Description: Atop the rooftops of Dubrovnik, Croatia, Ansatsuken fighter Shun faces off against weapons-fighter Ayame. Her determination and training in the classic style fares well against Ayame's deceptive nature, but it seems the weapons fighter has just enough tricks up her sleeves... (Winner: Ayame)
The air is crisp up here. When the sea breeze occasionally falls still, bare skin can feel the presence of the sun above, but when the air rushes past at a gentle, but noticeable clip, the warmth is stolen away, providing one with potentially a bit of a chill. This is not the only NDP match to be arranged for the rooftops of this city, suggesting that some deal must have been struck with the tourist department of local government, or so Ayame muses with a faint smirk as she stands quietly on one of just many roofs forming the sea of brick-red shingles.
The city is a strange blend of old and new, brickwork walls dating back hundreds of years border docs occupied by modern luxury yachts. The long-haired, strawberry blonde glances thoughtfully over the moored boats from her rooftop perspective. Perhaps when this match is over, she'll have to see what trinkets and accoutrements visiting tourists have failed to chain down when leaving their expensive boats behind... Of course, with the outlandishly huge 'incentive' on the line for participating in this newly formed league, she'll more likely just go party the night away if she manages to pull off a victory here!
The newest addition to the NDP seems relaxed enough, staying mostly put on a flat section of roof. She looks like she would be leaning against something if there were anything at all to lean against, but the corner of the roof she waits on doesn't offer anything, even the comfort of a wall to reduce the likelyhood of a fall. "Come on," she remarks, hassling one of the NDP staff on hand fiddling with the final angle on a mounted camera, "Let's get this underway. If Masters' is going to lay out this kind of cash for this gig, the least we can do is get to spending it as fast as possible, right?"
She lifts her hand to brush a length of her long hair back over her shoulder, wondering idly if leaving it loose but for one ribbon was a good idea with this persistant breeze going on. In spite usually having a good head for the statistical performances for many of the popular fighters, she has no idea about her opponent for once. Well, the NDP -is- targeting up and coming candidates...
SHUN HIMURA comes onto the stage... well, rooftops. She's dressed in her usual gi, and her hair is hanging loose. For once, she hasn't studied her opponent's moves beforehand, seeing Ayame's lack of fights in the NDP to this point. This doesn't mean Ayame lacks fighting experience, but Shun didn't quite have the time to look up more data.
When she approaches Ayame, the girl presses one fist into an open palm before making a bow towards Ayame, those who've seen her fight before would know this to be part of her fight ritual. "May the best fighter win." She greets her opponent before dropping into her karate stance. Fists balled, feet ready, she's good to go.
Now just waiting for the 'go' signal by the arbitrator.
Brown eyes settle on her opponent as Shun draws near, Ayame glancing her over from head to toe, then back to head, giving her an appraising inspection. "Hmn," she muses, though keeps her thoughts to herself as she shifts from slouching somewhat lazily to standing up straight. It's hard to make of her style so far, her clothing is the furthest thing from formal fighting attire and her stance doesn't give anything away yet either.
She cocks her head to the side a little at the fist-in-palm polite gesture offered, her expression neutral enough. But when Shun addresses her directly, Ayame's mouth cracks into a bit of a smile, "Hah! I certainly hope that's not how it goes. Or I'd never win a fight," she states, shrugging a little, "You look like you know what you're doing."
The girl runs her fingers along on of her seemingly unnecessary belts, seeming to try and decide on something unspoken. A seagull lands on the roof of a neighboring roof's chimney - a non-paying audience getting a great seat. Ayame's hand moves from her belt, going up to rub at the leather, fingerless glove on her left hand, continuing to contemplate something.
"I wonder..." she contemplates out loud. "With the kind of money on the line for these matches, maybe I'll finally find more people in it for the same reasons I am." She turns to the side a little, lifting her hands, adopting a stance that looks similiar to Shun's, though any expert eye could probably tell that she's just doing it to copy the other girl. "Are you in it for the fame or the fortune? It's the money, for me. Fame is for the birds." She glances over her shoulder at the nearby seagull, "Ah, apologizes," she mumbles with a grins, before turning her eyes back to Shun, giving the other girl her full attention now.
The man fiddling with the camera mounting glances over toward the arbitrator and gives him a nod and thumbs up. That seems to be all the announcer was waiting for as he backs away from the two girls to grab hold of a ladder that will let him back down to the streets safely. The signal is given. Fight!
"Neither." Shun answers, "I'm in this to become a better fighter." And for something else, but it doesn't seem like Ayame is the kind to care about her primary motivation. So she neglects to mention it. For now at least, and when the signal is given, Shun immediately moves. She wastes no time in getting towards Ayame.
Once within range, Shun makes a crouching move and kicks her leg upwards, only to follow it up by standing back up straigh, her kick snapping out towards Ayame's neck. It's a quick movement. "What do you need the money for?" Shun asks mid-kick, "Or are you just looking to become rich." She doesn't sound like she's judging the latter possibility.
At Shun's explanation, Ayame's eyes narrow a little, as if in stern judgment. "Oh." A soft exhale as she shakes her head, closing her eyes a little as she looks away, hands dropping to rest on her hips as she falls out of the prepared karate stance she was copying for a moment. "So this is all just a really elaborate training session for you? In that case, I wouldn't want to have you leave empty handed. I will provide you with some lessons that you can take with you for life!"
Both hands come to rest near her belt, fingers splayed, tense, as if the girl was fighting against herself to keep from showing her hand early. "Lesson one," Ayame remarks, sharp eyes following every nuance in her opponent's movement, challenging herself to read the other girl's style on the fly. She needs to figure out where she's strong and if there's any openings in her stance. And she needs to do it before she gets kicked in the face too many times.
"Always," she weaves a litte, her hands becoming a blur of motion, twin butterfly knives finding their way into her ready fingers, drawn from sheathes hidden in one of her belts. "Sharpen your blades," Ayame weaves to the side, narrowly avoiding the first upward kick, eyes glinting as she notes the angle of Shun's next kick, ducking surprisingly low, feet slipping over the brick shingles as the girl drops into splits, "Before a match," Her left hand slams up - not with striking force, but sufficient to deflect, as she catches Shun in the back of her foot at the apex of her kick before she can snap her foot back down.
Giving Shun's foot a gentle but certain shove intended to offset the other girl's balance, Ayame's true nature becomes a bit more clear as she lunges in quickly, leaving almost no space and precious little time to react, both hands bearing the glint of sharpened steel. If Shun's preparation for this match is sufficient, she may have a chance to avoid the two dangerous slashes directed for her torso. The blades of the knives are short and the slashes angled more to cut the girl rather than stab. "The money, of course." she adds mid-strike, as if finally remembering to answer Shun's question from before.
Her tone suggests her answer should be taken as a warning to the wise: those driven by avarice are bound to fight dirty. Perhaps that's a more pertinent lesson to be offered.
Sliced open before she has time to react, Shun narrows her eyes at the usage of weapons and the bleeding wounds. "Very well." She states, her lips thinning as one hand goes to clutch that wound. For a brief moment it may appear the girl's wounds are going to cause her to step back and force her to go without attack. In fact, Shun does stumble back and purposefully increases the distance.
But then it shows that this was a plan, of sorts. Her hands go backwards and fill with a small amount of blue-ish white chi. The girl looking at her opponent to gauche the proper way to do this before throwing the fireball towards Ayame at high speeds, actually rushing back towards Ayame a little to increase the ball's speed.
"GIJI HADOUKEN!"
Whether Ayame is satisfied by Shun's evasion or indifferent is hard to tell, her expression has become somewhat neutral, bearing a certain detatchment that seems out of place given the intensity of the exchange between the two. "It's a shame you aren't taking notes," she observes as the other girl backs away. The strawberry blond knife user doesn't chase, simply glancing at the two knives in her hands. The attack was swift, and the cuts, while sufficient to draw blood, were not so deep as to drench her blades red in the process. She flicks her right knife a little, freeing it of a drop in the process. "I mean, you're going to want to review my advice when this is over, after all."
She glances back up in time to notice Shun preparing to launch a counter attack. This earns her a quirk of the eyebrow, as if Ayame wasn't expecting a chi attack from the karate fighter. But it's what comes next that gets the clearest reaction, as Shun shouts the name of her attack, channeling that chi into a powerful blast rushing towards Ayame now. "Ah hah!" What fighter doesn't know of the Hadouken, after all? Now she knows the girl's style for certain!
Ayame thinks she has this. All it will take is a simple leap and then she can follow it up with- oh crap that thing is coming fast! She's already airborn when she realizes the error of her assessment, off by fractions of a second in her attempt to clear the chiball. Her trailing left leg gets clipped in the shin, causing Ayame's vault to falter, the girl suddenly flipping forward into a pending face plant against the bricks. "Ack!"
She snaps her arms forward, catching herself by turning the near catastrophic landing into a roll with her hands, the motion reasonably smooth given the impact she was correcting for. A skitter of metal on brick indicates one of the knives she was using is sliding off to the side, likely lost in the fall. Ayame makes a bit of a face as she rises into a crouch, helpless to keep the knife from careening off the roof. Hopefully no one's standing down below!
Rubbing her bare, struck shin a little, the girl levels her gaze on Shun, knowing she isn't going to be given a lot of time to work with. "Another lesson then, for the Ansatsuken user." She still has one of her knives left. Lunging out of her crouch, she tosses it underand in a lazy arch toward Shun, the pristine steel glinting in the sun. Ayame has lunged out of her crouch as well, sprinting directly for Shun as if she means to just barrel right into her. "Always keep your eye on - " She hops a little from a yard out, spinning in the air, aiming to catch her knife on its way down from its arc, "Your opponent." In one smooth motion she would land, her foot spinning over the rough brick to bring the caught blade in for another quick stab, this one delivered with a lot less force than her last attack.
Closing up turns out to have been a poor idea, as Shun gets hit by the incoming strike. She narrows her eyes briefly, but it doesn't last long. "I know." She answers as she moves with the blow that's being made. Even though it hurt she's using it to her advantage as much as she can. "But don't forget to listen to their movements either. The sounds may belie plans your eyes won't reveal."
And she makes her next move, a combination of punches and kicks. Nothing too dangerous, or it shouldn't be. The strikes are well executed, however, and it seems that Shun is trying to get up close, hoping to reach /within/ Ayame's comfortable fighting zone.
Perhaps she expected Shun to shirk after getting cut by another attack, looking as if she was about to step in and pursue a follow up attack. But the karate fighter's stance isn't as shaken as her opponent would have like and Ayame catches herself after half a step, her mouth curling into a hint of a smile at the reply she gets. "True." Her eyes are fixed on Shun's, as if looking to read the nature of her counter attack in her face rather than with how her body moves.
She moves a split second before Shun does, having arrived at her next course of action perhaps entirely by coincidence. The knife in her hand is dropped, her right hand snapping to a thin pouch dangling on another one of Ayame's multiple belts. Nimble fingers fish from it a six inch long metal tube that she grips in her right hand as Shun comes in for a skilled counter attack. She's a split second behind, she chides herself - she'll have to make due!
And then Ayame is on the defense. She cleanly fends off a punch with her forearm, avoiding harm, and a second strike is blocked entirely by the metal tube in her hand. A kick slips through, striking Ayame in the side, producing a grunt as the girl slides to the side a little as a result, but she manages to correct herself in time to intersect the rest of the attacks with hopefully minimal future-bruising.
The tube in her right hand flares with a crimson hue of energy as Ayame twirls it once in her hand. A hydraulic hiss and woosh of energy accompanies a rapid expansion of the weapon. Instead of a small tube, Ayame is now gripping a six foot long staff in a defensive angle, the weapon shimmering with an ever present glow of faint, crimson hued chi. "You've done well with the basics. Now it's time for advanced studies." Ayame notes, twirling the weapon once, a blur of energy trailing behind it as she performs a full-body spin to get in closer on Shun. Her motions are smoother now, more controlled, more fluid, almost dance-like. While she was dangerous with the flicks of her blades before, she seems completely at one with this metal staff, as if its movements were extentions of her own limbs. "Knowing when you're out matched." Her smirk is audible.
Coming out of the spin, her long hair trailing a split second behind, Ayame delivers a solid staff thwack, the weapons-fighter aiming to slam the weapon into Shun's side - attempting to slip it in beneath her guard. If she connects in any way, she'll use the rebound momentum to spin back around, going for a lower, ankle-sweeping staff strike that might up-end the girl's balance all together! She leaves very little in the way of openings.
Shun reacts instantly. It's not that Ayame leaves a lot of openings, but this one opening was enough, and Shun both saw and knew how to exploit it. The first strike to her side hits, and Shun uses the momentum to fuel her own attack. Jumping and raising her right fist, the girl cries out her attack's name. A name that should not come as a surprise to Ayame at this point.
"GIJI SHORYUKEN!"
And as she speaks, Shun's hand covers itself in a small amount of burning chi that most likely hits Ayame right under her chin. When the Ansatsuken artist lands again, she looks at her opponent briefly, but she's already clearly ready to make another move.
"That lesson might be one you could stand to learn yourself." She answers.
The famous technique strikes home, Ayame getting struck in the chin before she can rebound to spin into the intended secondary sweep. The impact is enough to take the girl off her feet, head knocked back, dropping her down to the roof in a seated position, her staff, held across her lap, the chi that had been coursing through it gone for the moment. She looks dazed for a moment, as if still trying to clear her version after taking a blow of that magnitude. Making a bit of a face, she brings her left hand up to rub at her chin, "Hmph." This opponent of hers is more capable than she had anticipated. When she gets her hits in, they certainly leave an impression!
"So what's the deal with you. Are you trying to take out that Kasugano girl's spot as number one irritating Ryu can or something?" The stance, the attacks, they certainly seem familiar. "Doesn't that guy already have enough copies as it is?"
She kicks herself up to standing quickly enough, not left vulnerable to follow up attacks for long. Landing on her feet, she slides her hands along her staff, adopting a defensive stance with the weapon once more. Focusing for a moment, she infuses the weapon with her chi once more and it begins to glimmer with an almost tan hue instead of red.
"It's going to take more than one good hit to deny me the money!" she exclaims, sliding forward low. The front end of her staff sweeps upward, threatening to clobber Shun in the chin as retaliation, but Ayame keeps moving all the same, following its upward motion and spinning around, both hands sliding into perfect position to bring the weapon crushing down with all the force she can muster, aiming for the crown of Shun's head! A painful attack should she connect, but if she misses, well, some shingles are about to get smashed!
Failing to block the counterstrike, Shun shakes her head soon after. "Unlike Kasugano, I've actually had proper training." She answers her adversary for this fight. "My Sensei was Ken Masters, and I'm not going to leave the impression that he did a poor job." Despite her words, she doesn't seem to be attacking. She's increasing the distance between the two of them.
She doesn't start gathering chi either, instead looking like she's doing some breath exercises, taking some of the tempo out of the fight in the hope to gain a bit of an advantage. "So I hope you'll understand I must win. It's really nothing personal." And she offers a faint smile.
At this revelation, Ayame seems surprised. Proper training, she can believe. This girl's style doesn't quite have wild, haphazardous nature to it that she's seen in Sakura Kasugano's countless videotaped matches. But it's the second note about her training that is more impressive. "Is that so." she replies, her tone neutral before her brow furrows, "You're telling me, you're Ken Master's own student? No wonder you're not in this for the money. He probably seeds you into matches just to try and keep that prize money from slipping out of his fingers!" Ayame laughs a little at that, starting to pace in an arc around Shun, in as much as the constraints of the roof will allow for.
She's wary. The last time Shun backed up, she sent a high speed hurtling chiball her way. "I'll show him it's not that easy!" She shifts her hold on her staff, continuing to stalk around Shun, looking for some kind of opening, no doubt. The chi coursing over her metal weapon shifts in hue, becoming a blue so light as to be almost invisible against the clear blue sky behind her.
"Hah." she laughs again, "It's been my experience that everything is personal... /especially/ when someone says it isn't. Let's find out how good that training has been!" She bolts forward, closing distance once more. Only she seems inclined to use the range of her weapon more than anything, leaning forward from a possibly safe distance, jamming her staff out straight forward, looking to slip through Shun's guard and poke her in the stomach. The chi on her weapon rushes forward along its length as well, threatening to blow against Shun, possibly pushing her back a little ways as well!
The strike with the staff is blocked easily by Ken Master's student, and she smirks. The proximity is just what she needed to make the move she had planned to make here. Not pushed back, Shun responds, "I do not hand over any of my winnings to Masters-Sensei, and I think that, if anything, he'd seed my matcher to be harder so I'm challenged more."
And then Shun makes her move, her movements rapid as she jumps upwards, one leg pointed below her while the other is sent spinning quite rapidly. Of course, this move, like most of the attacks Shun has displayed so far, is one that anyone familiar with Ansatsuken should have seen before in some capacity. With this hurricane kick, she aims to strike Ayame several times, towards hips, shoulder and even head.
"Besides, I'm only just starting to get serious."
"I guess that's a compliment." Ayame replies, rolling her eyes up a little as if teasing a little now. "But do you really think you're going to end up on a tier like Masters'? Heh." Her staff jab was executed quickly but not fast enough to slide through Shun's defenses. The staff wielder che's a little in annoyance. But as her opponent retaliates, the girl is given something a lot more important to worry about! Shun's execution of the spin-kicking technique is admireable, Ayame will have time to reflect on sometime other than this immediate moment. It's an effective attack, the whirlwinding feet, the elevation, the forward momentum - it's difficult to weather and even harder to counter attack into.
The girl tries to fend it off without particular success, bringing her staff up only for it to be kicked askew and the next blow striking her cheek. Or leaning back, avoiding one hit, only to get hit in the head by the one that comes right after. It's a dizzying, painful experience, and there will be a headache to pay for this one, for sure.
But throughout the brutal assault, the weapons fighter keeps one thing in mind - the famous Tatsumaki Senpuu Kyaku does have one weakness. While the fighter is all but imprevious to melee counter attacks during the execution, they have to land eventually... and all but the most flawless execution will leave a window open for attack at that point. Ayame reels, vision blurring from the repeated strikes. But the moment the technique has run its course, she's on the offense, leaping to attack Shun before the girl can land and regain her proper balance.
With a flick of her wrists, her staff comes apart in the middle, becoming to shorter weapons. Ayame jams her right hand forward, aiming toward Shun's sternum with a bit of a 'stabbing' like gesture, though there's no risk of actually being stabbed by the blunt weapon. But it's a touch of misdirection. As Shun spins her last spin, and has that stabbing pole coming at her, it's Ayame's left hand that is the danger, as it comes swinging in hard with a sort of haymaker-like punch.
Only instead of socking Shun with her fist, she's looking to clobber the girl in the head hard with the half-length of her staff! "Wake up." she murmurs chidingly.
And the young student of Ken Masters is hit as she lands, and she looks to be in pain. Narrowing her eyes she rushes towards Ayame after taking a brief moment to recover. "If I intend to reach his level, I'll have to keep practicing." She counters, though it seems as though she's barely standing right now. And with this, she decides to make what makes me her final move for this fight.
She jumps into the air once more, aiming to deliver a kick straight for Ayame's chest. It's not a kind kick, far from, though some care has been taken to make it accurate. "I am awake, and while that might not last long, I don't intend to give up yet."
And then she falls over to the ground, but she is struggling against her body still.
Ayame spins out of her smashing hit, ducking into a low, defensive stance, the two halves of her staff at each side. Occasionally, she twirls one in her fingers, seeming capable of handling the two halfs of her staff with every bit as much skill and ease as she manipulated the full length of the weapon. "But what's the point, anyway? I commend that you decided to follow the rich guy instead of the homeless guy, but Ken Masters didn't get his wealth from being a good fighter. Even if you do reach his level, what then? What are you going to do with your power? Squander it like so many others?"
She slides her left foot back, bracing herself. "I thought that last one might have finished you," she muses, sounding mostly curious rather than disappointed that Shun is still on the move. "But spirit alone won't get you through me," she finishes, her grin returning. "Or so many of the others that will be in your path on your way to such an impossible goal. You must be a dreamer."
She responds with precision to the incoming kick. Well executed as it might be, Ayame had time to prepare after her last staggering hit, and she's controlling the momentum for right now, as demonstrated when she swings her left staff fragment to the side, forcing the incoming kick out of the way. She twists her wrist, working the half-pole under the other girl's knee to prevent her from recovering her footing. Then comes that right hand of hers with another clobbering hook strike.
It creates all the opening Ayame needs to unleash a whirlwind of battering strikes, as she twirls into her attack, jabbing, smashing, slamming her two staff-halves into Shun from all angles, doing her best to defy defenses and showing no inclination of slowing down until the girl relents or collapses! In the end, she jabs both staff fragments against Shun's torso, unleashing a point blank detonation of crimson chi. The force of impact is enough to send Ayame reeling backward a bit herself, feet sliding over brick, before coming to a stop some feet away. "The tier you're shooting for is a long ways off... seems like a waste of a life to me if that's the extent of your aspirations." She shrugs a little, "But it's your life to waste, I suppose."
"I have another reason." Shun answers as she's battered down and beaten into what seems like submission. Stumbling back she looks at Ayame and forms a weak but cocky smirk. "I want to impress a special someone." And then she shuts up for the moment. At least, as far as banter is concerned. With enough distance between the two of them now, Shun starts gathering large amounts of blue-ish white chi between her hands.
"HAAAAAA-!"
"DOOOUUU-"
"KEEEEEN!"
And it flies. Much bigger than her previous fireball, it's now likely obvious why she preferred to call the smaller version 'giji' or 'false' hadouken. She's thrown back by the force of her own blast, she's that weak right now.
Just like the previous time she fell to the ground though, it seems like she's still trying to get up.
"Ah," Ayame mumurs as Shun adds the missing piece of the puzzle. It wasn't about the pursuit of fighting prowess - not exclusively, at least. Wanting to impress somone can be a powerful motivating factor. Even she's no stranger to that. "I see." No barb, no taunt, just acknowledgement this time. She turns her shoulder, bracing. She got clipped by chi, socked in the chin by chi... she's not taking any chances when she observes the build up of energy once more. Dismantling attacks is one of the only things that has gotten her this far, and for the incoming chi bullet, there is an answer.
This one is larger though. And for a moment, Ayame wonders about the risk she's taking by not trying to run out of the way. But there's that inclination to test her ability to weather it, maybe get a sense of this up and coming fighter's potential to make a true hadouken.
Tucking her staff fragment under her arm, her left hand extends, palm forward, fingers loosely splayed. A discus of shimmering pink intersects the path of the projectile - vaguely translucent, its surface inscribed with glimmering sigils.
The collision of chi is not a forgone conclusion as the Hadouken smashes into the rose hued barrier with crushing force. Ayame leans into it a little, arm straining, teeth grit as the two forces clash. It's close. But in the end, it's just enough. The Hadouken scatters but so too does Ayame's chi shield, the pink energy scattered into countless motes like so many cherry blossoms that take to the wind as the sea breeze picks up.
Ayame lifts her hand to rub at her bloodied lip. She wishes she hadn't taken so many heels to the face. Shun struck well. "Good enough." she states, turning away to quietly re-assemble her staff. Whether an assessment of her own abilities, Shun's potential, or the reasons given for her aspirations, is unclear.
Log created on 17:49:52 04/22/2012 by Ayame, and last modified on 14:38:45 04/23/2012.