightmares raging deep within his skull. His blood, his burning blood, it compels him to fight. He understands that now, in this briefest of moments, but the understanding will not last. In a minute or two, it will be forgotten, and Yashiro will be as he was. But a kind of madness seizes him now that he cannot contain, that is no laughing matter at all.
"Daaaaaamn it!"
As quick as a flash, the revelation diffuses into mere nameless terror and rage, terror that /becomes/ rage, for who is Yashiro to allow fear within himself? Someone might get the wrong idea. He shambles toward Tran, fists shaking, and breaks into a sudden lunge -- just as Shingo bursts from the bathroom and hurls himself in Tran's general direction, completely getting in the way of Yashiro's own attack. It's too late to stop. Not that he would anyway.
"Oh, it's you," he remarks, sounding oddly composed after his outburst only a couple seconds ago, even as his fist blurs out in an attempt to clock Shingo right in the side of the head. "You're tougher than you look, kid," he adds conversationally, out of place with his manic expression and bloodshot eyes.
Maybe that's his excuse.
COMBATSYS: Tran parries Shingo's Burning Shingo EX!
[ \\\\\\\\\\ < > /////// ]
Tran 0/-------/--=====|=====--\-------\0 Shingo
[ |||||||||| ]
Yashiro 0|-------|--=====
"What did I just tell you?" Holding his pose for a moment, slowly returning to a more neutral position, Tran watches Shingo go flying and then come rushing back like a yo-yo. There's fire in the kid's eyes, if nowhere else. The doctor doesn't like it.
So when Shingo defies common sense and stays up, keeps attacking, Tran does the only sensible thing; he attacks back. Each strike is met with a counter-strike, a perfect cancellation of force that is no less than a miracle from the crazed doctor. When Shingo finishes, he's completely unharmed.
"You're done, kid." His point is made, whatever it is. But he's got one more to make, to the JERK who thinks he is calling the shots around here, nevermind the fact that technically that is exactly what he is doing since he is the team leader and that's kind of his thing.
"And you, don't think I've forgotten about you! There's plenty left for you!" And then with a scream, Dr. Tran attempts to do almost the exact same thing to Yashiro that he did to Shingo.
Except this time he punches three times because he is /extra-mad/.
COMBATSYS: Yashiro successfully hits Shingo with Jet Counter.
[ \\\ < > // ]
Tran 0/-------/--=====|=======\-------\1 Shingo
[ |||||||||| ]
Yashiro 0|-------|=======
While most would likely claim that this is their very last, Shingo somehow musters up the energy to keep on truckin', defying the horrendous odds stacked against him. He is as tenacious as he is sweet (or perhaps the kid is just dense and doesn't know when to quit). He also messes up royally, blundering into carefully timed interception, "Not yet!" That is his mantra; the teen isn't finished! No matter what Tran says!
Even the sudden and unexpected EJECTION of Shingo from the fight cannot keep him down!
"And you hit very hard, sir." The boy admits honestly, looking up to Yashiro with what might be tears brimming in those brown eyes... But grown men do not cry and neither does Shingo! He..he's just got some dust under an eyelid.
Swiping the sleeve of his t-shirt under his nose, chin bruised and toilet paper stuck to black Nike trainers, the Japanese high schooler hoists himself up and, "Graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Just goes for broke. He just throws everything he is, everything he's worth, into a series of spinning kicks that could potentially knock Tran into the ceiling (or not), "C'mon, guys, talking things over isn't so bad!"
And then Shingo's head hits the roof. "Guh--" He just topples from there, face-first for the laughs, into the floor.
COMBATSYS: Yashiro Toughs Out Tran's Here Comes Dr. Tran! EX!!
[ \\\ < > // ]
Tran 0/-------/--=====|-------\-------\0 Shingo
[ ||||| ]
Yashiro 1|-======|=======
It's not clear what happens next.
Yashiro is punched, that is certain. It is also certain that he is not felled. Though Tran hammers home with unrelenting force, he cannot cause the hulking star to budge, the man's bloodshot eyes wide and leering as he continues to bear down upon the diminuitive doctor as though the mighty strikes go unfelt. His jaw opens as though unhinged, a gaping maw to devour the sun and heavens. His arms spread wide, bringing a darkness to engulf the world.
In the midst of the melee, he moves to drag both Tran and Shingo close, bearing them down, everything fading to black.
Spontaneously, the one functioning security camera viewing this scene shows only static, so there is no record of what thenceforth occurs. To be certain, Yashiro will have no memory of it. The only clue is a strange message blinking at the bottom of the ruined tape.
A mysterious error message...
COMBATSYS: Yashiro successfully hits Yashiro with ERROR - Code 2002.
[ \\\ < > // ]
Tran 0/-------/--=====|-------\-------\0 Shingo
[ ]
Yashiro 0|-------|=======
COMBATSYS: Yashiro takes no action.
[ \\\ < > // ]
Tran 0/-------/--=====|-------\-------\0 Shingo
COMBATSYS: Yashiro can no longer fight.
[ \\\ < > // ]
Tran 0/-------/--=====|-------\-------\0 Shingo
COMBATSYS: Shingo successfully hits Tran with Kinsei Oreshiki - Rouka Guruma.
[ < > // ]
Tran 1/------=/=======|-------\-------\0 Shingo
COMBATSYS: Tran fails to interrupt ERROR - Code 2002 from Yashiro with Huge Random Weapon.
*KNOCKED AWAY*
[ < > // ]
Tran 1/=======/=======|-------\-------\0 Shingo
COMBATSYS: Tran can no longer fight.
[ \\ <
Shingo 0/-------/-------|
Something is wrong here. Something is incredibly not right. The first sign: Yashiro is just standing there, despite how Tran is punching the shit out of him. Because come on, this is his best stuff! It destroys men, SHATTERS WORLDS.
And the Yash is just taking it like it isn't even a thing. So stunned (and also exhausted) is Tran, that he barely even reacts to Shingo, who gets a free pass to kick the shit out of him. He gets sent up, up, up, and then...
Everything goes dark.
When Dr. Tran wakes up several hours later, his pants are gone and there is a live dog stuffed in his shirt, napping contentedly.
He will never speak of this to anyone. /Ever/.
COMBATSYS: Yashiro knocks away Shingo with ERROR - Code 2002!
[ <
Shingo 0/-------/--=====|
COMBATSYS: Shingo takes no action.
[ \\\ <
Shingo 0/-------/--=====|
COMBATSYS: Shingo has reached third wind!
[ \\\ <
Shingo 0/-------/--=====|
Nose mushed up against tile, somehow Shingo has done well. He made his point - violently - and will bring this entire situation to a calm, appropriate level... Except that Tran is likely unconscious already, and he's seized around the mid-section by a crazed Yashiro! Waaaaaaaaaaait!
Ten minutes later
"Shingo, where have you been! What happened to you!" The boy's mother greets her son with shock, standing up and pawing at his face, bruises, and scrutinizing the tiny tear in his t-shirt. Did her baby boo just go through World War III in order to take a little widdle? The /MOM/, /INCENSED/, glowers at the door to the bar.
Shingo holds up his hands, blocking his overprotective mother's path, "Ahhh, it's okay! I'm all right!" But she does not seem convinced, folding her arms and looking like a sabretooth tiger, "Okay, there were these--"
"SHINGO." He winces at her, "You're not to do that in a public restaurant! You sit down and eat your brussels sprouts right now while I apologize to the manager!" The teen obeys, because it's better than arguing or explaining further what had actually happened.
As the woman storms off, Shingo's dad leans over, "Did you win?"
At this, imagine the camera panning in towards the boy's face. He grins and gives a magnificent thumbs up, complete with teeth-ping.
Back in the bar
Yashiro and Tran have been left side-by-side, holding hands. On the team leader's chest, there is a neatly scrawled note on lined paper. It reads: HOW TO SHOOT FLAN -- wait, that's crossed out. Beneath the error, the true message is, 'The best time to make friends is before you need them. Please take care - you're teammates, after all!'
Considering that the white-haired man is gone long before Tran awakens pantsless and dogged, obviously these words were not taken to heart.
Log created on 18:08:58 02/06/2011 by Yashiro, and last modified on 03:18:45 02/07/2011.