Description: Zach and Daniel meet at, of all places, the Todoh Dojo. Perhaps surprisingly, no fights break out between the two men. However, the erstwhile and current students DO combine forces against a fearsome foe!
Todoh Dojo. 11 AM.
"BRING IT BACK THERE! OKAY! HOLD IT STEADY!" The foreman calls out to the laborers at the grounds of the Todoh-Ryuu Dojo. Daniel Jack was watching over the construction taking place, the brand new renovations underway. When Daniel Jack got that check from Ken Masters for his victory over Intan, something struck in him. That was the most money he ever had at once... and he knew where he was going to put half of it.
Back into his own dojo.
Overseeing the construction work in place, the grounds were already looking to be falling apart at the contractor work. Most notably, the crabgrass, a long legend of the Todoh-Ryuu Grounds, were beginning to get driven back. New turf and grass was being put into place. The dojo itself was getting a new paint job of gold and red, a sterling example that was keeping the old-school appearance of the traditional dojo. The detective, arms crossed, could only grin.
Nothing could ruin today.
Well, maybe ALMOST nothing? See, the Todoh Dojo has a surprise guest. One that would almost assuredly start an immediate fight once his presence was made known.
And his last name ISN'T Sakazaki.
Zach Glen stands next to the fence, like he did all those years ago when he learned (most, including Zach, would say it was more like stole) the most treasured techinque of the Todoh-Ryuu Kobojustu. Zach just leans up against the fence, much like he did that day, sorting out the memories as he watches Daniel do work. Zach enjoys the satisfaction radiating off of the detective for a moment before hefting a bottle of water.
"You look thirsty," the psychic says amicably.
Zach.
When the voice reaches his ears, the detective turns his head slightly. He knew that voice. Daniel Jack uncrosses his hands, dropping into the defensive stance of Todoh. Turning around, he was ready to receive the clear ambush from behind, using dirty Kyokugen and stolen Todoh tactics.
Instead, it was a bottle of water.
Snatching the bottle out of the air with the skill of snatching a punch, the detective grips the bottle, eyeing his old rival warily. Holding it up, he drops the stance, looking at the bottle carefully. "Vodka." The detective begins, unscrewing the top and sniffing it, before drinking it. The detective winces. "Non-alcoholic vodka." Continuing to drink, the detective motions Zach to come closer. Pulling it away, Daniel wipes his mouth, and looks towards Zach. "You here for a fight? Or to talk?"
Zach, for his part, makes no moves when Daniel starts to gear up for a fight. He allows the water bottle to be snagged from his hand. "Better for the work that way," Zach says agreeably. However, he makes no move to leave the fence; Zach knows he is not exactly welcome in the Todoh Dojo between the whole Kasane Ate/Pile Smash mess and his publicly known association with his friend and rival Howard Rust.
"Here to talk," Zach says as he straightens up. "I... wasn't /entirely/ honest with you during that fight," he admits. "I /did/ sign up for NDP to get exposure, but NOT in prepartion to go into the big leagues."
Daniel Jack looks towards the construction taking place, listening to Zach. He liked Zach. He was a good kid. The detective tosses the bottle back towards the psychic, before turning back towards the construction. "Looking good, isn't it. This isn't even from the winnings from beating you. This is from beating Intan; have you run into her yet? She is a stabbing dame. Flirty too."
A shudder goes up the detective's spine.
Zach brings up their fight in greater detail. "Yeah. I know. I could tell by your voice. What is going on with you, Zach? I'm worried about of people coming out of that war. I ran into Cammy a while ago, you know."
"Damn worried.
"Yeeeeaaah," Zach says after Daniel mentions Intan. "Chick's got an attitude she needs to check, too. She, uh, got a draw from me," he says, sounding a bit embarrassed by that. "I was trying some things out that fight."
Zach's face hardens when Cammy's name comes up. "Tell me you put her through a wall, and into a freaking cell," Zach says a bit harshly. Perhaps the events of the war, and the things she put Quon through are still matters of concern for Zach.
Daniel Jack shakes his head. "Don't feel bad about getting a draw on her. I barely came out on top. Just bugged the heck out of me that all she did was slash at me, and flirt with me. I mean, come on, she couldn't be much older than you." The detective stops for a moment.
Maybe he wasn't a kid.
Blinking a few times, Daniel continues. "Naw, there was something wrong with her. She wasn't a doll. I know dolls, Zach. I worked with them a lot more than any man should. She was... she forgot who she was. And now, the military wants her at the front lines." Daniel sounds more than bitter about that part. "I'm wondering if she is the only one. Maybe Marz... no." Daniel wipes his forehead, dropping the thought.
Marz was a lost cause.
"So you said you were trying new things. Just like in our fight? Sounds like you are having a midlife crisis at...." The detective pauses. "... You are, like, 17 right? Maybe 18?"
Daniel Jack stares at Zach.
"Intan's... probably a little young for me," Zach answers, "I'm 25." He chuckles a bit. "I know. I don't look it." He shakes his head a bit as Daniel talks about the Dolls, frowning a bit. "...hadn't really thought about it that way. Maybe he had a lock on /them/, like he did Chun-Li."
He promptly feels ashamed about that, that he had simply fought Cammy as if there wasn't any reasoning with her. As if he couldn't help her. Even if he really couldn't. "...Does she /want/ to go back to the front lines?" Zach asks. "She shouldn't have to if she doesn't want to." There's an odd bit of steel in his voice when he says that.
He laughs when Daniel brings up the possibility of a mid-life crisis. "I think Intan has no clue how to handle a ranged fight," Zach says. "I intentionally didn't give her one because I wanted to see how I'd do in-fighting." Zach shakes his head a bit before asking.
"How much do you know about psychics?"
Daniel Jack visibly winces where he hears Zach's age. Flinching, he shakes his head. "Whoop! Sorry Zach! I thought you were, well..." The detective clears his throat, going with the subject change. "He does have a lock with them. I had a personal audience with Vega once. Not a fun experience. They are like... brainwashed into serving him." Daniel looks towards the man on the roof, hammering away. "Could you imagine having your entire past destroyed, your memories nothing more than a plaything... and wanting to go back into war? Into fighting? I'm worried about Cammy. She shouldn't be fighting. She should be far away from war. She needs help, whether or not she realizes it."
Daniel made a note to hunt down Guile about this.
But then, the comment about Intan. "Long range? Yeah, I'll try that if I run into her. Have you challenge Munin yet? She is a fun fight; some kind of shadow ninja. Man, I shouldn't be stoked about this tourney, but I guess I really am, scuzzy. But enough about the fun stuff, lets get to the real meat. What has been bothering you...." The question about psychics hits him, and the detective mulls. Most of his experience with psychics has been getting his ass handed to him. "Not enough to teach, but enough to learn. Is there something wrong with your psionics?"
Zach frowns. "Couldn't have helped her back then anyway," he mutters to himself, trying to shove aside the not-quite-rational guilt. He grunts when he mentions Munin. "I've met Munin. We... ran into Vega in China. Dude is... was? I dunno. Freaking /monster/." Zach shudders.
"No, my abilities are just fine and getting better all the time, man," Zach says assuringly. "I just... when I was starting out, it was pretty rough. I didn't know what I had, or what I could do with it aside from fight... and I knew that the fighting helped me keep it under some semblance of control." Zach takes a breath, collecting himself.
"It was terrifying, and... as much as I tried to find someone who could help me get a handle on it..." Zach shrugs. "I felt like there wasn't anyone who /could/ help me. It was..."
Zach shakes his head, firming himself. "I know what it's like, and if I can help it, I don't want to see someone else go through it like I did. That's why I'm in NDP, because if there are other psychics struggling to learn about themselves like I had... have to..." Zach looks resolute. "I want them to at least know they are not alone in that. I want to help them if I can. But to be in a position to do that, I need..." Zach grins. "Exposure," he finishes with a chuckle.
Daniel Jack holds there, quietly. He was listening to Zach. As he tells of his stories in China, and his own personal growth as a fighter, the detective nods in silence. Finally, when the chuckle comes, Daniel responds.
"You want to be a mentor for psychics."
Daniel Jack walks towards the fence of the dojo, and jumps up on it, sitting on it. "Well, Zach. It sounds like you want to make a Dojo. An international dojo, which to train Psychics like yourself to understanding and controlling their powers. Is that right?"
"School might be a better word for it," Zach replies as he takes a step back from Daniel to keep conversational eye contact. "You can do more than just /fight/ with Soul Power, you know. I helped someone get themselves loose of that insanity that surrounded the King of Fighters. And I helped get Chun-Li get loose of all of the mind-bending stuff that was done to her." He says it simply, with pride, but not braggadacio. "My dad's a psychic too, but he's not a fighter. In fact," he says, "I think he uses his abilities to defuse fights before they happen.
"But if I were to make a place like that," he says, "I'd also want it to be a place where psychics could be somewhat safe while they come to grips with their abilities. There's... plenty of people out there who would... well use people like me." Zach shudders, recalling the Cult of Gaia, "Or just kill us outright because what we're not chi users."
The detective sits there, the labors still chipping away in the background. You could fight with more than soul power? Soul power. That was an interesting word for it. Danny may be a mite cynical towards psychic powers, thanks in part to the likes of Marz. The mention of Zach's father surprises the detective; he had never heard Zach mention him before. But as the school plans comes about, Daniel Jack chuckles a bit. "So you would be like a Doctor Xavier for the psychics of the world?"
"Glen Academy for Gifted Youths. I kinda like it."
Daniel motions for Zach to join him up on the fence. "Well, I got a few thoughts. You know if you asked Ken in person, he would bankroll the idea. He are the hero of China now, a war hero! You probably wouldn't even need to NDP to promote, though if you are... start name dropping the idea! I try to play up the Way of Todoh whenever I fight. It is good promotion, even if I don't win! But, uh, Zach. I don't mean to be a jerk but.... your father."
"You've never mentioned your father before.
"That's because he's on the other side of the world, being a high school counseler," Zach replies as he clambers onto the fence. He watches the work with a detached interest; the yard looked like /crap/ the last time he saw it. But that is what you get when you have Drunken Kasane Ate Lawn Services.
"There's a lot of terms for the power. Soul Power, psychic powers," Zach takes a deep breath before taking the plunge, "Psycho Power. It's... all the same, really. Not inherently good /or/ evil. It just /is/. Like chi, like martial arts, or even a gun. It's the person using it that gives it meaning."
"A lot of the things you can do with chi, you can do with Soul Power," Zach explains. "Run farther, faster. Jump higher, hit harder. Near as I can tell, the only thing that you can do with chi that you can't with Soul Power is to create elements. Wind, fire, all that kind of thing. We can make things that /looks/ like them, but it's all just energy."
Daniel Jack eyes Zach, sighing with relief. For a minute there, he thought his father was dead. Or worse. Instead, he is... a high school counselor? "That... that would be a good field for a psychic, I'll give you that." The detective looks back over to the lawn, a manly tear drop forming in his eye. Daniel WAS the Drunken Kasane Ate Lawn Service. And now, it was time for a real job for the nightmare lawn. One of the men, mounted on a lawnmower, suddenly finds the machine choke up. A mass of crabgrass, the heart of the terrible plant, suddenly has wrapped itself around the massive machine.
The Todoh Strain would not die so easily.
"So Psycho Energy really isn't that different from Chi. Huh. It feels different on my end, let me tell you that. But... I don't know. Do you think you could train people? And what would you need? I said money, but really, where would you even set it up? Because as far as goals go..." Daniel looks back towards the lawnmower, as it sputters.
"... Teaching a generation how to understand themselves is a pretty great goal to pursue."
"So I've heard," Zach says dryly, "Chi doesn't feel the same either, if it helps." Zach watches the lawnmower lose its valiant struggle against the Todoh Lawn. He winces in sympathy. "Money's probably the easiest part of the whole thing," Zach agees with a nod. "I can /get/ money. Or make it. But the where, I don't know."
Zach leans back. "Part of me wants to do the thing in the States. I mean, as much as I go on about how you can use Soul Power to do things other than fight..." He shrugs, and gives something of a goofy grin. "I'm sure that there'll be a portion of the potential student body that will want to become fighters. It'd be cool to start a school, an actual dojo with a fighting tradition to call its own, in America. Plenty of fighting schools on /this/ side of the planet."
Zach chuckles, and sighs a bit wistfully, "I think I'd miss SouthTown too much to take it /that/ far, though."
Daniel Jack looks towards Zach, turning away from the mower that was now turned on its side. "If you do the states... why not Metro City? A great place to centralize at. Just stay away from Sunshine City. It -looks- nice, but..." Daniel leans over to his pseudo-rival. "Keep this on the low, but they have a big watch theft problem."
Daniel Jack nods knowingly.
There is shouting from the groundskeepers as one of them falls into the mass of crabgrass, some sort of pit where the soil itself was replaced with crab grass. The detective winces. "Besides, keeping close to Dojos isn't a bad thing. Like take this Kazuki fellow I ran into. Nice kid, lazy as hell, and is tied down by his dojo. I tell him to go out and promote his dojo on the NDP, so once he gets the family name out, it will get enough business that his family won't need him to sustain the honor of the dojo. I'm going to tell you a secret. The Kyokugen rivalry is probably the only thing keep the Todoh-Ryuu Dojo aloft. I mean, would you hear about the dojo as much if it wasn't being pitted against Kyokugen? Rivalry is a good thing. I mean, what are your rivals for a Psychic School of Fighting?"
Daniel looks to Zach, questioning.
Zach is silent for a while. That, sir, is a question Zach would have never given any mind to before it was asked. "I don't know," Zach finally says. "Expression of Soul Power's a fairly... /personal/ thing, you know?" He shrugs as he watches the epic gardening battle unfold.
"I know who /my/ rival is," Zach says. "We're a lot alike in some ways, with our own seemingly huge obstacles in our paths. Our fighting styles are about as opposite as you can get, though. I throw energy around, and fight on the move. Howard Rust, though, is like a freaking glacier. Just doesn't /stop/."
"So is everyone's style. You think you are more unique than everyone else?"
Daniel Jack drops down, looking towards the ground. "Howard Rust... we both served together under Rolento. Pressed ganged into his service. You both though... Your style is that you blow off the limbs of people. I am not kidding. I have fought tanks before. You hit harder than a tank. Thank god you aren't built like one. As for Rust... I don't even remember the last time we fought. It has been too long. I need to pay him a visit. When was the last time you saw him?"
Suddenly, screaming is heard amongst the groundskeepers.
Zach winces in sympathy at the groundskeepers, but also at Daniel's comments of being press ganged. "I know how /that/ goes," Zach says empathetically.
"China," Zach answers almost immediately. "Well, Myanmar, actually. There's a NATO camp there we were both staying at after the last fighting in China."
"And that's not what I meant," Zach says. "I don't use my abilities the same way someone like Athena does. And she doesn't use them like Rose does. With a dojo," Zach says, "You are united by technique and tradition." Zach slides off the fence, looking like he is going to help the groundskeepers, a faint golden aura covering his hands. Someon of them are going to need medical attention.
"Not so much with psychics."
Mynamar? What's a Mynamar?
Daniel Jack looks at the chaos unfolding. The grounds of the Todoh garden were beginning to collapse as the crab grass is becoming more and more defeated. It seemed that the entire topsoil of the grounds was held up by the crab grass. As the workers begin to fall into the mass of annoying grass, the detective glances back over to his companion.
"Why should where you come from make the difference? Maybe that's why psychics have so much trouble. They see themselves as different from each other, different from the world. I mean, look at Todoh-Ryuu. Do I look like the kind of guy who would go into Todoh-Ryuu? Does Rust look like the kind of guy to work with Kyokugen? I mean, maybe you shouldn't look at how they are all different, and starting looking at how you all are the same? How you can work with the Athenas, and Roses, and Marz's in the world. Everyone is different in the end, Zach."
"The power is how you unite them."
Zach grunts at Daniel's suggestion. "Guess I hadn't thought of it that way before." His eyes narrow as things in the yard turn into a complete fucking mess. More of that energy spills from his hands.
"We better help those guys out," Zach says. "Come on. It'll be like how I met Old Man Todoh." The psion raises an claw-like hand to the sky. "I think that that technique is the only thing your lawn fears."
The crab grass wasn't -technically- a monster. Technically meaning that as it lashes around the bodies of the poor workers, it wasn't outright attacking them out of sentiance. It was just a defense mechanism. However, when the mower falls into the pit, utterly consumed the detective looks out at the madness unfolding. There was one thing clear.
Daniel wasn't going to be buying anymore discount fertilizer from NESTS warehouses though.
Daniel Jack drops down from the fence, adjusting his sleeves. "That technique? You don't mean... the Kasane Ate?" Daniel Jack's hand begins to burn with orange energy. "You know, if you are a Psychic, and can't use chi... how DID you steal the ultimate technique of Todoh?"
Soul Power flares in Zach's hand dramatically. "I told you before, right? If you can do it with chi, you can do it with Soul Power. For the most part. Still, it didn't feel right calling it Kasane Ate. I mean, it's not /exactly/ the same, obviously." he admits. "If you look at the characters that make up the move's name, it roughly," really roughly, "Translates to 'pile hitter,' which... sounds kinda lame."
"So I call it the Pile Smash," Zach says, "Which sounds about right for what I do with it. The move's served me pretty well over the years though, I have to admit."
"It damn well should."
Daniel Jack and Zach stand side by side as the mass of crab grass begins to loom above them. One burning with chi energy, the other with Soul Power. Daniel Jack looks at the unstoppable weed destroying the grounds of Todoh-Ryuu. But to that end, he only smirks. "Lets finish this, Zach, with the ultimate combo! To the skies!" The duo bounds high in the air, their limbs drawn back. As they close upon the weed, the pair slashes out with their arms, unleashing the wave of energy down upon the weed. As it recoils and flies apart in the wake of the Todoh Pair, each roars out their respective attacks.
"KASANE ATE!!!"
"PILE SMASH!!!"
And the weed is simply no more.
Log created on 19:14:08 04/07/2012 by Zach, and last modified on 00:20:57 04/08/2012.