Description: A NEW CHALLENGER APPEARS?! Takako's indefatigable spirit has attracted the attention of her first challenger in the Neo League. She has also attracted the eye of Geese Howard himself. In stunning surroundings, the young woman clashes with the master of countless styles. Not only do their spirits clash, but Takako is forced to pause and consider her path - her approach and her philosophy. She also gets a crash course in swimming.
No fighter has been as busy as Takako Fujiwa, this season in the league; losing, over and over and over and over again. This in and of itself isn't particularly notable: any number of fighters can't really cut it in global competition, and have struck out repeatedly often to career-ending injury or humiliation over the years. No, what's notable about the diminutive swordswoman is that her failing strides have all come seeking to surpass some.. very, very notable names. There are household favorites, notable hurdles that have stopped other newcomers dead like Howard Rust, Adon, and the Amazing Aranha-man... gathering storms of immense potential like Gato and Asuka Kazama... true titans of the fighting world like Terry Bogard. Twice. Billy Kane. Twice.
If there's one thing that Geese Howard is /certain/ of, it's that this ridiculous girl has absolutely no fear, or at least a stubborn unwillingness to display any sort of survival instinct at all. It's possible the sardonic Mr. Howard overstates his point a bit, but the end result is the same: Geese's people, some of whom are now Ken's people, get with Ken's people, some of whom are now Geese's people, to orchestrate a very specific set of League conditions, and issue a posh challenge to Ms. Fujiwa.
This challenge, and an accompanying prize check, finds here wherever she may be courtesy of a tall man in a formal black uniform driving a brand new black Mercedes who does in fact look to be very very legitimate. This car would take Takako to a nearby helipad, where a similarly sleek and modern looking black helicopter waits, engine already powering up, to whisk her off past the coastline and over seas glimmering brilliantly in the afternoon sun.
The pilot turns out to be a tan-skinned Spaniard with impeccably white teeth and an evenly friendly demeanor, "Great day to fly, Ms. Fujiwa!" he offers up over the headset she'd be given upon coming aboard. It's also a perfect day to work on one's tan, or to ride a private chopper to one of the world's largest superyachts, the luxurious behemoth barely moving as it leisurely cuts a course through deep ocean, far from any visible land.
Towards the aft an elevated deck midway up the yacht's superstructure supports an extended helipad, and it's there that Takako's pilot sets the craft down. There are scattered people visible along the hundreds of feet of multiple decks full of entertaining distractions, a bald man and numerous women sunning themselves out towards the bow, for instance, but for the most part the dark-haired suited man who meets Takako at the pad is her only company on the path inside the decadently appointed ship, leading her towards an interior elevator.
"Mr. Howard's curious about your progress, and you seemed like the sort who'd appreciate a fight." is about all she's going to get out of Hopper, however. He does helpfully press the 'call' button once they reach that central corridor, however, and tell her, "Top deck."
Takako has an interesting relationship with fear. It is something she's struggled with a great deal, trying to integrate her experience with her father's lessons. Fujiwa style kendo is founded on the precept that a true warrior barrels into combat without any regard for their own safety; overcoming all obstacles through the weakness and hesitation of those who care about mortal injury.
It sure is a mystery why this style now has precisely one practitioner.
On the other hand, Takako has learned - mostly through fighting Gato and people with similar killing intent - that she DOES know fear. That she does not want to die. But she has also learned that mere pain? That is something that can be overcome through stubborn willpower. Terry had offered insight into how she might move past that. How she could learn and grow. Whilst Takako Fujiwa has yet to score a single victory... she has, perhaps, gathered more from each loss than many fighters learn in their entire lifetime.
Prize money doesn't really interest her either. She's had her three grains of rice for the day, and she's certain her mother would let her know if she needed more than the money she has been sending back. But Takako... has also never been challenged before. She has always been the one doing the challenging. That alone is enough to attract her attention, and the serious girl with her bokken had allowed herself to be pulled away to... an incredible yacht.
The sheer scale of it alone is breathtaking. It has to be at least ten times larger than her home! Probably more! Money does not, on its own, impress Takako very much... but the realization that whoever's attention she has gained, has such immense sway in the wider world? That is breathtaking. Much like the realization that... there are people in the world who now consider her worthy of support. The crowd chanting her name...
It is all a bit much for a straightforward (and frankly none-too-bright) girl like Takako. Better, then, to focus on what she does know. "Thank you." She says, polite as she can. "I hope I will not disappoint him."
Internally... she can't quite believe that she'd have attracted the attention of Geese Howard. Is this Howard Rust's boat? Kyokugen Karate must have very deep pockets indeed...
The girl's bokken is slung across her back, lovingly polished to a brilliant shine during the journey, now, she just has to let the elevator take her to the top deck. Amazing.
The top of the elevator ride opens out onto the apex of the ship's central tower. Four reinforced, sleek corners form flowingly contoured pillars that support retracting floor to ceiling windows around the fore-facing sides of the expansive, symmetrical summit. The sea dominates all horizons, sun's rays not yet low enough to cast directly under the shadow offered by the still-closed roof. The wall-to-wall panes are all withdrawn, however, no railing or barrier seperating one from the whipping winds, or a dive out and (ideally) clear of the yacht's decks and hull below.
Most of the Golden Geese's forward-stretching expanse is visible in part or in full, a swell to the center of her form telling tale of ample space below, while the very fore is dominated by a currently mostly abandoned, impressive pool area. While it's easy to write such overstated luxury off as a useless expense, such settings are tools in and of themselves, part and parcel to the sort of impression Geese Howard prefers to leave, the image he seeks to sell. It wouldn't be the first time his brand would be bestselling, after all.
Geese waits in white dogi and black-accented, crimson hakama, his feet wrapped tightly and covered in flexible zori, his forearms and the backs of his hands covered by fine bracers in blood-red crimson, golden dragons circling them in artfully etched patterns. He stands at the edge of the precipice, looking out to the ship's starboard side, one hand resting on the farthest forward support towards that edge. His gaze is out over the ocean, the ship's engine sounding a low, rumbling chant full of bass as the wake picks up with the vessel's speed.
Geese sways only slightly, turning his head halfway to regard Takako a few moments after the elevator has arrived, "Ah, good." Yes, Geese knows who she is: the diminutive girl put up a hell of a show against his own personal bodyguard and closest confidant. It's impressive, particularly for the League's most enthusiastic loser. There's a bit of a smirk on the Syndicate overlord's features as he turns more fully, facing the swordswoman as icy blue eyes size her up, as if he could see far more than her diminutive frame might suggest.. for good or ill.
"I've grown curious, Ms. Fujiwa, whether you are discovering the secrets to the universe as you fall, or simply hitting your head. Repeatedly." Geese may or may not have actually heard conflicting reports, but assessing the situation personally is his agenda, laid out frankly in this instance, "So indulge me, girl - or show me, if you think you can - what have you learned tumbling down climbs that are too steep for you. What secrets have been imparted to your style, and your future?"
It's easy to take the words as derisive, it's likely a bit of condescension is quite in line with the icy blonde's own intents, for that matter; but he wouldn't waste his time if he were not curious. Does the girl have perspective, or enough concussions to be senile at sixteen? He'd like to know.
COMBATSYS: Geese has started a fight here on the right meter side. You cannot escape wrong death.
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|=------\-------\0 Geese
Nobody can take as many blows to the skull as Takako and not be at least a little bit rattled. Billy had come pretty close to cracking her head open himself! But, he hadn't managed it, and like every other cut and bruise, it fades with time. Quicker than most people would consider plausible, really. But even if Takako's fighting talent is lacking compared to the world's greatest... her willpower is impressive all on its own, and more than enough to propel her into combat. Time and time and time again.
When she sees that it is, in fact, Geese Howard, the fact that she hesitates may just show that she is not, in fact, a complete lunatic. She's got no quarrel with him, herself. She's heard the rumors of course; everybody has, especially in Japan. But... rumors are nore exactly hard to come by in the world of fighting, and she doesn't see how anything of it could be particularly relevant to herself.
"I... would never claim that I have discovered any secrets of the universe, Sir." The young girl says, as she walks out onto the deck, to stand in front of him. Her bokken is slung from her back, and hefted as she takes the weight of it, settles her feet apart. "But I have definitely hit my head, repeatedly." The whole scenario is like something out of a dream. A lavish boat and one of the finest martial artists ever to have lived asking her to show him her moves? Oh, she's scared. But it is the nervous fear of excitement, rather than the gut-wrenching terror of death.
"I will try to show you my best." She says, evenly. "I just ask that you do the same."
And without any more hesitation, her sandals beat out a staccato rhythm on the expensive deck of the yacht. Tearing across the distance between herself and Geese with all the speed her diminutive form can muster. The bokken is just a practice sword - a particularly nice wooden weapon, to be sure, but a practice one nonetheless - but she wields it as though it were a true katana. Coming forwards with all the impaling ferocity that one might expect if she were trying to run Geese through...
Only to suddenly veer upwards at the last second, turning into a high-turning slash, coupled with a leap upwards to spin her on the spot as she tries to drag the blade up and aross Geese's chest and face. A simple feint as she opens, and hurls herself into the fight with just as much enthusiasm as she had against every other, regardless of their position in the fighting world at large.
COMBATSYS: Takako has joined the fight here.
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Takako 0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0 Geese
COMBATSYS: Geese fails to counter Raging Tornado from Takako with Joudan Atemi Nage.
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Takako 0/-------/-------|==-----\-------\0 Geese
"Be careful what you ask for, reach can very easily exceed grasp in this world." Geese notes darkly, shifting only subtly as Takako prepares herself, charges ready into the fray with surprising humility, and unsurprising reckless speed. In the end, it tells the shadowy kingpin little of what he brought Fujiwa here to discover, reveals nothing of the style to which she is the sole heir. Geese is, after all, something of a collector of secrets; all manner of them prove of interest to the Syndicate puppetmaster. As do all manner of people.
Humility, however, is not a quality that Geese Howard has a use for, past a certain point - the reckless, yet insightful speed, on the other hand... that catches him instants before he can lock her bokken under his own arm and do god knows what to her at the precipice of that drop into the frothing ocean, and Geese is driven back a staggered step by that swift stroke, his footing paced evenly and intuitively along the very edge of the platform as he rotates back to right himself, grunting grudging assent.
So far, he'll only give the girl lucky and overzealous, "There has to be something." Geese pushes, simply but firmly. There's disbelief in those penetrating, icy eyes as they remain on her, "You're going to need to learn those lessons, discover those secrets, sooner or later.. or all you're going to discover about your risk is failure."
Strong words for a man who just got thwacked soundly with a bokken. Geese does sound certain, however, his voice cool and steady in the warm sea breeze that casts mist across their battlefield in a cooling, nigh-invisible spray revealed in prismatic relief by the sunbeams breaking all around the shaded tower.
"I already have the words of my style." Takako replies, as she lands. Grinding her sandals back into the deck, she raises her bokken higher. She's not a fool... she knows that Geese tried to grab her - and it was partly luck and partly skill which saw her through. The will to plough on through regardless of what your opponent is trying to do... isn't that a core part of Fujiwa style Kendo?!
"To fear death, is to give it power over you!"
She's analyzed all of those words as hard as she can, for so long. She's placed herself in death's way, and she's internalized her reactions. Her perceived failure. The lesson Terry Bogard had, in his loose way, shown her. It isn't an easy thing to struggle to teach oneself; most have Masters or tutors who can assist them in understanding what their school means. Takako has the scrolls of her family, which mostly talk about the best way to maintain momentum when being cleaved in twain.
It is a useful technique but only under very specific circumstances.
"KIYAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
Potentially, Geese was expecting more chatting. Instead, Takako gives her loudest shout! The kiai is designed to intimidate and throw your opponents off balance. She isn't truly expecting that to really faze Geese in the slightest, but it also steels herself to return to the fray, and press the attack again. The wooden weapon is gripped firmly with both hands, and she aims to drive it forwards, this time, committing fully to the blow as she aims to smack the weapon painfully off Geese's chest. The first blow had struck clean... the difference between them is no so vast that it is impossible for her to even touch him!
And even if it were! She will give him everything he has, and whether he dismisses her or praises her, she will continue on her journey! She will not cease until she truly can press no harder at the boundaries of her limitations!
COMBATSYS: Geese dodges Takako's Medium Strike.
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Takako 0/-------/-------|==-----\-------\0 Geese
"To avert death is the only way to deny its power; anything else is obfuscation." Geese Howard observes this grimly as he evenly weaves to the side in a gliding lunge, repositioning himself in almost perfect synchronicity with Takako's stroke. One moment, he's in front of her, the next moment, she's striking air, as the masterful martial artist repositions himself towards the room's center. It puts Fujiwa in the unenviable position of being before Geese Howard, at the edge of a dangerous drop. "To throw all self-preservation to the wind merely awaits the day someone with the means finds you worth destroying!!"
Perhaps that day is this day? In the middle of the ocean, it would be easy to simply feed her to the sharks, toss her clear of the boat, have a celebration with Big's ladies below decks. Geese Howard wastes no time in striking, stepping in even as he flanks her, a descending hand seeking to strike her limbs low in a chop as a rising knee targets her elbow, seeking to wrench that arm in a sudden and painful, but ultimately deceptive maneuver meant to knock Takako off balance. Before Geese would step in, right foot swiftly, precisely sweeping at the back of her ankles.
For a moment, she might find herself floating backwards, weightless, in the moments before gravity takes over... or the Syndicate overlord's snapping left clasps her at the wrist and brutally twirls her back around to the other side, 'releasing' her in the explosive launch of a lunging palmstrike, right back towards the center of the room.
COMBATSYS: Geese successfully hits Takako with Combo Throw.
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Takako 1/-----==/=======|===----\-------\0 Geese
Takako has rarely ever felt so completely outclassed. Geese's words... don't mean an awful lot to her. How can you avert death? Defense? Is that what he means? She certainly tries to defend herself now. The sudden switch to the offensive is just too fast for her, though. The strikes shake through her and she chokes, finding herself suddenly lurching down towards the ground, only, for the ground to be stolen from her feet.
"What--!"
And then she is being slammed back through the air. When she hits the ground, she rolls. Just a second ago she thought her chances were looking pretty good. Now, the entire right side of her body, and her gut, is screaming at her about what just happened. A man shouldn't be able to hit /that/ hard.
She does not stay down, though. Back on her feet, she grits her teeth together. "Is that what you think?" She asks, her hands clasping her bokken tighter. "That I will let myself die before I am done?! No! And I'm...!"
She's tearing herself forwards again, forcing herself back into the fight with her bokken held high over her head. The wind is picking up about her, a gentle breeze at first which sets her clothes flapping about her...
But soon picks up into a deafening roar, lashing, cutting winds of chi energy tearing about her as she smashes her foot down, just in front of Geese. There's no physical strike at all, but the air around the two fights erupts in a quick, tearing lash of unfocused, raw power. Her swordsplay is actually good... but her chi? That, is an unfocused mess. She knows next to nothing about what she's /actually/ doing with this. Just raw will and determination forcing the world to do what she wants, and try to slap Geese with the whipping energy.
"NOT DONE YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!"
COMBATSYS: Geese blocks Takako's Kiai.
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Takako 1/------=/=======|===----\-------\0 Geese
How indeed. Either Geese is completely off his rocker, or the holder of some very potent secrets indeed. Few are the men who have mastered immortality, and fewer are the ones who can say to have maintained any grasp on sanity or sense of self.. at least in Geese Howard's estimation. The enigmatic kingpin rather prides himself on that arcane and esoteric mastery, it fuels his brutally graceful, technically perfect style and empowers his survival; whether one believes Geese to be literally immortal, or not. "I have studied your style, in brief." the Syndicate boss intimates, with some degree of sympathy.
"The sad part of your.. ascent.. to prominence, Miss Fujiwa... is that death is not a force compelled by your will. Death is chaotic, keen to respond to the call of any with the whimsy to beckon her..." as he speaks, Geese stalks forward. It's not an all-out press of the attack, but he doesn't relinquish space, doesn't telegraph his trajectory, shifting like a slithering serpent from one side to the next on gracefully lethal, hakama-cloaked legs. His thought is interrupted by Takako's quick recovery and reactive retort.
"/HAH!/ You /ARE/." Geese rebutts more in action than voice, forceful though that may be, stepping into the wild projection of violent chi defiantly and slamming braced, opposing palms forward before his midsection with the step. Takako's cry is all but blown away, suddenly whispers shattered to a thousand directions on the breeze, as her chi scarcely stings the hands of one of the world's subtle rulers. "If I /SAY/ you /ARE/!" The sterner accents are punctuated by shifting steps forward, pressing Takako for space, driving her right back towards the /other/ edge of the platform, by kicking low with right foot, then left, hammering blows meant to punish her shins as Geese reorients himself leading right, leading left, hands tucked deceptively in the sleeves of his dogi.
".. your style leaves no choice but to clash, blood for blood until one or both fall." Geese would observe, intent on picking up where he left off. "No way to exhaust an opponent of greater strength.. no way to defend yourself when there is no opening for a finishing blow to find. Sooner or later, this deficiency.. will end you."
Some sports commentators insist it already -has-. The diminutive teen's self-destructive rampage has prompted several opinion pieces on the inhumanity of minors in organized combat, after all. Geese Howard, doing his part to create PSA statistics.
COMBATSYS: Geese successfully hits Takako with Light Kick.
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Takako 1/-======/=======|====---\-------\0 Geese
Takako attempts to stand firm... but the force of those blows send her stumbling backwards, breaking her forwards momentum. Sweat beads thick on her forehead as she steadies herself, and raises her sword again. The funny thing about continually being vastly outclassed, is that it has given Takako some real perspective on her place. The idea that the opponent dictates the course of the fight, though; that Geese can decide when she will stop? This is something that has come up time and time again. It is the one lesson that she has stubbornly refused to learn.
"You... have grasped the holes in my style." She admits, and for the first time, she actually smiles, and laughs. Stepping backwards for a moment as she does. "I've tried to learn. Throws, particularly. Always the throws. Forcing me to stop, bending me out of shape, hah." Her smile becomes more, dogged. Her eyes shining with that characteristic determination.
"But you are still wrong about me. You do not get to tell me when I stop. /I/ make that decision. You can crush me. You can even kill me. But I will not give up! If you kill me, then even with my dying breath I will defy you and continue to strike!"
She's actually energizing herself more and more with her little speech. The pain of continuing to fight is intense! Geese has correctly identified everything that is wrong with her style (which she already knows) and probably a hundred technical deficencies she is unaware of! But she will just dig deeper!
Charging forwards, she realizes that the only way she can throw Geese off, is to try something entirely new! Something she has never done before. Something that is so left-field, that even /she/ wouldn't know that it is coming! That way, there's no possible way he can expect it!
Roaring again, she charges back into the fray with her commendable (or lamentable) fury... only, at the last possible second, she hurls her bokken straight up!
LEAPING forwards, she aims to grab Geese by the collar of his gi, and HEADBUTT him straight in the face, before, suddenly, tugging backwards to try and /THROW/ him back over and behind her! If, by some miracle, the technique should actually work... she will grab her bokken back out of the air before it hits the ground, and bellow at the top of her lungs:
"You have no POWER over ME! Only whether I live or die!"
COMBATSYS: Geese counters Armed Combo from Takako with Chuudan Atemi Nage.
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Takako 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|======-\-------\0 Geese
"Perhaps." It's quite close to 'well spoken', all told. Geese does, in a general sense, agree with Takako on these particular points. "You are correct, but you are not ready to prove it..." Geese almost laments it, even as Fujiwa charges in, improvises, tries to surprise Geese Howard. Close quarters grappling is, arguably, the core tenet of the compound styles Howard has built his dangerous mastery around over the decades. To Takako, the improvisation is new, fresh, unexpected; to Geese, it's the chaotic ploy born of inexperience, an example of precisely the problem he at least attempts to speak of.
The bokken sails high, the girl leaps in, and a flexed trunk of an arm twists about in a swift clockwise rotation, Geese's right forearm locking in suddenly against Takako's own reaching right as the swordswoman is still in midair. That sudden rotation dislodges her momentum, and plants Geese's palm at her midsection; for the split second it takes a cold snap of icy, blue-white power to flux into being in a spherical burst, one that all but consumes Takako.
It's only a deceptively subtle shove that accompanies the surging force of that energy, it seems to penetrate every crevice, an icy blade unopposed by Earthly armors, all but irresistable. The kingpin's own rampant strength, a casual display of purest expertise. "It renders those choices, that potential... utterly meaningless." Howard flexes his right hand, luminescent blue energies drawn back inwards along with his breath, the man himself looking for a moment like a roiling storm that might consume the ship himself, were he so inclined.
"Billy Kane spoke of your spirit. He was not wrong." Geese Howard concedes, "But you will never fulfill your legacy adapting haphazard scraps from extinct masters." Sugar coat it for the girl, he does not. "What do you /want/? Dismiss your pride, nothing shallow and transitory." It's the kind of open question to which there certainly are wrong answers, Geese's time is damned valuable. Takako's bokken falls moments after she does, clattering to the ground between the two combatants; Geese has yet to move from the space she failed to dislodge him from a moment before, but he does not explicitly invite her to take up her arms again.
"Oh fu--"
Takako /knows/ she messed up in the same instant that Geese's palm catches her. When the energy surges to consume her, it sends her rolling backwards across the floor. Her bokken clatters to the ground not far away, and for a moment, it doesn't seem like she's getting up again. When she does, it is because her hand has gripped the weapon, and stabbed the point into the ground. One advantage of the bokken; one would never disrespect a sword in such a manner. But a bokken is a tool, not a weapon. It is not worthy of the same kind of respect.
When she gets up... she does not hurl herself back into the fight. She's exhausted, sucking in breath hard, and considering what the man has asked. What does she want? Well. That's not hard to admit at all. She has only ever sought one thing from her fighting.
"I want to know where my potential ends."
Straightening up slowly, she raises her bokken once more, tightening her stance and taking a few seconds to just, put herself back together. She's still shaken, still trembling, and drenched with sweat. Is that all there is to her though? She isn't totally stupid. She knows that the world thinks she is a joke. That she can't fight and should just give up and go home, for the most part. But what does she care about that?
"When my father died, I swore that I would prove that Fujiwa style Kendo is a strong enough style to compete with any other." She sighs, working her shoulder back as she does. "Can I do that? ... I don't know. But I feel as though walking this path, I have already become far stronger than I used to be. Tomorrow, I will be stronger than I am today. And the day that I turn around and realize this is no longer true... that I have become as skilled as I will ever be. That will be the day that I decide to put down my bokken and do, something else."
In all of the league fights she has ever fought in, Takako has never paused long enough to reflect on herself. She's rarely spoken with anyone else about what she's doing and why. Normally, she just barrels onwards, head leading the way to try and batter through any obstacle that might be there. Normally, she bounces off with a set of fresh bruises.
That Geese actually seems to be taking an interest... is raising new ideas in her. Terry had said that there would always be new things to learn. That might be true. So... if there isn't ever an end, other than one at the hands of an opponent who decides she has gone far enough for her, what is life? Is it... this? Fighting one opponent after the other, forever?
COMBATSYS: Takako strongly considers the way her life is going.
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Takako 1/-<<<<<</<<<<<<<|======-\-------\0 Geese
Every style has its flaws, exploitable weaknesses; it's something that's long given Geese Howard a leg up, at least in his own estimation, over a number of his contemporaries and would-be peers. "And what if the flaw in your father's style led to his death?" Geese asks, point blank, arching one blonde brow as he speaks with perfectly echoed sympathy, all the vestiges of empathy with none of the strings. "To the demise of your style and its practitioners?"
Angering the girl is not precisely a concern, though neither does it seem to be an aim, the pitying, empathizing angle maintained nigh-flawlessly. ".. the truth at the heart of battle lies in the interplay of will and technique, styles that understand and counter one another. Any focus may be.. dismantled." In some cases, nigh-flawlessly. Geese's flexing hand drops back to his side, arms low once more, half-hidden within the folds of his hakama as he simply maintains his position, and eyes Takako evenly.
"If you wish to honor your father's legacy..." Geese Howard unflinchingly presumes, "you would be well served to perfect his style, and your own. To find a purpose beyond burning out as brightly as you can trying to prove what cannot be proven!" The inevitable and unstoppable fury of X style or Y style... it's a refrain Geese has heard often. While Takako may not be so arrogant, the kingpin clearly considers it self-limiting. A reduction of a warrior to a less nuanced implement. "Do not rely on your own interpretation of your history to dictate your future. Walking another's path is /always/ a lie."
Just why, precisely, Geese cares? That may remain a mystery for the moment. Perhaps he's lying to her /right now/. "If you would perfect his style... meld it to yours, not yourself to it."
COMBATSYS: Geese takes no action.
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Takako 1/-<<<<<</<<<<<<<|======-\-------\0 Geese
"I do not think the family style causes cancer."
There's little self-pity there. The words are, if anything, spoken with a little self-mockery. The pressure here is palpable, pressing in all around them. She takes the point, anyway. It is likely that Fujiwa style kendo was relegated to the back annals of history because, well, it is self-destructive. Reckless. There's no denying that, and the main thrust of Geese's point is accepted.
"I have attempted to build on the techniques, but it is not easy. I did say I would show you my best, however... so..."
There's no more hesitation, no more time to wait. The fight is not over, for all that it may be a foregone conclusion. If there is one thing that Takako has proven, it is that she can push far beyond what most would consider to be the logical end point. Therefore, she will push again, and keep going. "Thank you for the advice. Now! Prepare yourself!" Because it is just not in her nature to want to catch someone unawares!
The energy she had summoned earlier tears itself back into being. This time, the quantity is far more, and the focus incredibly intense. Someone with such a rudimentary knowledge of energy should not be able to summon so much without causing incredible pain to themselves... and Takako does not deny reality there. The winds rip and tear at herself, as she steadies her grip on her sword.
And the storm about her answers as she bellows, reverberating with her renewed spirit and determination. Geese has more than earned her respect, both for treating her with the dignity he has, and for demonstrating his martial mastery. She may have proven that Billy's faith in her spirit is not misplaced... but now she will prove that she DOES have what it takes to fight on the world stage. That she is worthy of the title of warrior!
Rushing into the fight again, she puts everything she has into that forwards rush, blade sharpened to a razor's edge by the energy ripping around her. The sword itself is engulfed in tearing winds, and she brings it around. The full expression of her swordsmanship on display.
The winds match each motion; four strikes in all, in the matter of a few seconds. Aiming to cut Geese through each diagonal, horizontally, and finish with a rising slash. Whether it hits clean or not, Takako's roaring will not end until her sandals touch the ground again, though the lashing winds continue to surround her for a few seconds more, as though reluctant to release her from their embrace.
COMBATSYS: Geese fails to interrupt Kusanagi of Dreams EX from Takako with Raging Storm.
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Takako 0/-------/-----<<|===----\-------\0 Geese
"Perhaps." Is the only concession Geese provides, once more, smiling easily as if he were entirely unconvinced. It's possible he's more aware of the man, or the style, than he lets on.. and equally possible that the Syndicate overlord simply isn't particularly concerned with the truth of the matter, one way or another. Truth and philosophy have a rather interesting relationship, after all, so entwined yet so easily distracting from one another. Difficulty, however.. that can be a fair measure of merit, especially on a course such as the one set before the world's true warriors.
Geese's casual refusal to raise a guard or continue his offensive all but demands reprisal, the all-out offensive likely the exact reaction the crimeboss anticipated from the passionate girl. There's a swell of chi, massive and sudden within his frame as she closes the distance, but it's her strikes that drive him low, rather than his own intended reprisal.
Knocked out of that punishing stroke, Geese is driven back instead, head ringing as the bokken cleaves a bloody cleft into his chiseled chin, and drops the nefarious master out of his stance to land hard on the dojo-finished flooring of the tower's observation deck. He doesn't stay down long, kicking right back to his feet, and coming back in a wide, ready stance rather than inviting attack anew. At that moment, Takako just gets a bemused smirk, a twinkle in the crimelord's eye.
Howard's dogi may be torn in several places from her assault, his blood may seep from those wounds, but Geese seems not so much injured as impressed in that moment of stinging reprisal. He now has ample confirmation that the girl /can/ find that crucial opening, at that crucial moment. Here and now? It may not be enough, but forcing Geese to right himself at all is something of an accomplishment.
It may just be that Takako's ignorance saves her in those few crucial moments. She feels... SOMETHING! From the crime boss, but she's got no idea what it means. It could be literally anything, and her inability to fully grasp how much power Geese calls upon, likely helps with her reckless headlong rush into her technique. Then again, this is Takako. It is entirely possible that she would have plunged in headlong even if she could comprehend it.
Now, though, Geese is recovering himself, and she still isn't down. She promised that she would fight to the full of her ability, and she continues to do so. The girl's roar has scarcely died down, before she is advancing again, her throat raw and bloody with her screaming fury. There are undoubtedly countless fighters stronger than Takako, but there are precious few who could count themselves as louder than her.
And that tearing energy responds. Thrumming between them. Last time, the lashing energy had been scarcely worthy of notice; barely a tangible thing. Against equal opponents, she uses it largely to keep pressure on, not to really injure...
But for the second time it just feels, right, to surge on from that devastating amount of power, and use it. The air around Takako practically explodes with it, ripping out in a blast of power which aims to surround both fighters. If there was an audience, both fighters would be momentarily obscured from view, the ripping winds completely opaque for a few precious seconds as her bellowing cry resonates throughout the ship.
"GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!"
COMBATSYS: Geese blocks Takako's Deafening Kiai.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
Takako 0/-------/-------|===----\-------\0 Geese
She had her fair shot, and she takes another! Geese's smirk momentarily broadens, and for the second time, the crimelord simply moves to oppose those deafening forces. He inhales, anchors chi in breath deep in his core, stepping inexorably in on the projecting warrior, "HAAAAAAH!!!" The focusing kiai comes in tandem with a smashing fist, crushing one side of the blast /in/ around Takako as he mashes out a space, a sudden eye of calm imposing over her storm . "HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!"
Howard steps a second time, thrusting left palm outwards with the ragged roar of stinging impact, and the blast of sound screams outwards, a swirling cone of dismissed fury making way for the Syndicate overlord's arrival. The smirk returns, but there's scarce time to see it as Geese /reaches/ for Takako, seeking to pluck the girl up by her neck and chest, and abruptly /slam/ her... into the ceiling above them.
It's made to take that kind of impact, though it would still reverberate and creak objections, before Takako would, ideally, tumble immediately back down. Geese has been waiting for her, precisely aligning the singular stroke meant to remove her from battle in a very literal flash. A swell of white-cored blue energy is projected forward, intent on erupting around and through her from head to toe, projected from a palm braced by and amplified by Geese's other hand, point blank into the spirited young warrioress.
In an instant, there's a sphere of energy several times Howard's own size; on the plus side, this only lasts a moment. On the downside, it's Howard's intent in that moment of reprisal and aggression, to /launch/ Takako as if from a cannon, out into the choppy depths of the ocean. Probably hoping she will skip, like a rock.
COMBATSYS: Geese successfully hits Takako with Rashoumon.
[ < > /////////////////// ]
Takako 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|-------\-------\0 Geese
Geese's advance into her space is terrifying. It is like trying to stop a tearing juggernaut with a stiff breeze. When the crime lord's grip squeezes around Takako's throat, she abruptly shuts up. Her voice stolen from her, she is helpless to do anything but try and steel herself for the punishment she obtains. The energy that scorches her is numbing, and in the end, it is as though Takako is trying to fight the entire ocean. It just... isn't possible.
As she is suddenly FLUNG from the outstretched palm, time seems to slow down. Her breathing is faint, but still there. There is a moment as she passes over the guard rail, hand gripping her bokken ever tighter, where she strains for all she is worth. Not to survive; in this instant her survival instinct is taking far less precedence to her desire to prove that she can stand. That she is not yet prepared to allow Geese his victory.
She just has to make it. Make that one moment stretch, reach out...
COMBATSYS: Takako dares time to continue passing.
> /////////////////// ]
|-------\-------\0 Geese
COMBATSYS: Takako can no longer fight.
> /////////////////// ]
|-------\-------\0 Geese
... and it slips through her fingers.
Yet again, Takako sacrifices a noble bokken for her quest for glory. She strains to catch the handrail as she passes... but all she succeeds in doing is looking even less elegant as she is blasted from the side of the boat.
Her bokken gets quite a lot of distance! Skipping away magnificently over the horizon. Takako is surprisingly dense for such a tiny package, though. She impacts the waves more like a depth charge.
Blub blub blub.
There's a momentary arch of one pale brow as Takako gathers her will in that moment where she teeters on the precipice.. it's not long enough for anyone else to perceive, enough for her, enough for Geese. The latter, probably only because he was already tapped into the currents that brought her to that instant, the fighter's spirit that demands she push on through Geese's finalizing onslaught. ... almost.
It's more than most can say, and enough to satisfy the shadowy overlord of the Syndicate. "Hmph." It's deceptively dismissive, a singular grunt as Howard steps to the side of the deck where Takako hurtled clear of the boat, looking out to the shockwaves left by the girl's impact. What was it we said earlier about it being too easy to dispose of bodies, here?
Instead, Geese steps to an intercom near the elevator, "Hopper."
"Boss?"
"The girl's overboard off the port. Haul her in, get her medical attention, and whatever else she needs."
"You got it, boss." It sounds like this has happened before. There's no shock at all in the 'bodyguard' judging by his reaction.
"Oh, and Hopper."
"Yea Boss?"
"Phone Kane, tell him what happened."
"Got it."
The intercom is clicked off on Geese's end, as the Syndicate overlord moves back to the edge to observe.
Log created on 16:37:04 07/08/2012 by Takako, and last modified on 10:39:22 07/09/2012.