Description: One might not expect to be dying of heat stroke in the bitter heat of Russia, but this NDP match that pits NDP front runner Daniel Jack against recent NDP addition Ayame seeks to defy expectations. The criminal and detective face off in an operational foundry with another NDP prize purse on the line. But it seems this will not be the only time the two meet? (Winner: Ayame)
Russia. Amsko Foundry. 3 PM.
Deep in the Krasnoyarsk Krai of central Russia, the Amsko Foundry is the site of the next, and possible last, fight of the Neo Development Project. Despite the late day, the foundry is in full swing, the pounding roar as molten slag is cast into iron and steel. Hammers belt away to correct the mistakes of the machines, while the scream and hiss of impossible heat touches the world around them. Overseeing this vision of mechanical hades were faceless men and women, visages concealed by protective masks as they tweak the dials of the great foundary. This was hell, an industrial hell.
And at least to Daniel, insufferably hot.
The detective already had stripped out of his orange suit zoot jacket, tossing both the jacket and his hat to the protective care of a crew member. Still, holding a handkerchief in his hand, he dabs the sweat at his brow as the cacophony of the foundry sings around him. Fight number 13, in the Saturday Night Fights. The detective was the leader on the boards. He had won eight matches, earning 'officially' $800,000 from the fights, though in reality, he split those wins between himself and his dojo.
The Todoh Family had become very rich indeed.
The detective curses himself for his slacks, as the sweat rolls off his face. He didn't need anymore wins in the match. Hell, he didn't really need anymore money. What the detective was in it for, at this point, was for the THRILL of the fight, as well as the promotion. As the fallout of his run in the Neo Development Project, he had gained quite the reputation as an eccentric, if competent, fighter. He had caused a ceiling crash in on Vyle. He had seduced the pants off and victory out of Diesel. And through the circuit, he had made more friends in the world. The stern faced detective was looking forward to this next fight though. A stranger to him, yet the name was too familiar. And more importantly, one of the only people who crushed Shun in the league.
Ayame.
The NDP was one of the better windfalls Ayame had ever come across. While Saturday Night Fights had provided enough to get by on with some regular appearances, nothing compared to the utterly ludicrous purse offerings on the table for the Neo Development Project. You didn't even have to be a household name to walk away with the kind of money that could feed a dozon or more villages in Africa for over a year. You just had to get lucky enough to get put against someone you could beat.
From Ayame's perspective, she had her luck with her first and, to date, only NDP appearance. Her opponent was tenacious but fell for one too many of the girl's feints. And once Ayame had figured out who she was training under, she knew exactly how to beat the novice Ansatsuken student.
And with that, Ayame had expected her time with Ken Master's fledgling league would be at an end. She could get by for a very long time with that prize money. But then talk of the season finals tournament started getting around and it came to her attention that making it into the brackets was not an entirely distant possability. A $100,000 was a lot. But the tournament money? That was 'Never have to work again if you invest it smartly or, at the very least, use it to cheat other people out of theirs' levels of cash. Ayame was intrigued and made herself available for another bout.
That was a couple weeks ago. A lot can change in a couple of weeks. Normally she would have balked at the idea of having to go to Russia for the match. Why couldn't it be somewhere balmy and comfortable? But this time, Russia seemed like a great place to go. It was far away from Metro. Maybe she would stay there for a while after the event. She caught the next flight without complaint.
She's covered from head to toe in a thick coat when stepping into the foundry. Even her face is mostly concealed by the thick, fake-fur hood covering her head. Only long, strawberry-blonde hair spills out from either side of the her hood. Once inside, though, it becomes abundantly clear that such cold-weather-protective-measures are drastic overkill. The sash about the waist is undone and then, stepping into a spin on one heel, the coat is shed in one sweeping motion, landing folded over her arm by the time she comes to a stop. Stepping forward, she lifts then plops the coat over the head of one of the NDP staffers fiddling with one of the camera fixtures, provoking a startedl 'Hey!' from the man. She pays him no mind. "Talk about a league that can't make up its mind. Are we supposed to be freezing to death or burning up for this match?" she asks no one in particular.
It seems she was ready for this possability, though, for the outfit she has on is more appropriate for fighting in warmer environments - a fair amount of exposed skin and thin fabrics. Stretching her arms out at her sides, Ayame's attention seems to fall anywhere besides her opponent, brown eyes glancing over the interior of the foundry with what could easily be mistaken for as complete indifference. By the time she finishes her analysis, every feature she deems important has been noted, and her focus comes to rest on Daniel Little.
A faint grin, a very easily read glance over him from head to toe and back to head, and Ayame shrugs, "I hope you don't expect to flirt your way out of this one." Apparently she's seen his matches. His track record is formidable. If things play out the way they probably should, he'll be the one securing the tournament prize in the end. Only the impressively groovy Mr. Jones is anywhere near to matching Daniel's track record in the season. Ayame's hoping things don't go so properly. "You look nice, but not a hundred thousand dollars nice."
She gives him a lazy two-fingered salute of acknowledgement then looks away, resting her hands behind her head as she strides over to one end of the concrete space 'cleared' for the match. 'Cleared' being used loosely here, as there are still plenty of debris, bars, piles of raw materials, beams, tools, and asorted objects lying around. It will be important to watch one's step.
Ayame's attention might be elsewhere.
But both of Daniel's eyes were on her.
The detective inspects the woman. Daniel Jack was ranked high in the NDP, but it was not through pure skill. The detective's record was impressive, with Eight Wins, Three Loses, and Two draws. But if one looked into the details, the holes can be seen. His losses included Mr. Jones, Shun, and Munin, the former two being the two ranked fighters under him, and Munin being a notorious dark horse in the fighting circuits she has performed in. While Daniel had some impressive wins, including Zach, his Diesel victory was actually a loss turned around by some fast talking. Daniel might be number one, but that was out of sheer grit and working hard to fight as many people as he could.
And Daniel knew any opponent that beat Shun was trouble.
Inspecting the girl, he hardly feels the jab. Was Daniel getting a reputation as a seducer of women. Keeping his voice loud, over the sound of the foundry, he responds to the the red head with a terse but suave tone. "Well, I can settle being $50,000 worth of nice. Every man- and woman- has there price, sweetheart." The detective follows after Ayame, inspecting the debris field as well. This made it worth while. He didn't not watch Ayame's and Shun's fight; he only knew the outcome. Ayame was a blank slate to him; an unfair advantage in favor of the skirted woman. Daniel Jack's technique was not only loudly Todoh-Ryuu; but his own eccentric presence made it very clear what he was bringing to the table.
And Daniel was running out of new tricks.
The detective stands across from the woman, kicking a stray hammer on the ground. "It is damn hot though, sweetheart." The detective finally agreed, dabbing his forehead again. Wringing out the handkerchief, he finally tucks it away to his waistcoat pocket. "Forgive me if I have to strip down to my slack later. It's nothing personal; but $100,000 is not worth a heat stroke." Daniel Jack begins to take deep breaths, falling into the defensive stance of Todoh-Ryuu. Horse-straddle stance, legs apart, and both palms out, the detective chest was facing to the side, perpendicular to Ayame. A steady defensive stance, exchanging mobility for a tight guard and renowned center of balance. It was not going to evade many blows; but it was going to catch quite a few, and soften a lot of clean hits. His eyes focus on the girl. "So. Ayame. You're a late-comer to the Neo Development Project." The detective begins, his voice still that strange balance of hot and cold, just like the site of the fight.
"What took you so long?"
A careful inspection of his opponent is well advised. Most fighters aren't able to pick out the kind of details that a man of Daniel's attention would be able to. Her style of fighting may be an unknown to him, but there are some curious components to her attire that might be worth paying attention to. First of all, she has too many belts. It would be easy to pass this off as an eclectic preference in style. One belt is wider and sits around her waist more snugly than the others. There are notches on the right and left side of it, narrow slits and slightl buldges that suggest something hidden in each. In addition, a half-foot long leather pouch rests against her left hip, dangling from this belt. Another belt looks a bit more heavy duty but it hangs mostly loosely at an angle around her waist; it seems to mostly be a tightly linked chain.
His reply to her first comment elicits a crooked grin of bemusement but she says nothing. The kicked hammer clangs across the ground to come to rest against a girder. The heat is swealtering though Ayame doesn't seem to be affected by it yet. Her hands lift up to flip lengths of hair back up over her shoulders and behind her ears. A wide, black ribbon tied into a bow seems to be all she has on hand to keep her copper-toned hair in check. "Duly noted," she sounds close to laughing when he talks about stripping down.
Her eyes are on him now - his stance being an important detail. She is, if anything, extensively knowledgeable about the popular fighting styles in the world of sport fighting. Targeting each style's weakness has been one of the leading causes of her successes over time. Of course, she already knows the basis of his stance. She came in prepared. She glances down, kicking the toe of her right foot against the concrete as if getting a feel for it beneath her feet. Her hands are occupied with adjusting the fit of the fingerless, black leather gloves she wears.
He addresses her by name and she glances back up toward him, eyes blinking once at his observation. "So I am." she replies a bit curtly, as if not to make conversation particularly easy just yet. But he persists with a question all the same. "Ah." If she has a ready stance, it would be hard to tell, since she continues to stand casually even as the final seconds tick down to start the match.
"I don't trust people like Ken Masters. I thought there was no way he was actually giving out the kind of money the propaganda promised. So I waited long enough to confirm that those participating were really making the money they were supposed to be." She idly brushes the hem of her skirt with her palm, "I must say," her mouth curls into a knowing smile, "You have been quite generous with your winnings. You must owe that old man a lot. I hope it proves to be worth it." She pauses, then rolls her eyes up to come to rest on one of the metal walkways above, "On second thought, I really hope it doesn't. That would bode poorly for me!"
Already, there was a battle of minds.
Daniel Jack was a careful fighter, a calculating one. The art of Todoh-Ryuu was, at heart, a reactive style. Respond to an incoming attack, react with a counter-attack, and never lose your center. But for Daniel Jack, he was too brash, too free-wheeling. While he claimed he was Todoh-Ryuu Kobojutsu, in reality, his older, rawer streetfighting technique always kept shining through. While Daniel Jack claimed otherwise, his style really was a blend of three techniques: The raw, direct style of Ryuhaku's style of Todoh-Ryuu, focusing on Kasane Ate and single, decisive strikes; the elegant, technical style of Kasumi, focusing on intricate combinations of strikes, and graceful counter-throws; and finally, Daniel's own flair, the takedowns, the resourceful use of his surroundings, and the occasional cheap shot.
Of course, that last one is what Daniel considered the weakest.
Observing the red-haired woman (or was it blond? Maybe it was in the eye of the beholder), Daniel Jack tries to make sense of her. To get a hint of what was coming. It was too easy to pass Ayame over as a punk kid with a renegade sense of fashion. Daniel Jack had run into plenty of those. But those bulges. Those extra belts. That chain. Daniel Jack knew he had seen a similar get up before. It was with skirts, though. It was a trenchcoat, a duster. And then, it clicks right in Daniel's head.
God dammit, another Roland-style fighter.
The detective doesn't make a response when he realizes it. He just continues the conversation, after the last jab. Following her eyes, he looks up to the walkway. He needed to keep at least three steps above Ayame, and at the same time, prepare for plans to be ditch on the fly. All fighters were unpredictable before you fought them. But when they were unpredictable as part of their style... it was going to be trouble.
"I do owe him a lot."
The detective nods at her. "Besides, what am I going to do with $800,000? I end up spending most of this stuff on new suits anyways." The detective seeths. "Nah, I owe Ryuhaku and Kasumi everything; their martial training has saved my life, time and time again. If I am going to go professional with it in the fighting circuit.... why not make sure they get to see the money? It is all going to the dojo, so even if I don't make it big, I can rest assured that the world has seen Todoh-Ryuu Kobojutsu as a serious martial art."
"But let me show, not tell, sweetheart."
As the judge gives the clear, Daniel Jack finally advances on Ayame. His footwork makes it difficult to run, so Ayame is given much more room to work with than Daniel is comfortable with. But he is steady. Closing in on Ayame, he attempts to get her in a corner.... before raising back one arm. Burning with orange chi, it is very clear what is coming before Daniel even needs to follow through. Sweeping the arm down, he roars out the name of the attack, as the energy surges forward in a wave, piles of chi erupting up as it comes straight towards the beskirted lass.
"KASANE ATE!"
COMBATSYS: Ayame has started a fight here.
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Ayame 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Daniel has joined the fight here.
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Ayame 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Daniel
COMBATSYS: Ayame dodges Daniel's Kasane Ate.
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Ayame 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Daniel
Of course, being dismissed as having no idea what she's doing is precisely what Ayame would prefer. But this opponent knows better. She would expect a self-proclaimed detective to be able to pick up on the details of things. Will she be able to fool him? Or will she have to get by on purely the merits of skill? As quick as she is to dismiss her abilities as a fighter, her track record suggests otherwise. Even if he can see through all of her tricks, will it be enough?
If she knew the mental connection Daniel had drawn between Roland and her, she would likely have been irritated. That hackjob wannabe has nothing on her, she would insist. Half of his contraptions broke everytime she saw him try to use them. What kind of engineer /is/ that guy? "I dunno, buy a big house? Fancy car?" she replies as he mentions not knowing what to do with almost a million dollars. There is a twitch of a smirk as he expresses his thoughts about having to buy new suits. An important detail, in her mind, one of many that she'll collect as quickly as she can. "I see." she answers somewhat flatly when his pride of showing the world Todoh-Ryuu Kobojutsu in action.
Then he promises to show her how it's done and Ayame grins, "Really? I mean, I've seen it all before. When on the offense, the style seems to depend on strikes that probe an opponent's defenses and of course, a particularly signiture chi manifestation..." She backs up a step as he approaches. The match is now officially underway, but it began the second she entered the foundry in her mind. He continues to approach, and she continues to back up. It's as if she has a good gauge on what the reach of that well known if often underestimated attack actually has and is managing to stay about half a foot beyond it.
"As I recall, it starts by a raising of one or two arms, channeling chi into the limb, then-" She's backed into a corner. To her right is a thick metal girder resting on its end. It is being used to support the walkway above, it seems. At her back is the brick wall of the foundry, its surface dusty with black residue from the intensely hot refining processes taking place in the structure day after day. Her back is to the wall and now Daniel is in range.
"That!" The girl is fast. As his arm swings down, generating the wave that propels the energy behind a Kasane Ate, Ayame has sprung backward, a blur of motion. Her feet connect with the wall and she kicks off, springing into a single, upside down arc over Daniel, using her legs to control her momentum and angle and a twist of her torso to spin herself around 180 degrees.
If she managed correctly, she'll drop right down behind Daniel, aiming to hook her arms around his neck, looping her right arm against his throat, her left arm used for bracing her right and applying significant pressure. He's got a bit of height on her but Ayame might be able to pull him down to her height with enough momentum on her side. It's a pretty standard chokehold, but she executes it with enough precision to suggest that she's taken out a lot of opponents with this move. She won't let go unless forced to... If she can win this match with one move, she'll happily do so. Unlike many Daniel has likely faced, Ayame cares nothing for the 'spirit of the fight.'
COMBATSYS: Daniel blocks Ayame's Medium Throw.
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Ayame 0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0 Daniel
While Daniel was all about the spirit of the fight.
Daniel Jack keeps locked on Ayame, his intense gaze keeping on Ayame. Ever motion could be a concealed weapon, a thrown object, a fake out. She could explode with chi. When she goes for the leap, however, Daniel isn't surprised. That gaze upwards from before. She was looking for an aerial approach. She was likely capable of an aerial. And with blinding speed, she was coming with an aerial approach. Daniel Jack doesn't have time, as he recovers from the Kasane Ate, to turn around. However, his free hand was a boon, as Ayame throws an arm around his neck, his free hand surges up.
And Daniel saves his windpipe when he throws up a hand between his neck and her grasp.
"Going for the quick takedown?" The detective chokes, struggling against the strangle. With his hand in place, he can at least stop a full choke-out. The terse smile on his face, halfway between a grimace and a grin. "How practical. You got an MMA background? Or maybe fighting on the streets. You fight dirty, just like a friend of mine." Daniel Jack doesn't intend the barbs. He actually has respect for Ayame for being quick and brutal. That respect may come on false ears, and he makes the dreaded, jabbing comparison.
"Just like Roland."
Daniel Jack's approach is steady, the detective seeking to keep his center tight. While the detective struggles against the grapple, most of the work wasn't in his arms. The steady stance was actually what was performing most of the work, Danny letting the force shift from his arms down to his legs. His lower body absorbs the force, and surges back up, renewed. The detective finally breaks the chokehold readily, for this was exactly what Todoh-Ryuu trained for. Ayame might have heard that Todoh-Ryuu was all about strikes and Kasane Ate. But as his form, his balance showed, the heart of the ancient Japanese Art was not just hand, foot, and chi.
It was Aikido.
The detective takes advantage of the close quarters. With the force surging back, he pushes his free hand out, trying to latch on right above Ayame's right elbow. With a hand on the wrist, and a hand on the elbow, he begins the break. With the force of his whole body, he rocks forward, beginning to throw Ayame off. That might telegraph the attack, as Daniel builds momentum. With the second roll, he finally tries to hurl Ayame over his head to the ground before him.. Keeping a tight grip, he won't simply toss her off, but show what happens when you take the way of Todoh, and take it to brutal extremes. He would use the momentum of the throw to step into Ayame, and with a sharp, jerking wrench...
Attempting to dislocate her elbow.
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Ayame 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Daniel
COMBATSYS: Ayame blocks Daniel's Mad Jack Crack.
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Ayame 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Daniel
"Quicker this is over, the less recovery for me, right?" she replies while trying to keep Daniel locked in her chokehold. She doesn't let go easily, moving with him, sometimes trying to apply pressure to drag him down to the concrete, other times just trying to fight back against his own resistance. Her tone is practical in nature, as if she can't imagine how anyone could argue with it. Just as he identified.
Then he continues to ask questions while Ayame tries to twist him down to the ground. His stance proves more difficult to disrupt than she expected. He might have yet one more opportunity to be glad he has integrated the key aspects of Todoh-ryuu into how he fights. "Dirty? They didn't go over any rules before this," she retorts. Of course, even if they had, would she have likely kept them? Maybe if the money was riding on compliance...
When he mentions the name Roland, the sleuth will detect a difference in the strength in her arms, as if for a moment he's gotten the aggressive girl to think about something other than strangling the breath out of him. Not that she was going to let go, of course, but it was the perfect opportunity for him to finally leverage the strength of his stance to break from her hold all together. The strawberry-blond's eyes widen a little as he gets loose and aims to introduce her to another fundamental component of his adopted style.
Stumbling a little from the backward force, her arm is swinging out, and, with very quick movements on Daniel's part, grasped rightly. Her balance was already less than certain before he begins to use his own weight to throw her further off. She tries to brace, slamming her left foot down, even aiming to kick him in the shin and use her foot there as a pivot point, but he acts a touch too fast for her and Ayame is flipped over to the ground. Once off her feet, she proves to be quite the featherweight, though when her lower back hits the cement, there is a rattle of metal on her person... no doubt just the chain link belt, right?
Gritting her teeth, she kicks off the ground with her feet, twisting as she goes airborn, the momentum and direction allowing her to slip her arm from Daniel's grasp and land on her feet a second later, feeling a bit of a throb from having been flipped but otherwise spared the more brutal intent of the technique. She's close still, seeming comfortable fighting at very short range. "Compare me to that no good wannabe joke of a scoundrel again-!"
She's lunging then, lowered forward, trying to drive her shoulder into Daniel's chest in a bid to tackle him to the ground with a surprising amount of force for her stature. But if she's successful, she would push off of him immediately, dropping backward to land near his feet, gripping her opponent's right foot in her hands and attempting to give it quite the wrenching. "And you'll regret it!" The whole sequence of the attack is surprisingly fluid; like she knows exactly what she's doing with close-in grappling techniques. This might not be what he expected from her at all, but given his opponent, what COULD he expect?
Needless to say, all work in the foundry has largely ground to a halt. The brawl taking place on the ground floor is a lot more interesting to watch than whatever it is the workers are normally occupied with here!
COMBATSYS: Ayame successfully hits Daniel with Random Combo.
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Ayame 0/-------/-------|====---\-------\0 Daniel
"You know how I feel about dirty girls, sweetheart?"
She was agile, Daniel thought to himself. It wasn't quite a term of endearment for the detective, though. It was a statement of fact. As Daniel mentions Roland, however, he can feel the added pressure. He KNEW that was on purpose. It was readily obvious to the detective what that means.
Oh crap, she knew Roland!
As Daniel chucks her off him, his mind was whirring. Judgement said NOT to pursue that track. But if Roland had baggage... the detective had a duty to find out. But for the detective, she slips free from his finisher to the combo. "You know Roland? Well, that makes this fight a whole lot more interesting, sweetheart." The detective jives, getting his center. As she lunges, the detective keeps his footing... or at least, would have if he didn't adjust for the weight. Ayame was a lightweight. Where the HELL did she get this force. The shoulder check hits right at the sweet spot in the detective's balance... and he hits the ground.
Now he was in trouble.
Ayame is already on him, wrenching him at the ankle. "NNNNRGH!" Came the pained grunt from Daniel, barely muffled by the droning song of the foundry. Smashing his fists against the ground, he tries to break... but takes too long. Struggling after the grips, he roars back out at the girl, seething. "What was he? You were a mark to him? Perhaps he conned you out of money? Ex-Partner?"
And then, Daniel says the biggest misstep.
"... Ex-boyfriend?"
There is a crack, which was Daniel's cue to break out of this, before she broke him out of this fight. Winding back a foot, he readies a kick.... as he flails about his left arm in pain. It isn't even obvious what is coming until his left hand flares up with chi energy. Slashing it across, while still flat on his back, a small slash of energy blows out. Bellowing the name of the attack, it is significantly weaker that the earlier version... but Daniel wasn't looking for power.
He was looking for distance.
COMBATSYS: Daniel successfully hits Ayame with Mikansei Kasane Ate.
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Ayame 0/-------/-----==|====---\-------\0 Daniel
She has him in a pretty bad spot for a moment, legs wrapped around his leg, hands gripping his foot, giving it a very uncomfortable twist as she seems to be trying to maim Daniel enough to slow him down for the remainder of the fight. Her expression is none too friendly, the playful demeanor replaced with one a lot more irritated ever since Roland was brought up. He's asking questions, trying to guess the prior relationship, but Ayame isn't talking. "You don't listen very well, do you," she growls, giving his foot another painful twist as if to warn him off the subject.
When he makes his last guess, however, Ayame's expression shifts, her mask of irritation giving way to a suddenly amused look as she keeps her tight grip. "Nice try. But I don't actually care about Roland one way or another." Was her previous reaction a ruse? Or is she lying now? Any impression of her being upset will have melted away entirely, her eyes focusing back on his with a studied intensity, as if trying to see if he will continue to pursue that line of thinking. "You can't distract me with words, detective."
That may or may not be true, because his escape ploy proves successful. Whether she really was distracted or she just got too focused on his kick and missed the chi-infused swing of his arm until it was too late would be hard to say for certain. Regardless, Ayame's grip is lost at the impact of chi crashing against her torso, causing her to roll backward to a crouched position a few meters away. He wanted his distance; it seems he's gotten it for a moment. By the time the skirt-glad girl comes out of her roll, her arms are out at her sides, each hand gripping a glint of sharpened steel. Twin butterfly knives, no doubt slipped from the sleaves sewn into her belt, their metal blades reflecting the glow emitted by a huge cauldron of molten steel further back in the foundry.
"But I like that you're trying that approach." She's grinning now, staying tensed up, low to the ground, a viper readying to strike. "I bet that works on some people. Get inside their head a little, find out what gets them worked out, distracted or attracted, right?" She cants her head to the side a little, "Have you ever fought for real, Daniel? Not like we're doing here... I won't kill you. I doubt my life is in danger fighting you at the moment. I mean the kind of fight where you're so certain that the person you're fighting intends to take your life that all pretense of being clever, witty, or intrusive simply chokes in your throat. A real fight."
She grows even more tensed up, clearly preparing to spring. "I have. You won't get to me by words. You better try something else!"
And then she's after him again, this time with her knives. Hopefully he wasn't expecting his suit to be spared this match. She'll close in with a kick from her right targeting his midsection, trying to force him to go on the defensive. Out of that kick she will step in with a sweep of her left hand, blade out, aiming for a more shallow cut or just trying to put him even more on guard. The momentum will carry her into a spin on her right foot, Ayame's right elbow cracking out as she comes completely around, a blur of black, red, and long hair that trails a split second behind. She would finish the spin with a stab from her left hand, that final strike the true threat of the combination as Ayame seems out for blood now!
COMBATSYS: Daniel fails to interrupt Assault and Battery from Ayame with Jumping Jack Flash.
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Ayame 0/-------/-----==|====---\-------\0 Daniel
"KASANE ATE!"
Struggling up, the lash of energy buys Daniel the distance he needs. Staggering up, he gingerly puts weight on the poor, suffering limb. He can stand, at least. He needed to grab that center, before she surges back. The detective looks over as he hears the sound of blades. Oh great. Another cutting nut, just like Intan. The detective turns to face the woman, focusing deftly into his center....
And he crosses his arms.
The detective's form grows faint, indistinct. The colors saturate as Ayame comes rushing in. And all the detective does is stare. The effect may be subtle... unless Ayame shifts her gaze away from the detective. Unless you were looking at the detective, it was as if he was a part of the background. A brief cameo, perhaps part of the foundry workers. As the attack comes, though, the detective does not seem to resist. The kick is as if hitting an old punching bag, though the detective's posture does not change. The shallow cut is similarly ignored, as one of the crossed arms is unhooked. By the time the right elbow comes out, the detective's color surges back, the detective's form growing less rigid. Reaching out for the woman, he attempts to get his grips right on the fleeing elbow...
But then comes the last stab.
The detective gasps, taking the knife to his chest. Stumbling back, he grabs the wound. "Ggggggaaargh." He gurgles. Falling. Stumbling. Struggling. This heat, this blasted heat. He only comes to a rest by a nearby worktable, stacked with odds and ends, tools of the trade. Leaning back against the table, he places his free hand down, putting his wait. Looking right at Ayame, blood pouring over his waistcoat, he keeps his mouth closes, form terse over the surprise stab.
And just rolls his eyes.
Still clutching the knife wound, the detective turns around, facing the tools, gasping painfully. But when he speaks, it drips with sardonic venom. "In my line of work? What the HELL do you think. I've been beaten halfway to death, and left for dead in a dumpster. I've fought tanks with my bare hands, and nearly lost. I've been in the Southtown Siege, in the warzone. And all through it all, I've had half the decency that when you stare down the barrel of the gun, you keep up that air of class. Pretense? Pretense is going down into a screaming, howling mess when you get hit. Class is just trying to keep it cool, keep it clean, and keep it with just an ounce of respect."
"I mean, what is this."
The detective sneers a bit, putting a high-pitched falsetto. "'oh, you fight competitively? How quaint, but I fight for the REAL hardcore, where people die!'" The detective returns to his terse voice, beginning to push off the workbench. "What is this? I mean, sincerely. This isn't you. I have seen more humanity out of a damned Shadaloo doll than out of you. Yeah, you know what? Having -real-, human conversations works in my fights. It sometimes drops their guard. It even won me a fight. But hey, it sometimes doesn't. Why do I keep it up then? Am I just dumb using the same tactic? Or maybe because when you get down with it, sweetheart, I don't see these fights as one of your she-dick swaggering 'real fights.' It's just a promotional fight, where you get a little icing! You fight, you have fun, you shares drinks later. That's what real human beings do. And you know what? If this was a real fight?"
"I'd STILL shoot the breeze with you."
The detective turns around, leaning his back on the work bench as he clutches the wound. He was bleeding fast. He needed to stop the bleeding. "'Get in your head.' Look. I get in EVERYONE'S head. It's not even a big deal. The only people who whine about it are brainwashed psychopaths, or basketcases who have been burned too many times. I don't know what Roland did to you, but if he hurt you, then I'm so sorry. He is an asshole, and I recognize it. But bragging about how I'm not, nor anybody, getting under your skin is a goddamned lie, sweetheart. It's a matter of Todoh-Ryuu pride that I get under everyone's skin. What makes you unique, sweetheart, is that you think you have the bravado of jacking it up real serious like." Daniel Jack finally pushes off the bench, getting back into his horse-straddle form. "But you know what I see someone who rejects people from getting in their head? In their hearts? I see someone who is too frightened to let anyone, or anything close."
"What happened, Ayame."
There was a moment where she wasn't sure - something about Daniel was off. An optical illusion? A bending of light by way of advanced chi manipulation? Or maybe he just found the right shadow-covered spot to recede into? She struck anyway, committed to her attack. And when she snaps her hand back from the well-aimed stab, she's already retreating a couple of steps to evaluate her progress. She didn't hit anything vital, but a good cut like that will take the wind out of a lot of fighter's sails. He isn't attacking back immediately. Good. If the hit was good enough then she has the most to gain by drawing things out a little to see if he weakens some.
She flicks her left hand out to her side, shedding a few drops of blood against the concrete, and then holds her ground. She'll let him talk. "Class?" There is a soft grunt, "No one looks classy when they're dead." She thinks of a body, its torso violently carved open by one searching for something that doesn't even really exist. Ayame shakes her head, falling quiet, eyes refocusing on Daniel. When he takes to a falsetto, her expression shifts to looking legitimately amused for a moment but it fades fast when he says he'd be just as inclined to chat with her if she was out for his life.
"Then you haven't fought a real killer yet..." she muses. "Someone who's broken mind thinks your guts are hiding something they want and the only way for them to find satisfaction is to carve you open and take a look for themselves." She hehs, pausing only for a breath. "And, oh, it helps if you're still alive while they're poking around inside you, ripping your ribcage apart, because, hey, they really want to see what you look like while you're dying... Yeah, you try and shoot the breeze with them. Maybe after they're done rooting around inside you, you can go catch a drink too, because, hey, that's what real people do, right? I bet they'll love that. Bet they'll say 'Hey, that guy I just eviscerated. He had class.'"
She shrugs. "That isn't me. But if you think I lack for humanity, you haven't seen anything yet. I've never been one for messing with Vega's pets. But if they're real bastions of sweetness for you, then that's good. I met one once. She tried to see if she could pump my head full of enough Psycho Power to deepfry my brain in my skull. Can't say I was feeling real chatty after that."
She flicks her right knife closed and slides it back into her belt. "Roland? Hm... left me to pay a restaurant bill once." She makes a bit of a face. "I think he scrambled out the bathroom window. Real fancy place too." She rolls her eyes a little. A press on a link allows the chain to slip free from around her waist. It was double coiled so has a few feet of length to it as she allows the end of it to drape against the floor. "You were right. He does fight like me," she grins faintly. He returns to his stance, sticking true to the form of Todoh-ryuu while she stands up straight, her stance being best defined as 'nothing in particular.'
She flicks the butterfly knife in her left hand idly, listening to Daniel further. "Really? So you think someone hurt me and that's what defines me? You think I have some tragic past that I'm running from and only by keeping people away do I feel like I can keep from being hurt again?" She turns her left shoulder toward him, finally adopting a bit of a stance, her right arm out to her side a little, treating that four foot length of small linked chain as a whip of sorts. She breaths in then exhales, "Well. You're the detective. You figure it out, Daniel."
She bolts forward then, having decided to engage once more. Her left shoulder leads, her right arm trailing. When she steps into her attack, it is with a full body spin from a bit of a distance, sweeping the chain out with her right arm, trying to force Daniel on the defense again. "But think fast, we haven't long!" Evasive speed doesn't seem to be the nature of his style, so if she can force his guard, it leaves the advantage with her, she's decided. She'll follow through her spinning momentum with a roundhouse kick at chest level with her left foot. If she manages to keep Daniel on the defensive, she'll finish with one more swing of the chain, aiming to clobber him hard with the swinging metal.
COMBATSYS: Daniel dodges Ayame's Heavy Kick.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////// ]
Ayame 0/-------/-----==|====---\-------\0 Daniel
Nothing vital my ass.
The detective's damn waistcoat is pretty vital. Still bleeding, Daniel Jack was at least ready for the onslaught. It was true that Daniel was keeping on the defensive. Growling, he listens to Ayame. Observes her. More of the hidden weapons. There had to be a way to get around them. Analyzing her opponent, he grimaces. When that chain comes, Daniel doesn't think fast.
He thinks -right-.
Evasion can mean many things to different people. For Daniel Jack, for the style of Todoh-Ryuu Kobojutsu, it can be a blend of hand and footwork. Though not in a clearly intuitive way. As the chain comes, he follows the way of Kasumi, not the way of Ryuhaku. Sweeping his arms, he easily guides the chain whip over him, palms out, letting the force roll over and around, not stopping with him. As the roundhouse comes, his palms are ready. Stepping with the force, moves beside the foot, and keeping his footwork along, pushes away. By the time the whip comes around again.
And he clutches hard.
Walking his hands up the chain, he stares into the eyes of Ayame, focused. "You know what?" He asks, voice terse.
"Yes."
"All you have told me in this whole damn fight is how much you've been hurt, and how miserable the world has been to you. You just do it in a way that pushes all the misery on other people. I mean, sweet Jesus. Yes. You've been screwed up. You have a damn tragic past. That's isn't the part that's pissing me off."
"But don't you think for a minute that there is anything beautiful about being as ugly as you."
Using his own short length, the detective tries to turn the chain on it's own weilder. While he lacked the momentum, as well as the skill, he had the chain. Struggling with the weapon, the detective would simply try and pull with one hand, and rip the length of the other across her face. Quick. Unpredictable. And more importantly, distracting. After three slaps, he will finally try to jerk the weapon free from her... before adding one last thought.
"So how did Roland sucker you into a fancy dinner with him?"
COMBATSYS: Daniel successfully hits Ayame with Light Random Weapon.
- Power hit! -
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Ayame 0/-------/---====|=====--\-------\0 Daniel
The exhertion is starting to catch up with her, she realizes. Either that, or the temperature. Yes, more likely the heat, she decides, since she's had time to catch her breath. Perspiration rolls down her temples, rendering her hair sticky against her skin, and every minute she spends stuck in the foundry for this match is another minute of roasting in the infernal factory. Her aggressive three strikes were most definitely intended to drive the match toward a quick end from here, but she didn't expect Daniel's particular brand of canniness.
Her chain whips around for the second strike with the kind of force that can knock a man out cold with a clean hit, but Daniel has managed to weave his way into just the right position to catch it without suffering the momentum behind it. It stops Ayame short, the girl blinking twice with a rare show of surprise. She even hangs onto her weapon for a long moment, keeping tension, leaning back a little, but not struggling particularly hard at the immediate moment. "That's where you're wrong." she finally states.
She gets smacked across the face with the whipping motion of her chain. She tries to correct for it, recoiling, twisting on her end, only to get struck again. Gritting her teeth, she stubbornly tries to yank it away a third time, but a third crack across her cheek is enough to finally get her to release her hold on it all together. Staggering back a step, her right arm lifts to rub the bleeding scrape left there. Another step back and she goes into a more defensive stance, arms raised, feet a little bit apart.
Her techniques thus far had emphasized accrobatic brutality, speed, ruthless aggression. But what had been lacking was any demonstration of chi prowess. That changes now. In her defensive stance, energy begins to swirl about her - a visible hue of faint crimson near her feet. "I don't think I have a tragic past. And I never ascribed something as subjective as beauty to simple facts." The exhertion in drawing chi from the environment around her is a mixed blessing, she muses. It's going to reward her with more strength, the ability to endure longer without slowing... but at the cost of really taking in more of that sweltering heat. She tries to put it out of mind.
Her left hand hovers over the pouch dangling from her belt there. Her aura builds, taking on blue highlights further up in the air, rushing about her with a heated wind. Not helping the temperature thing one bit. "Roland? Hm... I shouldn't be surprised you know each other. I remember the first time he claimed to be learning Todoh-ryuu... he seemed pretty excited about it." She inhales then exhales softly, completing the channeling of energy to her control. She doesn't answer about dinner. "What kind of cases do you pursue, Detective Daniel Jack?" Her tone has shifted. There's no barb. No taunting. A simple, direct inquiry, seemingly out of no where.
COMBATSYS: Ayame gathers her will.
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Ayame 1/-------/=======|=====--\-------\0 Daniel
Brutality.
The detective hammers across the woman's facing, pouring in with a rip-roaring violence. But his face didn't reveal any joy from it. Just a grim serious, twinged with an intense temper. Sweat was pouring off his face, blood was still spilling on the floor. As he finally tears away the chain, he glares fiercely at Ayame, as if he made some kind of point. "You don't think you have a tragic past?"
"Then show me, don't tell me."
The detective seems to calm down a bit, as Ayame takes a moment to draw in the chi. Breathing heavily, he inspects the girl... and he backs up. Looping up the chain, the detective finally breaks down to the heat. Stilling bleeding out, he just takes off his waistcoat. Stripping down to the waist, he removes his clothing on top, revealing a powerful, well-muscled build underneath that Zoot Suit get up. Tossing it on the work table. He places the chain down beside it. Leaning against the table, he wipes his brow.
And then, he takes out a small flask from his hip.
"Depends on what comes." The detective starts, taking a nip from the flask. "To the detective question. I did a stint years ago chasing after Jiro, when he was on the lam. After that fell to nothing, I shifted to ugly work. You know, paranoid husbands and wives suspicious of their significant other. Let me tell you, nothing sucks worse than taking pictures of a 50-something year old man undressing with his mistresses." Daniel Jack takes another nip with that thought on his mind. "It was boring work, but it was safe and reliable."
"Then the Russian Mistress showed up."
"Told me her grandfather's watch was stolen. $1,000 dollars up front, another $1,000 after I find it. It's almost funny now. $1,000 dollars. The heart of the whole case is the mysterious Black Dragon Gang. And I think I've gotten it narrowed down on the leader. Some real shy guy by the name of Abobo. I got Roland and Vyle at the wings, and I managed to talk Zaki and the Ladies Team for backup. I got a few others to lean on, should things get real ugly. But mark my words, Ayame, I can feel it right down in my bones."
"Something big is going to go down in Sunshine City, mark my words."
The detective takes one last nip, before screwing the top back on. "You got to enjoy these respites, you dig? So. Here's my real question." The detective tucks the flask back to the hip, pushing off the table. The detective doesn't even bother to take the chain with him, leaving it on the table. A trap? Or maybe he just wanted to keep the toy out of Ayame's hands for now. Turning back to Ayame, he doesn't even ask if she is ready as he falls into his defensive stance, bringing his palms up to the girl. Instead, he asks that same annoying question that has been digging into the side of Ayame throughout the fight. "So what side of the story do you want me to believe in? Your version?"
"Or the version I am going to get when I ask Roland?"
COMBATSYS: Daniel gains composure.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
Ayame 1/-------/=======|====---\-------\0 Daniel
Once again, Ayame choses not to pressure Daniel, drawing liberally upon the breath of life that exists all around her. The aura builds under her focus, though the reddish hues are hard to make out in the foundry already illuminated by so much red and orange heated metal. Eyes glance toward the chain he places on the table but not with any particular fixation. If that item was important to her at one point, it doesn't seem to matter to her now. She stays put as he talks, exercising the chi-building technique she struggled to integrate into her style for so long.
Brown eyes stay focused on Daniel as he talks about his case. Jiro is a name she recognizes. A twitch of a smile at recalling the time he was a wanted dog. Wasn't too many months after that they say he died in China. Shame, that, one less sucker in the world. The rest of Daniel's cases seem mundane and uninteresting. Affairs? Boring. Her left hand fishes into the pouch at her belt, drawing out a six-inch metal looking tube that she twirls idly in her hand as she listens.
He mentions another, going into a case that started with something as trivial as a missing watch. Why, she'd be responsible for a case like that hundreds of times over. Not too interesting either. He mentions a Black Dragon Gang and her brow furrows a little. For once, a criminal organization she hasn't heard of in the slightest. That's unexpected. She's worked for half of them out there at some point or another. He tossed out a name - Abobo - and she makes mental note of it. Not exactly what she's interested in these days, but information is good. She has a reputation for being a very informed spy among the many criminal enterprises she has worked in. He mentions Zaki and Ayame's brow arcs slightly. She's caused tons of trouble at Seijyun, but it was always that manipulative Yurika that was on to her. She has, as of yet, never run amiss of the Lady's Gang proper.
Ayame moves her thumb along the metal tube and, with a hydraulic hiss, it suddenly expands out into a six foot long staff that she twirls some more at her side. Daniel pushes away from the table and for the first time this fight, his opponent adopts a ready stance, gripping her weapon with both hands, holding it at a defensive angle that makes it hard to get to her without risking getting clobbered by the long weapon. "Hm?" she asks when he mentions his real question, only to laugh shortly when he asks it.
"My, my. So interested in him, are we? It seems the accusation of ex-boyfriend might be most properly thrown your way moreso than mine." The energy she had gathered starts to subside a little. Most of it she has pulled inward though much of the aura remains. "I'm sure you'll have such an easy time getting an answer out of Roland."
She leans forward a little more then, her stance becoming more aggressive. Then she charges, right shoulder forward, staff on her left side, held with both hands. The aura she had built chases after her as if the energy were drawn to her... no, not her, her staff, as the weapon becomes infused with crimson hued chi. Eyes take in the surroundings, she's already confirmed she has room enough to use it - and thus she does. Both hands shift more toward the right end of the weapon as she attacks, sweeping the left end of the pole out from a low arc, aiming to drive it into Daniel's side with crushing force. Kicking off with her right foot, she would spin around for a second strike at roughly head level, that rich, red chi trailing just behind!
There might be a narrow window of opportunity to attack after the full bodied spin - but one thing someone as observent as Daniel would easily note - she knows how to use this weapon far better than anything she's demonstrated on him thus far!
COMBATSYS: Daniel blocks Ayame's Power Strike.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////// ]
Ayame 1/-------/=======|=====--\-------\0 Daniel
Sometimes, sleuthing just wasn't even a bit interesting.
As he returns in the Roland and Ayame question, she finally abdicates to Roland. The detective had a feeling he was going to be getting a LOT of lies, and a lot of exaggerations. Oh well, the detective thinks, as she finally draws out her weapon. The hiss is what catches his ear. His eyes focus, narrowed on her. As it reaches a full 6 feet, only one thing runs through the detective's head, a single concern.
That weapon had reach.
The detective only catches the first hit, before he changes his mind on the entire defense. Aikido was mostly effective against both weapons and unarmed techniques. Chi, however, tended to be a bit problematic. As he steps to the side, hands out to force the staff down to the base of his shoes, he winces. His palms are seared with the energy, burning viciously. As the second strike comes roaring in, the detective doesn't have time to recover. Throwing up his forearm, he opts for a flat block. The grunt of pain shows that Daniel, forced on the defense, was a slow losing battle for him. He had to find his center again. "What, you are a staff fighter? No, that's not a staff."
"That's a -gizmo-"
Daniel was unarmed, and dealing with someone who was trained in that weapon. Who significantly out-reached him with it. Shaking out the pain in his arm, he continues to back up, keeping his guard up. Palms forward, eyes not leaving Ayame, he finally backs into a tall blast furnace, a mixing pot of coke and iron to make steel slag. The detective passes a glance behind him, before looking back at Ayame. Raising up a chi-laced hand, he looks to be readying to close the distance with another Kasane Ate. "Well, sweetheart, it looks like you are getting real serious now. I guess that means..." The detective suddenly turns, palm still burning with chi as he seems to drop his guard to flee. "...I got to jack this up a notch."
And promptly, he tears hard into the side of the furnace.
The rush of heat tears over the foundry floor, the blast furnace kicking up a storm of coke, limestone ash, and even slag right across the field... and towards the be-skirted lass. The cacophony is amplified when alarms go off, sirens blaring over the breach of heat. Faculty were to be scrambled, the emergency shutoffs are activated. The foundry floor would be safe soon, and the leak woul But where was Daniel as the industrial accident blasts in the path of Ayame?
Bolting towards the stairs.
Breaking for a run, he was stretching the limits of the fighting arena. Forcing his way up the catwalk stairs, he was bringing the fight up to the area above. Linear catwalks, maximizing Ayame's distance advantage she held right now. What was the detective plan, trying to bringing the fight up there?
Or maybe planning has nothing to do with the desperation the detective was pulling?
COMBATSYS: Ayame blocks Daniel's Large Thrown Object.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////// ]
Ayame 1/------=/=======|======-\-------\0 Daniel
"Maybe," she answers his question. She was many things to many people. But for this moment, to him, she was a staff fighter, and she decided that was appropriate enough for now. He manages to fend off her high pressure strikes but she knows it wasn't easy. And she isn't about to let him take the time to figure out how to contend with her staff techniques either, stepping forward, hands shifting position along the metal shaft, the chi that would hurt him simply dancing over her fingers harmlessly.
He takes a step back, narrowly avoiding a probing jab, Ayame staying safely away on the other end of the long weapon. She's cornering him. With her reach, getting around her to a better position seems unlikely, and the confident look in her eyes suggests that she knows it. Only when he raises his hand, chi at the ready, does she hesitate. Daniel has already demonstrated that he's mastered more than simply the basics of the Kasane Ate that she handled with ease. The variant... she didn't do so well against.
She's at the ready, staff positioned to keep him at bay, still trying to corner the detective. She isn't sure on the range of his next attack though - is she narrowing her own options for contending with whatever he has in mind next? "Yeah, you do that-" she starts taunt when he promises to take things up a notch, only to cut herself off when instead of trying to counter her reach with his own chi, he slams his hand through the metal furnace siding!
Smoke, sparks, fumes, and molten slag explode out of the device with Ayame blocked on the other side. Blinded for a moment, she braces, making a careful retreat. Her staff moves to her side, her right arm raised to her face, her head turned away from the sudden plume of unpleasant substances.
Coughing from the one lungful she got before holding her breath, Ayame backs up another step then sweeps her staff up, twirling it in her hands so fast that the trailing crimson chi gives it the appearance of a deep red fan blade, driving away the rest of the soot and smoke and letting her see Daniel bolting for the stairs leading to the walkway.
A curious tactic she hadn't expected, to say the least. Another cough, a wipe across watering eyes, and she's ready to go again. "Well, well," she muses. "It's been a while since I had to run someone /else/ down." Usually she's the one taking flight at the first sign of trouble. Springing forward, she plants her staff against the floor and uses it to vault over the cooling slag with ease, landing on the base of the stairs and give chase!
As she charges up the stairs, her staff is held tightly at her side in a horizontally angled position, causing the least amount of trouble for navigating the narrowing walkway.
"This heat is a killer, don't drag this out longer than it needs to be!" she yells, shifting her grip on her weapon, holding it more like a lance at her side than typical staff stance. The crimson chi coursing over its surface ripples into a light, sky blue hue. The attack targeting Daniel is a straight forward jab that has a decent chance of being avoided giving its linear path. But the chi coursing over its surface ripples out, ballooning most near the end of the staff. Even if she can't strike him cleanly, the chances of him avoiding the attack all together may not be promising!
COMBATSYS: Ayame successfully hits Daniel with Medium Strike.
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Ayame 1/------=/=======|=======\=------\1 Daniel
Daniel was on the run.
Not out of fear, mind you. But repositioning. He wanted the high ground. Keep everything changing. More importantly, he had an idea to get moving. It wasn't perfect; the detective had fallen far behind. He didn't have enough gumption to push himself over. But he might have enough to make Ayame's life pretty terrible. He manages to just make it to the top of the stairs, having hustled up quickly.
The only trouble was, Ayame was faster.
The detective has only enough enough time to throw up his guard. The thrust, however, doesn't have any time for a block. This was exactly the kind of problem with forcing the fight in close quarters. Daniel Jack had no room to sidestep, and he didn't have proper technique to block a swiftly driving lancing. As the burst of energy erupts, it is only icing. Blowing Daniel back, he stumbles backwards, grabbing the handrails of the catwalk. "Nnnnrgh..." He groans, body bearing the burns, cuts, and bruises of the abuse he had gotten so far, the sweat of his body stinging every wound, every misstep. Hands burning with chi, he makes the easiest use of Kasane Ate he had taught himself...
And with a chop, cuts the handrail.
Tearing it free, he readies the weapon with both hands, now armed. For better, or more accurately, for worse. Was that the whole of the plan? To move up where Ayame had less room to swing, and for Daniel to use a smaller weapon in close quarters? The detective quickly lunges in, hands gripped on the base of the makeshift club. Attempting to open with a parry for the chi-laced pole, he belts out at the girl with a growing intensity. "If you can't take the heat, Ayame, you could do what I did." He tersely bites. Should he successfully parry the staff, he will follow up with an elbow jab, before bringing the handrail upon the head of the girl.
"You could dress down a bit."
COMBATSYS: Ayame dodges Daniel's Random Weapon.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////// ]
Ayame 1/------=/=======|=======\-------\1 Daniel
Like a predator on the hunt, Ayame pursues Daniel up onto the walkway, shifting her stance with the long weapon to take advantage of the now enforced linear combat zone. Jabbing out like a lance leaves Daniel almost no room to negociate the attack, and as a result, she manages to connect. As quickly as she jabbed her staff out, she's snapped it back, the light blue chi becoming crimson once more. She can't quite angle it right in front of her like she would on more open ground, but by holding it such that the lower end of the shaft slants back behind her, she can still cover a fair amount of space with it. The snap attack didn't lend itself to being countered or avoided. If anything, the girl is likely still wondering why Daniel would move the fight here.
But the detective isn't a slouch when it comes to taking advantage of his environment. Smashing in the side of the furnace already caught the crafty girl off guard once. When he infuses his hand with chi once more, she's still unsure what he's about to do. He has, over the course of the match, proven to be about as unpredictable to her as Roland... A strange thought, she muses, watching him warily. After all, she KNOWS what his style is, but still he manages to surprise? That shouldn't be the case.
Knowing Shun's style was the key to dismantaling the girl at the end of Ayame's previous NDP. That hasn't exactly been the key here though. He's armed now. The environment is his weapon rack. Her face is decorated with a small amount of soot that leaves her skin greyed, and the lighting provided by nearby molten metals casts deceiving shadows across her features, so it might be hard to tell. But she actually looks rather impressed for a fleeting moment as the detective charges in with his makeshift beatstick.
Unfortunately, the staff in her hands is no impromptu weapon. It is the /only/ weapon in which she received formal training to this day. The handrail swings in but Ayame shifts her staff up, bracing the other end against the floor with a metallic clang. It knocks the probing strike askew. Another adjustment and she backs up out of elbow range and catches the overhead swing on the end of her staff with precision. Sparks fly, but for Ayame's part, she's completely unharmed by the attack.
She laughs a little, perhaps considering his challenge on how to cope with the heat. "I can't go too much lighter without getting into trouble, I should think." She takes another step back now rather than fighting aggressively. Her current position places her over four feet from any of the pipes dangling from the ceiling to keep the walkway in place. It wasn't chosen by accident.
"You've proven to be quite interesting, Daniel Jack. I might have a case for you. Two even." She's lifted her staff over her head and begun to spin it in her two hands. The speed at which she whips the weapon around is significant. The energy itself takes on a rich, heated orange, not unlike the flickering flames atop nearby heated steel. It trails behind her spinning metal staff, forming an almost horizontal circle of vibrant, fiery looking chi over her head. "I would like to see two killers brought to justice." The spinning staff stirs up a wind around her, tousling the girl's hair and playing at her clothes a little. "Normally I wouldn't concern myself about such things. Except these killers have tried to kill me before. So I have a vested self-interest in seeing them caught."
The woosh of the wind noise drowns out much else as Ayame continues to whirl her staff with violent speed. "Perhaps I'll take you at your word. Perhaps we'll talk more after this, hm? Try not to get hurt TOO bad-!"
A strange warning from one that is clearly intending to take him out here and now. Ayame swings her staff out of its spin, cracking the top end of it against the walkway in front of her. But that isn't the actual attack. No - the attack is the firestorm of chi that explodes in Daniel's direction, blossoming out to the width of the walkway, making escape at this point a highly difficult prospect!
COMBATSYS: Ayame successfully hits Daniel with Final Sunset.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///// ]
Ayame 0/-------/-------|=======\====---\1 Daniel
Daniel Jack is many things.
The hybrid of his three techniques, Ryuhaku Todoh, Kasumi Todoh, and his own street fighting technique, made him a flexible, pragmatic fighter, akin to Ayame. His strength was hitting weaknesses, and keeping a balanced, steady offense. Daniel Jack could outsmart fighters, just like Ayame. He could get him guessing. He could see through tricks. And while he kept an air of class, of swag, one thing stood out.
When he was outskilled, he was outclassed.
As the makeshift club is blocked in the end, the detective growls, close to the girl. "Can't go much lighter? Pity." As the compliment goes his way, the detective falls back. The whirling staff was trouble. The offer of cases though, make the detective ears perk up. "Cases? I am always free for cases. Justice is out of my profession. But I got a few connections that might make it work..." Now, what comes next, Daniel jack might have to apologize for. Because as much as he would like to do what Ayame says...
Daniel does get hurt too bad.
The detective emerges from the blast of energy standing tall, eyes focused. But there was an emptiness in them. And as his leg gives out, he grabs one of the surviving handrails of the catwalk. He was at the end of his rope. That much was obvious. Struggling up, he still manages to hold himself steady. Barely conscious. But for what. Daniel flashes a grin. "Sure, we can talk business. But I don't think I can take the stairs. You don't mind if we take... if we take a shortcut, sweetheart."
And then it becomes apparent why Daniel brought the fight there.
The detective suddenly stomps a foot down, the entire catwalk swinging frightfully, groaning under the strain. Grabbing the handrail still, he tears it off with a sharp jerk. With the same motion, the detective swings with the throw, hurling the object straight for Ayame, walking towards her. His hands continue to lash out to the nearest item on hand. A support beam? Equally torn off, and chucked towards Ayame. The catwalk begins to twist at the rivets, lurching violently under their feet as the detective continues to rip up the catwalk, hurling the pieces at Ayame stumbling with every step. By the time he pulls up the mesh floor, there is a single, violent groan.
Before the entire catwalk collapses, bringing Daniel Jack down into the fallout zone.
COMBATSYS: Daniel can no longer fight.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Ayame 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Ayame blocks Daniel's Mean Business.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Ayame 0/-------/------=|
"Good." is all he'll hear from Ayame as she unleashes the explosive front of chi in his direction. Her staff rebounds off the floor from where it struck, Ayame using the momentum to twist right back into a defensive stance. It almost begs the question of why the girl used other weapons and styles for most of the fight - her skill with the staff is remarkable, using it like an extention of herself, not even having to think about how it moves or strikes to further her combat prowess.
The energy that was coursing over her weapon has vanished, no doubt discharged in the large attack she just unleahsed. The chi rushes past and through Daniel to crash against the opposite wall. But by the time the light show has dimmed, the outcome of the fight seems to be all but certain. For a moment, Ayame isn't sure. He's still standing. That's something. Will she need to attack again? One thing's for sure, she definitely has to /defend/ again.
When Daniel starts hurling parts of the metal hanging bridge at her, Ayame is on guard, bringing her staff up to knock away the flying metal objects. "Hey now," she protests as one gets through and thunks her on the shoulder. She backs up a step as Daniel keeps approaching. This attack defines wild and unpredictable, and if Daniel were able to be more precise with his aim, she probably wouldn't be able to weather it so well. "You're going to-" she warns, the walkway suddenly groaning, creaking, ready to give way. Ayame gets hit in the stomach by a bar flying too straight to even notice in the midst of the confusion, eliciting a grunt of surprise. "I see..." He doesn't care that this bridge is going down. Even in apparent defeat, he's still fighting all out. That makes him just the man for the jobs she has in mind.
In the end, Ayame springs back as the sheet of metal buckles down beneath her, landing safely on the ground to the side of the falling debris. She would be more exhausted if the fight hadn't lent itself to a few moments to catch her breath, but the heat is still sweltering. Standing up stright, she leans against her staff, clanking one end of it against the ground for support. "Whew." A few seconds of composure then she flips her staff into the air from right to left, by the time it lands back in her palm it has once again become the much shorter tube, portable and easy to slip back into the pouch on her belt. She wanders over to where her chain belt had gotten left, but the table is beneath a sizeable pile of scrap now. "Che." Well. With the prize money, she can afford to make a new one, right?
COMBATSYS: Ayame has ended the fight here.
Log created on 22:40:51 05/21/2012 by Ayame, and last modified on 16:15:30 05/24/2012.