Description: After a marathon of Godzilla movies, what better way to celebrate than with a Neo League Battle?! Sunshine City bears witness to the second clash of Takako Fujiwa and the master of the staff Billy Kane. What at first seemed to be a grudging match between Billy and Takako soon turns into a no-holds-barred slugfest between two equally determined fighters. Takako's raging spirit meets Billy's own, and both are forced to fight at the very pinnacle of their ability. When the smoke clears... is anyone really a loser? (Winner: Billy)
Billy Kane's back in America, and has no particular feeling on this subject. More preoccupied with the lack of intensely challenging opponents in Masters' paltry excuse for a fighting league, he returns with mixed disappointment and conflicting anticipation following an almost disturbingly nonchalant defeat of the mysterious warrior known as Gato; a man who's otherwise cutting a bloody swathe through the ranked fighters. Though not exactly irritated by the corresponding boost to his bank balance and 'bad boy' image, Kane is starting to crave something more challenging, a battle of equals like the one found in the former World Warrior-- even if the man seemed to be holding back from his fullest fury. Even especially that.
Which is why he's forwarded a message to his representatives; via the voluptuous media princess, naturally, that any incoming challenges be accepted without question. He doesn't even want to know who challenges him... unless it's the now-ranked number two, the ever-elusive Emperor of Muay Thai. At this point, Kane just wants a bloody fight. He's said as much. Shouted it, even, until the flustered secretary on the end of the line was forced to desperately acquiesce and assure him that his every word would be followed to the (dropped) letter.
The office's next communication sees the Syndicate enforcer travelling by Union Jack-decorated limousine to a rather... unusual event in Sunshine City. While war engages the streets and has the local - and national - news stations in uproarious dismay, life does continue on. The populace is fickle, and demands entertainment through even such terrible adversity; and thus, the more geeky audience of Sunshine has been treated to a weekend gala of Godzilla movies punctuated by special guest stars in the form of some of the world's more famous (and in famous) fighters. Billy Kane being among them, well, that encourages him to expect great things.
This only feeds into his disappointment when he steps from the limo, and is greeted by the last five minutes of awful animatronic monster combat - yeah, he's not a fan, go figure - followed by a highlight reel showing one of the emerging cult heroes of the professional fighting circuit. Headbutts and harsh wooden beatdowns flood into endless images of defeat snatched from the jaws of... well, almost inevitable defeat, as those arrayed in or on a variety of cheap motor vehicles clap and cheer, cameras flashing from all sides to capture the moment. Apparently there's room in this world for fighters of all shapes, sizes and relative ability levels...
Really, it's inevitable Takako Fujiwa would find her measure of fame.
Truth be told, she did impress the Syndicate enforcer too - five foot nothin' of tiny Japanese girl shouldn't be able to mount such a forceful battle, and she was riding high at the head of the league rankings. Enough that /he/ had to challenge /her/. But on this occasion, Billy is less than impressed, leaning back against the sleek black limo he's just now exited, tearing off his bandanna to run a hand back through his cropped blonde hair in a measure of frustration he's not experienced since... well, that day we don't talk about. There is no Land's End and there is certainly no insane blind woman called Rarglebargle.
"Oh, bloody 'ell," Groans the British punk as a spotlight shines from above the massive screen to pick him out in startling white light, drawing attention from the crowd not fixated upon their underdog heroine. Of all the events to be properly organized... "You have /got/ to be fuckin' kidding me."
Fame does not sit well with Takako. She had wanted to challenge Billy, yes, but she'd imagined that if she asked for it, it would be arranged much like their first meeting; underneath some miserable bridge somewhere, possibly in the rain, possibly far from Sunshine City. After a staggering number of fights last week, she had slowed enough to assimilate some of the lessons that she'd learned. Terry's words, in particular, had stuck with her. She needs to fight, but she needs to think, too. To figure out what she's doing and how she could do it better.
The young fighter had not been expecting this kind of reaction from the crowd. Nor had she been expecting such a crowd at all! Despite her nationality, Takako had never actually seen a Godzilla movie before, and she had not particularly liked people pointing and whispering. Really, she could not look much less comfortable. The fighting world loves its stories, though. Everyone loves an underdog, and after so many fights, so many flashes of insight that threatened to bloody even people far and away above her skill level, there are those who have proclaimed Takako Fujiwa as the next genius prodigy poised to take the fighting world by storm.
Her? A prodigy? Hardly. Nothing has come easily. She is no genius, either. Every inch she has clawed for herself has been one of blood and sweat and tears and pain. But, as she had reflected on her journey, she had realized something. When Billy had initiated the challenge, she had been preparing to go and fling herself into the most dangerous and deadly places of the world. She'd thought that she needed to stare death in the eye in order to learn to fight, and if she had continued down that road... who knows where she would be now?
She had fought Gato too; she had, in a roundabout way, faced death after all. If she had done that before she had learned what she had learned from fighting some of the best fighters in the world... it is a hard thing for the girl to admit, but she would have broken.
And now she stands here, with a crowd cheering and roaring for her, and her bokken shining bright in that flashing circle. Billy does not look happy, but she'd hardly looked happier when he had challenged her. She can't help but grin - a rarity for the serious young woman. She raises her weapon with a flourish, and straightens her back. But for all that, she is /not/ posturing to the crowd. She dislikes that they are here cheering for her now - where were they when she was eating dirt and being called a joke? These people aren't her friends, they don't know her, they only find some thrill in the fight. A fight which they are too cowardly, lazy or weak to enjoy themselves.
"Billy." She says, nodding her head to the British fighter. "You should know that I don't joke about fighting!" The tiny girl tosses her hair back, and clears her throat. "I wanted to say, thank you. And this was the only way I could think to do that." Her bokken is raised higher, and her eyes shine with anticipation - energy! "Unless you're afraid that this time, you won't win!"
Western audiences in particular love their scrappy success stories, struggles against adversity resulting in final, glorious recognition; isn't that the American Dream, after all? To forge something great, from nothing but tenacity and resolve. Away from his own irritations, Kane could grok this circumstance well enough, were he not stepping out expecting to face somebody more his own calibre... given the location, perhaps even Ken Masters himself. He loves the brightly shining spotlight, and a chance to appear sympathetic to the plight of Sunshine City by performing in their bizarre equivalent of a U.S.O. show? Alas, no.
He's against someone to whom he imparted the only lesson he believes he can offer. That she's destined to lose, that while there's no shame in fighting it - that she may grow through doing exactly that - right now, the gulf between them is insurmountably vast. That it's not worth it.
However. There's something electric in the air, for all this event is overblown and cheesy for what it is - a chance for a pack of disenchanted youths to drink and scoff popcorn while partaking of some cheap entertainment - the way that the tousled, ever-battered young girl sells it speaks volumes of her. Kane may desire a warrior's challenge, but he's also driven to sell himself as a complete package in the eyes of the adoring public; a different image, perhaps, to the one Fujiwa is presenting. But no less genuine at the heart of it. Indeed, moreso. A fundamentally honest person, the punk can appreciate that. It deserves... something.
He's not sure what, but as he straightens up, casting his bandanna behind him into the limousine rather than spend time adjusting it - symbolically stripping himself of some of the added glamour - Billy Kane decides to embrace the downpour. The spotlight's too bright to escape, and hell, it's what he wanted, isn't it? Takako's words draw a broad, endlessly cocky smirk from the Brit as he swaggers forward, slipping his arms also from the sleeves of his leather jacket. It's bundled up and flung away in the same manner as his bandanna, leaving the lean muscles of his torso bare beneath the lights. As it leaves his hands, his own weapon is revealed.
"I already beat you once, kid. I can do it a thousand times, an' you could thank me a thousand more," he replies in that Cockney drone, holding his three-section rod before him, disassembled and neatly folded in one palm. "So let's drop the bullshit. You wanna fight, plain and bloody simple, eh?" His teeth bare as the smirk flares to a lopsided grin, cruel but touched also with the blaze of adrenaline. Suddenly his extended wrist flicks, rolling to one side, a deft flicker of hard-calloused fingers sending his namesake weapon spiralling out, one section to either side, whirring dangerously before each segment locks into place. He comes to a halt then, standing amidst the unruly arena of parked cars, staring wildly at Takako over the length of his staff.
"Fighting's what I do, darlin'. Reckon these people know..." A glance goes to either side, slow and stated enough to be caught on the cameras that are naturally watching every motion. His grin spreads, and he drops low, animal ferocity in his own movements as he spins the staff, other hand coming around to drive it to a lashing whirlwind, the air super-heating almost instantly as blazing chi-fire erupts, bathing both fighters in warm glow. It stops when the weapon does, caught firm in both hands, Billy in battle stance. "You're a fighter too, Takako Fujiwa." Yeah, he remembered her name. It says a lot. "Show me 'ow you've grown!!"
And that's that, the challenge accepted. Those wild eyes burn with a weight of expectation, though. His initial reaction was no lie, no joke; if the girl can't impress him, convince the Syndicate enforcer that she's done exactly that... he may not stop at leaving her in the mud.
COMBATSYS: Billy has started a fight here.
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Billy 0/-------/------=|
Takako feels sweat bead on her forehead as Billy's flames heat the arena. He probably could beat her a thousand times! But he will not get another thank you. Perhaps Billy doesn't understand just how responsible the younger fighter holds him for the path her journey had taken; he can well brush it off if he wants. Takako isn't one to try and get her point across with words. At least part of that is because she knows where her limitations lay. She's stupid and bad with words, she can accept that. She'd all but forgotten about the League before Billy had beaten her stupid, however, and that action had started this entire journey.
"Of course I want to fight you!" She says, undeterred by the fire and the heat. "You can beat me a thousand times, but I will fight you one thousand and one times if that is what it takes!!"
The crowd roar approval, either for Billy (because who doesn't secretly love a 'bad boy'? The fact that he's going to beat down such a tiny fighter only adds to his reputation), or for Takako, who is rapidly becoming known as the League's eternal underdog. After all, if she somehow did manage to topple Billy here, tonight? Well, that would be a story they would tell their grandkids for years to come.
There's no fear in the girl, not for this. Gato had touched it, and Iran would forever send a shiver down her spine. But she does not believe for a moment that her life is in danger, and what else is there to fear? Billy could hurt her, he could thrash her, he could even make her look laughably pathetic as a fighter... but he cannot break her spirit, and if he will not kill her - as Gato very well could have done - then she will continue to fight. To grow stronger. And one day, she WILL give him the fight that he had hoped!
With a sudden bellowed shout, Takako lunges into action. Her bokken leads the way as always, driving down as though she intends to dip and strike at Billy's left foot... before she is suddenly dragging upwards. The girl's weapon brought up in a sudden flourish which necessitates a small hopping jump, to smash painfully into Billy's forehead - if, of course, everything goes according to plan.
COMBATSYS: Takako has joined the fight here.
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Billy 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Takako
COMBATSYS: Billy counters Determined Breeze from Takako with Fire Dragon Pursuit Cane.
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Billy 0/-------/---====|=======\-------\0 Takako
Even for the most confident of top-level fighters, there's always that lingering possibility, that today could be the day they fall to someone supposedly beneath them. New champions are made constantly, after all; how else could this turnabout come without one falling to their knees? Billy's tasted that bitterness before, brought crashing down by a young up-and-comer named Terry Bogard, losing the King of Fighters crown never to again come close to winning it back - and it plays on him still, nags at his thoughts even as it drives him to constantly improve in his own right. But such momentum is hard to regain, if Fujiwa were to beat him...
There's the rub, then. She desires to show her improvements, to prove herself through a rematch that will, undoubtedly, at least present to the world a new, improved Takako Fujiwa from her trials and tribulations across the planet. Two kinds of fighters enter the leagues and tournaments that make or break their name; those destined to topple when presented with the highest mountain, and those who ever fall only to stand, taking each failure as encouragement to rise further in the trying that ensues. Many would be crushed by a man like Bogard, and be dissuaded. This bokken-slinging child from Japan has taken the opposite to heart.
But conversely, Billy Kane cannot allow her to pass him at less than full strength.
The stakes - as agreed - are simply too high for either of them to relent.
"What it takes," comes the responding call from the Londoner, boots creaking beneath his weight as he shifts back and forth, meeting Takako's charge with the sense of urgent rhythm that's brought him this far. That will carry him further still. "Is a lot more than the same old tricks, kid." Her feinting downstroke is something he's sure he observed further-- may even have been caught by, the specific motions of battle are too easily lost in the passage of time. Regardless, he's seen it, and as her bokken rises, he leans back, hands sliding up the length of his namesake weapon as the crimson length is neatly interposed. Wood meets wood with a *crack*.
"Now!" His voice becomes a snarl, and he pushes forward, thrusting the tiny girl away - no taxing feat, with her feet off the ground - as he simultaneously twists into his left hip, right hand snapping against the rod to send that end section spiralling away. It's swung like a flail, cracking across the dimunitive warrior's temple hard enough to draw blood, and then he twists again, blasting her back with the separation of the opposite section. That one strikes her sternum, with brutal, crushing force. "Try that again! Less /predictable/!!"
He's wearing that shit-eating grin as he advances slowly, keeping both end-sections spinning.
Pain is temporary; honor is forever. One of a hundred platitudes that her father had tried to drum into her head, but one of the ones that she has actually succeded in taking to heart. It sees her through, now, as Billy splits her skull with his staff in that one, brutally punishing blow. Thankfully, Takako's head is made of stern stuff; it isn't nearly as bad as it looks. He hasn't shattered bone or caused any real, lasting injury. He has succeeded in tearing her skin, though, and it certainly looks painful. It breaks her forwards rush, and she wobbles back under the final impact, before taking up her stance again.
"Don't tell me how to fight you!" She shouts, angrily. "I'm not even knocked down yet!"
Fury is a strong emotion, and whilst Takako has ... mellowed just a little bit, regarding how seriously fighters such as Billy seem to take her, she still draws on that wellspring of indignation. Her memory for her fights is very good, and if Billy wants to see something that he hasn't seen before... then she will do her level best to take him by surprise and buy the opening she needs to hit him.
Tearing forwards again, the girl lunges upwards, bokken swung around and to the side... where it is intended to completely miss the staff fighter. The strike goes far to the right, because Takako's actual aim is to grab Billy firmly by the back of the head with her free left hand, and meet his eye for a fraction of a second.
"GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!"
Before she SLAMS her injured forehead into his with all the force that she can muster, completely disregarding the bokken-based combat she had shown him in their first fight... to instead simply SMASH her face into his with astounding force.
True, she doesn't care for Billy's attitude - even if he has earned it, it is mocking and condescending in the worst way - but she is still taking it to heart. If she's going to win this fight, she needs to hit him in ways his skill will not have him prepared for; to strike from unexpected angles and demonstrate that she, too, can find him 'predictable'.
Whether or not she is actually capable of doing that, let alone following through with the skill and strength necessary to down him if she CAN take him by surprise... well. That's what she's here to find out.
COMBATSYS: Billy fails to interrupt Kami's Roar EX from Takako with Fierce Strike.
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Billy 0/-------/--=====|=======\-------\0 Takako
Honour isn't a concept that Billy Kane particularly holds with. He may not be as entirely unrelenting and merciless as many of his allies and colleagues over the years, but the Syndicate enforcer is still exactly that; and as the foremost bodyguard and consequential representative for a man like Geese Howard, his role in life would demand a certain lack of both compassion and respect even were it in his nature to begin with. But he's a born survivor, gritty and hardened, what pride he has to be found only in the ferocity of combat. The pride of a predator by design and necessity-- and no more than that. Honour is for the weak-willed.
The Londoner watches Fujiwa as he advances upon her, towering and seemingly unbeatable, rod-sections sweeping through a dangerous dance. He's scolded her predictably, and her indignation is reasonable - as fighters of her level go, she's actually surprisingly difficult to see coming. There was a strong element of risk in Kane's first defence and he knows it; not that he'd show her, or the cameras, that such a thing were true.
On this occasion, he doesn't need to. He simply cuts it too fine. Her kiai is ringing in his ears by the time he begins to react, already missing with a nunchaku sweep courtesy of Takako's own evasive rushdown. She comes on fast, so much that she's inside his guard, meeting that grin face-to-face before it has time to fade. And then it doesn't; if anything it grows, as Kane wordlessly growls and drives his own forehead forward, tightly-cropped blonde hair waving in the gathered winds. It would be singularly brutal return headbutt, but Billy hasn't spent the endless hours practicing this manouevre that Takako has. On this occasion...
She's simply better at what they're both doing. Which means she's both risen to the challenge.
"Hah! Good!!"
And overcome it.
Kane staggers back with the force of the strike, beaten to the figurative punch and literal butt, a line of blood exploding from one nostril as the bridge of his nose crunches inward for approximately the five thousand and twenty first time in two decades of streetfighting. It doesn't impede Billy's speech, though, and neither does it seem to faze him on an emotional level. He asked and he received-- he may be an insulting, nasty piece of work only mitigated by the enthusiasm with which he approaches his dangerously-charismatic art, but Billy is capable of giving credit where it's due. Though that's got nothing to do with a concept like 'honour'.
Snapping the staff out to its full form beside him, leaving his bare torso wide open, he wipes the free hand across his mouth and nose, throwing away the lick of blood and snot this leaves behind. Careless, he sniffs and straightens up, using the dirtied hand to beckon Takako forward.
"But I'm not down yet, either. No more tips, Fujiwa. Bring it."
These are the moments that Takako lives for. Her heart is pounding, her willpower tested to the absolute limit - because what had just happened, could very easily have gone the other way, and she knows it. There is just something absolutely thrilling about fighting someone so much stronger than she is. Perhaps that is why Billy is annoyed; he isn't the one having to squeeze for every inch, and buying those minor moments of triumph in blood.
The girl's bokken is raised fiercely as she lands, springing from the point of impact from her sandal with the ground. There's no pause with her, and she's raising her bokken high overhead - she's gone for two feints already, the obvious conclusion would be that she'd go for another, but, that conclusion would be mistaken.
"KIYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
The bellowed kiai is something of a distraction from the usual fighting banter. She's pouring herself into the fight in a way she has rarely done before. Billy had wanted to see her best, and she is determined to show him! As she actually closes, the shout turns into a strained grunt through gritted teeth, and she spins as she comes in.
One vicious overhead smash leads almost immediately into a second, and then a third. Billy's staff is a powerful guard, and there is not a shred of subtly or misdirection in the attack. She's trying to stave in his head, and she's going to try to simply batter through any attempt to guard or mislead the crushing strike. Her teeth are grinding together so tight she can taste blood, chewing into the side of her own face to give herself the edge, the painful sensation to draw on and cut sharply through the fog still ringing from Billy's opening strike.
'Predictable' is a word which can, honestly, be applied to Takako. But only in the loosest of senses. When fighting her, it is a safe bet that she will unleash herself in volley after volley of determined, stunning blows, ploughing through and undeterred by any attacks or guards her enemy might place in her way... the only thing that ever changes in this strategy, across all of her fights, is the exact manner in which she chooses to pursue it.
COMBATSYS: Billy fails to interrupt Violent Hurricane from Takako with Red Lotus Requiem.
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Billy 0/-------/---====|=======\-------\0 Takako
It's a thrill her opponent knows. Billy Kane was one of nature's underdogs, too, before he found himself abruptly hauled from the gutter and springboarded to the other side of that shark-filled pool. Being broken and bloodied night after interminable, painful night on the unforgiving streets of his home was an experience at once enraging and enlightening, precisely for the same reason it is for Takako; he's not a quitter, but the very opposite. Driven to succeed at all costs, against all forms of adversity, the Londoner's cocky swagger only conceals how very alike he and Fujiwa once were. At their core, still are.
For a moment during her next approach, he gains a sudden flash of that same feeling, an echo of what rages through her spirit - it's hard to avoid, so wound in her motions and that bellow. The crowd feels it and responds in kind, reaching a booming fever pitch as Kane raises his staff and steps forward, holding it still beside him in a single hand, quite willing to accept the first of Takako's driving bokken strikes. But only the first is /allowed/ through; cleaving a bright red line down his rippling chest, the Londoner forced to grit his teeth against it then, because even as he goes for the blazing, punishing follow-through...
She's a step ahead again. This time he doesn't cry out or bark condescending encouragement, because he's carried into the momentum she's gathered, blasted time and again beneath the punishment /she/ intends. Predictability sometimes serves well-- a headlong rush can be so fast, so furious, that it cannot be denied even when every logical, tactical assessment will scream that it's too obvious. Even too slow. A strange, illusionary line that a warrior like Takako walks, ever on the precipice between success and failure.
The main difference between them, is Billy never banks on that. He always has a plan.
Here and now, it fails him, and fails hard. By the time he's spat from the other side, he's tumbling through the air, back bent and battered by the assault. Welts rise on his torso, and a trickle of blood now runs from both nostrils. His expression is pulled to a pained glower as he strikes the concrete and rebounds, spinning end over end, barely tucking his limbs in enough to avoid further injury - as well as maintaining a grip on his weapon. He's the first to be knocked down... and if the audience were wild before, now it's dizzying.
"FU-JI-WA! FU-JI-WA! FU-JI-WA!"
Their chant thrums in the Londoner's ears as he pulls himself aright, averting the scattered roll into a crouch then a low, arched stance as he heaves in breath after gathering breath. Wild eyes stare across the makeshift arena, alighting upon Takako at the same time as the stunning spotlights. It's a moment that seems like a victory, and one Billy would normally be seeking to seize upon in his own moment of failure. He'd be enraged, or brutally, insidiously cold, seeking to capitalize and get beneath the opponent's skin. But... no. Instead, he brings a calloused hand clapping down hard upon his thigh, joining the applause as something quite alien appears on his lips; not a smirk, or a grin, but an honest to Geese /smile/. She may well be the first to earn it.
Takako is buoyed by her success. There are a lot of people who would choose this moment to gloat, to come up with some snappy one-liner or otherwise make themselves feel big at their opponent's misfortune. Billy might be one of them, even. But Takako is not. Even as Billy is hitting the concrete, she is surging onwards, sandals clacking hard and sharp against the ground to keep the pressure on.
When she is crushed, it is exhilarating, driving her onwards to better herself and perform as well as she can. When she is winning (and this certainly feels like that), it is electric; as though she is reaching forwards to take and seize her potential, to be everything that she can be. Yes, Takako sometimes gets infuriated in a fight... but only ever when she feels like she's being toyed with (and thus, dishonored by her opponent) or when she feels like she is messing up and failing to perform to her own exacting standards.
And yet, for all that focus... the crowd slow her down easier and quicker than anything Billy could have done.
Simply put, she doesn't /understand/ why they are chanting her name. He can still stand, he can still fight, she still hasn't won. It is the first time that a crowd has ever cheered for her, and it is baffling. For just a second in her headlong rush, she slows, and stops. Confusion evident on her face.
"... Idiots." She mutters, shaking her head, before she takes up a firmer grip on the bokken. "Do they really think this is over already?!"
Completely failing to grasp the crowd's excitement, the warrior hurls herself back at Billy, and as she closes, she braces her left hand firmly against the back of the wooden 'blade'. It is a rough strike, as she throws her full weight into it, aiming to smash the bokken down and use the added force to push back. Now that she's managed to thoroughly put Billy on the back foot... she /knows/ that she has to keep the pressure up if she has any hope of carrying it through to the end.
Ironically, the crowd, in their fevered support of the young fighter... have almost certainly given Billy all the time he needs to collect himself again.
COMBATSYS: Takako successfully hits Billy with Power Strike.
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Billy 0/-------/--<<<<<|=======\-------\0 Takako
It doesn't take long. Even as he applauds the young warrior's efforts, Billy Kane hasn't lost any sense of preparation; he comes ready to fight at every turn, and loses it only when forced to a knee. A natural born fighter in every sense, the British punk doesn't need to look ready to be it. Beneath the buoying yells of the jubilant crowd, baying for the girl who's become a figure of near-legend at such a young age - and without a single officially-denoted victory to her name - her opponent simply waits. Unlike Takako, he understands what's happening, the factor of momentum a crucial one in these bouts. It's what makes the professional circuit so unusual, compared to training sessions in dojos and even impromtpu battles upon the street...
Here, it's not just the mighty of arm who rule. It's the mighty of spirit, and the largest personalities.
Doubtless this contributes to the psychological failure of Kane, as he lets the smile linger upon his lips too long, the staff cast at his side coming into play far too late to make a difference to her charge. She's there before him with a ferocity belied by her stature in more than a single, physical sense; and her bokken is there fractionally later, that weight of pressure and wood driving Billy back as desired. It leaves another welt across his chest, and even derives a sudden snarl from the previously appreciative Londoner.
"/Enough/." His thick Cockney is brusque and severe, harshly enunciated as he throws himself forward against the pain, that very back foot bracing to propel him back into action. The foremost takes his full body weight as he extends over the striking length of Takako's bokken to catch her at the point of over-extension. He's holding absolutely nothing back - but then, he hasn't at any point, so far - launching the crimson length of his own weapon through calloused fingertips until it extends for a breathtaking impact with the tender space between ribs and gut, up toward the lungs. "You've fought well, Fujiwa, but this is as far as you go!!"
Bringing his other hand across, Kane steps in and lifts her full weight upon the staff's end, hoisting her aloft and then uttering a guttural roar as he twists his body and brings her slamming down upon the other side-- directly upon the polished boot of his limousine. Even her small form, so heavily brought down, is enough to smash a vast dent into the expensive vehicle, the engine hissing black smoke as it's partially crushed. Ripping his weapon away, spinning it about his body as he sinks back into his customary, carefree stance, Billy adds:
"...for now."
COMBATSYS: Billy successfully hits Takako with Fishhook Throw.
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Billy 0/-------/-======|>>>>>>>\>>>>>>>\2 Takako
The crowd cry out louder than Takako does, as the impact shudders through her. There's not much breath in her in that instant, though, so this alone is not surprising. The crush of metal underneath her and the screaming protest of her body blur into one. If the smashing strike she had taken in the very first exchange of the fight had rattled her, this is staggering. She hadn't attempted to mitigate the damage; only to be ready to strike again after it is passed. But there's no way she can stay focused through that.
Being thrown and pinned... something that has never failed to spell her doom, no matter how much she has tried to train herself to be prepared for it.
As the weapon is drawn back, there is a second where it seems like Takako is going to acquiesce. Only a fool would get up again after being used to demolish a car. But... no. Lax fingers grip tight around the wood of her sword again, and she presses one sandal-clad foot flush to the crumpled metal beneath.
"You, don't get, to decide that!"
With a terrifying roar, Takako hurls herself at Billy. The air around the girl seems almost to rip itself apart with her, as she forces her rudimentary knowledge of chi into overdrive. For Billy, summoning flames seems almost trivial; but from the naked exertion on her face, it is clear that this is the best she has; everything put back into the offensive. To defy the odds, to bring Billy down... maybe she can't aim for victory! Maybe she won't defeat him, but she will be damned if she will let herself stop before at least trying to drag him down with her!
"GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!"
The scream is echoed on the tearing winds as they coalesce, and the girl transmutes from a lunging warrior, into a bladed gale. The sword lashes around swiftly, seven quick slashes in all, delivered in just a single second, with the sharp winds of energy ripping in line with each one, filling the space around the fighters with the expression of her power!
Whether the assault is successful or not, Takako herself is not standing firm afterwards; should she complete the motions she'll still sink to one knee, sweating from the exertion, and numb from the pain she's inflicted on herself, from her resolute refusal to stay down when it is really in her best interests to do just that.
COMBATSYS: Billy fails to counter Kusanagi of Dreams from Takako with Ifrit Crisis+.
- Power fail! -
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Billy 0/-------/-----<<|===----\-------\0 Takako
No. He doesn't.
Takako is a testament to everything that's been inferred from this second meeting already; that strength is found in ways beyond the mere statistical advantage one has, beyond physical power or the refinement of technique, beyond experience and the growth of a warrior's skillset over many years. A fighter is made by the force of their willpower and their willingness and drive to succeed-- failure, for one who can so master their spirit and force themselves to greater heights through effort alone, comes mostly through misfortune. For those of greater attributes, the rightly feared and presumed 'overdogs' of the world... it comes through miscalculation, and an inability to correctly discern the drive of an opponent. Sometimes, wills collide...
Others, one is like the cliff facing a crashing wave.
Billy Kane has an answer to Takako's fearsome charge, of course. How could he not? To a fighter at his level, the approach is slower than so many he's more used to - this is a man who spars with one arguably among the top two or three in the world, whose own skills can bring that man to his knees in defeat. The Londoner's staff intersects the point at which the bokken should strike, his forearm drawing up to lead above it, easily able to shift the weapon until it reaches the perfect position to form a literal counter. Such a defensive motion, so well-executed, is perfect-- it wouldn't give Kane much pause, emotionally or physically, to lead into the brutal assault that follows, accompanied by the very savage flame that begins to flicker around his form. It's an answer so many 'better' warriors have fallen prey to, left burning and devastated upon the battlefield.
But Takako gets beyond it, drawing deep and driving deeper. The screaming windshear about her swinging bokken, the chi subtly lacing the tremors of her vocal chords and empowering each slashing wave of the attack that ensues... everything is perfect, for an instant, as though she stood among the titans herself. Because for that short time she does, and as waves of force crash back against the audience, throwing men and women from their perch atop parked vehicles, scattering food and beverages in the air, even threatening - for several seconds afterward - to topple the massed bulk of the cinema screen behind them, she IS one of those titans. Takako's sweat and blood is rewarded, and as she is forced to take a knee by her own, unstoppable drive...
Billy Kane can't even do that much. He ends upon both knees and one extended arm, sucking in shallow breaths through a body aflame. Dissipating energy prickles in the air around him, settling in motes upon the ground around, and across his shoulders burns still the failed summoning of his own, countering energies, tiny candle flames wisping into the air before they fade entirely. Slowly, desperately, he closes a hard grip upon the concrete and then forces himself upright, teeth gritted and weapon trailing beside him, one end slumped to the ground in an illustration of the pain and exhaustion /he/ feels. And this time, he's showing it.
"Is that..." He speaks in a croak, forced to clear his throat and toss his head, pridefully staring Takako down with those wild eyes, daring her to stand as he is, daring her to keep fighting. "IS THAT IT?!" His bellow is hard and harsh, wrenched from a throat that's now as hot with desire as Takako's own, a stamp of one booted foot sending up a cloud of gritty dust as the lot shatters beneath the impact. "/COME ON/."
Hauling his staff up with what seems a Herculean effort, Billy sinks into his stance, one last time.
Breath sears from his lungs, and his heart is pounding now, like hers. Only one of them will stand after this.
Takako is standing tall. Already, she's done far more than any sane or rational person could have guessed. She is not the image of a noble or heroic figure in this, though. Even now, in her brightest moment to date, she does NOT make it look easy. She is caked in the dirt and debris thrown up from this conflict, streaked with blood... and Billy just refuses to stay down. The parallels have been drawn before, but they have never been as clear as they are now. Billy Kane is a man whose obstinate refusal to bow down has driven him to his position in life now. Every scrap as determined as Takako... he just hasn't had anything to be determined /about/ in their clash, until now.
To fight and overcome! To seek the limits of her self! Billy wants to know if that is it? NO! It is never 'it'! There will always be more!
"I'M NOT FINISHED YET!" The girl roars, and she is on her feet again. The tearing winds had only just dissipated, but they are summoned up again. Ripping about her in a terrifying cyclone. Before, the winds had been a supplement to her swordsplay; a definitely potent one which had made the entire thing... the ultimate expression of her style. But now, drenched in sweat, her heart pounding so loud in her ears it almost drowns out the whooping and baying of the crowd around the pair, she just screams her defiance.
And the world answers.
It is unfocused, raw, tearing wind. Cycling around her and Billy as though her rage and determination alone can force him back down; can break that intimidating stance and finish things. Her own stance is sloppy; her feet too far apart, bokken dangling too low as she struggles against her straining body to stay upright, and to channel this power.
"KIYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!"
COMBATSYS: Billy dodges Takako's Explosive Tornado.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////// ]
Billy 0/-------/-----<<|=------\-------\0 Takako
"Too bloody right you're not!" Counters Kane in a fierce snarl as Takako throws herself back into the storm of her own unbreakable spirit, grasping his staff until his knuckles whiten and begin to throb painfully. It's a reminder of who he is, this battle - unlike any he's had in recent memory barring with the World Warrior. Geese drove him to present his very best, most flawless technique and blistering power on live television, but that manner of conflict is different to this. Even with the Hungry Wolf veering between them, looming over proceedings as only he inimitably can, Billy was never pushed to this raw, bloody-minded determination.
But now he is, and that's all it takes; when Takako screams on the world to aid her, the energies inherent in air and earth exploding to being with such palpable force that Kane feels the hairs upon the back of his neck rise... he's beyond equal to it now, no longer on the back foot, no longer outmatched by a girl who has no business pushing him to this point. Takako's time will assuredly come, but it's not quite there yet-- much like the Londoner when her winds blast through his former location. He's simply gone. Not there, until...
"You ain't finished--!!" Teeth grinding, he flips overhead, muscles rippling in his bare, battered torso as powerful legs straighten vertically. The girl's punishing windshear sets cropped blonde hair to streaming in its backdraft, as Kane fights against it and her, powering one arm toward the ground. His tricep visibly thrums with the extension of that crimson rod, which reaches to its limit and then parts into all three sections with a sinister *snap*, the bottom two lancing forth as the weapon reaches out like the finger of an angry god.
"UNTIL /I SAY YOU ARE/!!" Roaring his own retort to the tiny Japanese girl's fearsome kiai, Kane sets his own energies to instantaneous, terrible motion. Flames roar down his arm to meet crimson wood, fierce enough that the lacquer should peel and the weapon should disintegrate with their power. Streaming in a triple-helix down his namesake, they only gain in power as they leap toward the point of impact sought by the extending tip-- and this point should be obvious, for it's the one place that Takako believes cannot be broken. Her most trained, honed element; her brutally powerful skull. Seeking to undo this in the blaze of hell's fury, Kane pushes all that he can into the lashing blaze, flames intensifying even as the strike is delivered.
What results is an explosion that sends vehicles tumbling end-over-end, one small hatchback lifted from the ground to tear a gigantic hole through the cinema screen overlooking this unbelievable battle. People scream past the cheers, barely avoiding severe injury as they scramble for safety. Billy cares only about eliminating this opponent, this /threat/, still screaming as his hellfires dissipate, and he flips back to earth, landing in a pounding impact crater as the staff snaps back into formation, still leaking flame every which way.
"BUUUURRRRRRRRRN!!!"
He ends up gasping past the cry, chest heaving as a hand leaves his weapon to brace against shattered concrete. It's a struggle to remain as upright as he is, his body close to spent just from stamping out this undeniable cockroach, the tenacious Japanese brawler having showed him all he asked for, and more. As he stares through the remaining smoulder, he can only assume - under the circumstance - she may rise again...
And at this point, he's not even sure he's ready for that.
COMBATSYS: Takako Toughs Out Billy's Blazing Cane Thrust EX!
! VENGEANCE !
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ]
Billy 0/-------/-<<<<<<|=======\===----\1 Takako
The flames that Billy had summoned at the start of this match had made Takako flinch. Now, though, there isn't anything but grim determination set in the lines of her face. She /doesn't/ manage to track Billy throughout his dodge. She /can't/ track fighters at that level of insane skill yet. So instead she focuses on what she can do; ready herself.
The tip of the staff finds her forehead, and in the same moment, her eyes snap open... THERE! The detonation rocks the surrounding area and unleashes hell upon the crowd in an almost literal sense. Terrified screams and running people... Billy has played to his 'bad boy' image pretty fantastically, even if bringing the little girl down has hardly proven to be as mindlessly easy as he had feared it would be when he arrived.
Takako is left in the middle of a cloud of smoke, but, more important to her are two things. The first is that she knows where her target is - at least, for the next fraction of a second. The second is that she has stayed firm. She refused to be moved by Billy's fury, and now, she is ready to strike back in return.
The wind picks up, starting to dissipate the cloud...
And then she is emerging from it, all desperate fury and refusal to bow to his demand. The girl trails whisps of smoke, her hair and clothes on fire, every inch the screaming demon. Billy had feared that she would mount one last attack, and she is! The girl has never managed to channel her power for three consecutive moves before - using it just once is an astounding drain for her, but, somehow, she finds that reserve now. Determined beyond all else that she will force the warrior to collapse with her.
The wind is concentrated, this time. No unfocused mass, but a razor-sharp edge coating the blade of her bokken, turning the wooden weapon into as deadly a weapon as any. In sharp contrast to just a few seconds before, the blade is gripped tight with both hands, focusing with all she has to force it into the shape she desires.
And with her last steps, she suddenly puts on a burst of speed greater still. Aiming to draw the sword once, horizontally, across Billy's stomach...
For a second, it would all hang in the balance as - to the audience at home - she seems to just reappear behind him. It may even take a heartbeat for reality to catch up with the fact that Billy has been cut - if he has.
And then she will finally fall. Knees hit the ground first, then face. Eyes, closed. Bokken finally dropped at her side.
COMBATSYS: Takako can no longer fight.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Billy 0/-------/-<<<<<<|
COMBATSYS: Billy counters Raijin's Strike from Takako with Water Dragon Pursuit Cane.
- Power hit! -
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Billy 0/-------/<<<<<<<|
From a desperate bundle of rags and flagging spirit slopping through the mud in search of a few lucky hits, Takako Fujiwa has developed in the matter of a few short weeks to a warrior in the truest sense-- pushing to the very limit of her physical skills without going beyond them, without breaking herself into pieces senselessly, she uses everything she is able, cutting to the quick but no further. Bloodied and beaten, she persists, and though Billy may be expectant of one final charge from this tenacious little beast...
Seeing it in action still steals the breath. Like so many before her risen from the ditch to the stars, she has in her possession an unflagging, unailing sense of self-worth that's almost palpable. Most would be slowed to almost laughable speed by Billy's final, devastating assault - destruction reigns even in the places he didn't directly strike - but she barely seems to miss a step. It's only unfortunate that, at this level, even the barest flicker of hesitation or the slightest dawning weariness is enough. A difference between the victor and the vanquished, found on that very line Takako treads.
With one hand clapped before him and body failing to respond with its usual immediacy, Kane is hard pushed to mount a defensive counter to this last bull's rush. But Takako isn't the only warrior here who has found their innermost resolve; they are, after all, two sides of the same coin. During that second; not even truly a second, where the scales look set to topple, time stands still for all but a single person. Billy has been here a hundred, thousand times, seen himself broken and broken in turn by that decisive instant. He's a blur...
And then Takako is standing behind him, her chi-drenched bokken extended for the final cut.
Kane stands too, his staff held before him crosswise, bearing a single, smoking mark where the blow was caught.
"You're finished."
His words are not thick with contempt, but cool with the descending weariness, even laced with a hint of heavy, fully-intended respect in the beat before he shifts his frame, rolling into the right hip and entering a single, athletic pirouette. His body actually leaves the ground as he turns, a swaying hop sending one section of his weapon lashing into a wild overhead spin, the flailing tip catching Takako as her knees begin to give, plowing hard into the temple he didn't strike earlier, raising a matching bruise... and speeding her collision with the broken, cracked concrete below. As the bokken falls with a clatter, the staff snaps back into place.
And Billy lowers his guard, a long breath rushing from his lungs. The battle's heat still rages, but the confusion of the crowd is the only sound that remains beside the breathing of both fighters. His own knees tremble, body aquiver with the pulse of adrenaline and the pain of his injuries. In all likelihood he could go another ten rounds with a fighter supposedly on Takako's level; he could beat a few of them, even, but if Fujiwa were able to stand again there's no way he could rise to her second challenge. This... this was close.
Last time, Kane said nothing because Takako had said it all. This time he says nothing more because to do so would be an insult to all that she's accomplished, to the girl who's walked through the wilds of Korea, and travelled the globe to become a warrior. Billy merely bows his head, eyes closing for a few moments as for the first time in recorded memory he actually /honours/ an opponent, tuning out the crowd and letting absolute calm settle upon him as he pays homage to the fallen girl. The fallen warrior.
Through the smoke and the fading chi, even the cameras fail to capture it. Only he knows.
And he's gone a moment later, striding through the chaos and ruin as quickly as he can. He doesn't need to be there when Takako wakes up.
COMBATSYS: Billy has ended the fight here.
Log created on 09:57:14 07/07/2012 by Takako, and last modified on 10:10:16 07/08/2012.