Description: Takako is determined to make it to Japan in time for the tournament, going through the well known route in deep South American jungle! Instead, she meets a demon from her past... WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE, BABY!
For a girl who has spent years wandering the globe, you would think that Takako would have a better sense of direction by now. Hacking her way through plants and undergrowth with her bokken, the tiny Japanese girl rages the entire time. Still dressed in the tattered remnants of her hospital gown, there's nevertheless a ferocious intensity which burns in the young woman's eyes.
"Think, you can have, a tournament, without, me?!"
Huff, huff. Boy, is she woozy. Sure, she's mostly recovered from her ocean ordeal, but a diet of 'whatever is dumb enough to get between me and where I am going' has not exactly been kind to her, either.
"In MY HOME COUNTRY?"
Slash, slash. More leaves and vines fly everywhere. A startled monkey scurries for cover.
"I'll get back to Japan, just you wait and s-- what th--!!!"
That last is given as she looses her footing, and slides down a bank of mud. Rolling, the girl comes to a stumbling stop in the middle of a road. It looks like the asphalt was laid fairly recently, too! And she's sure there wasn't supposed to be any settlements out here. Then again, she was fairly sure that 'here' is 'en route to Japan' when in fact it is the middle of some godforsaken South American jungle mostly frequented by drug runners, cartels, poachers, and other malevolent individuals who have reason to hide their business from prying eyes...
"How unfortunate..."
The voice calls from down the road, accompanied by the muffled crack of boots on asphalt. The speaker? None other then Vega, one such malevolent individual who has plenty of reasons to hide his business from prying eyes. Naturally, he's decked out in his usual crimson suit, complete with steel pauldrons, grey cape, and a crimson peaked cap with a golden winged skull on the front.
As he approaches, his lips slowly pull back to grace Takako with a far too wide grin, perhaps made worse by his dead, pupil-less eyes. "You seem to have chanced upon something you shouldn't have," he chastises, still wearing that psychotic grin, "And for that mistake, you will have to die."
Finally, he stops just a few feet away from her and gestures for her to rise. "On your feet, worm. I will not stoop to kill you."
There's a lot of emotions which run through Takako in the few seconds between seeing Vega, and hearing him speak. The first, is disbelief - not so long ago, she had struggled and fought and waited desperately for the chance to face this man. Why would fate deliver him to her now?
And then, there's fear. Because just looking into those eyes, she instantly knows that he is ... just as his actions had made him seem to be. From the rictus grin to the terrible eyes, he is... a demon.
Then there is shame at her fear, and the girl stands, lifting her bokken up in a warding stance.
"I... I shall not die today!" The girl shouts back, and were it not for the quaver in her voice, it might even be convincing. Steeling herself, she grinds her teeth together hard, and then one sandal-clad foot slams heavily into the earth.
"I demanded you fight me on the shores of Japan, and you refused, COWARD! What have I to fear from a man who shrinks from a fight? NOTHING! I, Takako Fujiwa, will ... will..."
"I WILL BREAK YOUR HEAD!"
The girl's voice is LOUD, and she's clearly psyching herself up more than anything else. She's dreamed of this moment for so long... now it is here! She must seize the opportunity, whilst he stands before her!
At first, Vega's grin just grows, though it hardly seems like there should be room for it on his face. The quaver in her voice, the obvious attempt to psych herself up, it's all just humor to a man like him. Then she mentions the past, and his head cocks fractionally to the side as he regards her through vaguely squinted eyes. A moment passes before he returns his head to its usual position and offers Takako back the faintest of shrugs.
"Have we met, then?"
He speaks with a vaguely curious, but mostly uncaring tone as he continues to consider her, but eventually it fades into full uncaring and he shrugs back his cape as it catches a perfectly dramatic wind and flares behind him, his arms crossed over his chest. "I do not remember, but here is your second chance. Fate is cruel to you, indeed. To die here, in this jungle when you could have died in Japan," he intones, but after a moment he barks out some laughter and states; "It's actually somewhat amusing."
"No. I had to make do with killing your thugs whilst you hid from me!"
That... is technically correct. It ignores the traumatic way the child had been forced to kill the lunatic Shadaloo minion she had wound up facing. It carefully smooths over her violent revulsion at having to use the art of fighting to kill rather than for sport. It is, in effect, basically a lie.
But when Vega laughs, that is when the girl turns red. "Don't you dare underestimate me!"
Shouting her fury, Takako lunges forwards as quickly as she can. Her fear swallowed up at last by the mockery he levels upon her. Lets see if he's still laughing when she's broken his teeth!
Which, she tries to do. The girl's bokken swings up and around, and at the last moment, she SPRINGS into the air with it, aiming to drive the point home into Vega's jaw and forcibly shut that large mouth of his. And at least for a few seconds, Takako manages to hold on to the illusion that this could yet be a fight like any other.
COMBATSYS: Takako has started a fight here.
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Takako 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Vega has joined the fight here.
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Takako 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Vega
COMBATSYS: Vega blocks Takako's Raging Tornado.
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Takako 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Vega
As Takako springs into action, Vega's laughter dies down and he watches her with what can only be described as a bloodthirsty glee. It's always hard to tell where his eyes are without any sort of break in the stretch of ghostly white color, but they are -- for the moment -- on her bokken.
"Perhaps, girl..." he drawls out, still unmoving, still watching, right up until the last second where his right arm snaps out and slams into the side of the weapon, sending it straight past his unmoving head.
"You would be better off not underestimating /me./"
As he speaks, he turns slightly and his left hand draws back into a fist as purple light blazes into life around it. He holds for just a second, before he brings it back around, the strike aimed straight for Takako's gut.
COMBATSYS: Vega knocks away Takako with Medium Punch.
- Power hit! -
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Takako 1/-----==/=======|=------\-------\0 Vega
TEN YEARS AGO.
"Remember Takako." Her father says, raising his training sword - a far nicer weapon than the ratty old bokken that the girl wields - "If you can withstand the blow, your opponent will be off-balance, and in that moment, you may strike them down like the fist of an angry God." The sword is swung forward, and the child--
RIGHT NOW
"HURK!"
Doubling over Vega's fist, Takako feels something give in side her, and she is sent hurtling backwards. The impact of the teenager's body against the tree splinters it, and she bounces! She actually bounces! Stumbling to her feet with blood trickling down her lip. A lesser warrior would be dead.
But some part of Takako... actually exhults with the thrill of it. "UNDERESTIMATE YOU?" She shouts, eyes wild, "You are a God... and /I WILL CRUSH YOU ANYWAY!/"
The wind whips up in the dead clearing, and the girl focuses it as best she can. There's no thought of death in her now; just the roar of her own fighter's spirit. It has been so long since she fought someone like this! Someone against whom even a single mistake may prove devastating!
"HIYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
Having to cover the ground again is a nuisance, but at the last moment, the tiny warrior seems almost to disappear out of existence--
And then she comes slashing down from above, focusing all her energy into one intensely powerful slash, laced with swirling, bladed air. The girl gives it her all, there's no denying that - in fact, she's gripping the handle of her bokken so hard that the wood of the weapon has bitten deep into her palms in her furious attempt to recapture the offensive.
COMBATSYS: Vega dodges Takako's Raijin's Strike.
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Takako 0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0 Vega
As his punch throws Takako bodily into a tree, Vega's laugh returns stronger then ever. "You are a spectacularly foolish girl," he calls over to her, his arms crossing over his chest again as he watches her stand, "It would have been better had you laid down and died." Once again, though, she causes his laughter to quiet, his head turns just a touch to regard the increase in wind, and his eyes narrow as his grin fades into a slight frown. Slowly, he turns back to her, eyeing her with a fair bit more seriousness as she begins to charge him.
When she suddenly disappears, though, he blinks and takes a step back, looking left and right, before some instinct shouts at him to look up. It's too late to move, the strike is sure to hit, and Vega's frown turns to a grimace as he watches the bokken descend.
And then... he's gone. A faint purple outline of marks his movement as he seems to fade backwards in the blink of an eye, suddenly out of range of her strike.
"It seems you have at leat /one/ surprise in you," he admits, uncrossing his arms as he settles, for the first time, into a ready stance.
"Perhaps if you were fighting anyone other than Vega, you might have stood a chance."
Suddenly, he drops into a crouch, fingers and the toes of his boots digging into the asphalt just before he leaps forward. Showing a fair bit more skill at acrobatics then his top-heavy build might suggest, he flips forward through the air, metal plated boots driving downwards towards Takako's skull, one after the other.
COMBATSYS: Vega knocks away Takako with Double Knee Press.
~ Cruel hit! ~
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Takako 1/-----==/=======|==-----\-------\0 Vega
COMBATSYS: Takako has reached second wind!
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Takako 0/-------/-----==|==-----\-------\0 Vega
Takako has faced some of the world's strongest - she's dueled with Billy, tested her mettle against the Lone Wolf, even proved herself - to some extent - in the eyes of Geese Howard.
She has never felt so outclassed as she does in this moment.
Turning, she tries to hold steady, but the large man simply barrels into her. The first kick splits her skull. The second sends her hurtling away, a long stream of blood left in her wake. If she had any sense, she'd give in now - and hope that her death was a quick one. But Takako Fujiwa is, as Vega had noted, a foolish girl.
SPECTACULARLY foolish.
Rising from the ground again, she's shaking, but there is steel in her eyes - even if it is wood she clenches between her hands. "I do not fear death." She says, and for the first time, there's true confidence in that voice. "The only thing I fear, is being worse today, than I was yesterday."
One hand reaches out in front of her, splayed, as she steadies herself, and then...
Then the girl is taking off again, only this time, there's a staggering amount of force put into one, desperate, swinging upward slash. Aiming to scoop Vega up into the air - if she can just manage that, the girl will demonstrate that she does indeed have more tricks for the Lord of Shadaloo.
Because if she can buy that split second of vulnerability, she will slash him eight times in a perfect star before she hits the ground behind him, back turned, but standing strong and tall, even if she is drenched in her own blood.
COMBATSYS: Vega blocks Takako's Fujin's Echo.
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Takako 0/-------/-----==|===----\-------\0 Vega
"I must admit, girl," Vega begins, slowly rising from the crouch he ended up in, hands at his side as his cape whips about him in the increased wind, "You can withstand a surprising amount of punishment. I had quite thought you were finished after the first hit."
When she states -- and fully proves -- her bravery, his psychotic grin returns with vigor. When she charges, he laughs, his head tilting back to bark his amusment at the sky, arms pulled back to his side as his hands clutch the air and purple energy fires up around his fingers.
Just as it seems as if her first strike will land without any reaction from Vega, his energy enshrouded hand shoots out to clutch the bokken, stopping the strike with a loud crack as the wood slams into his palm.
"Enough," he declares, the laughter subsiding again as his other hand comes up to complete his dramatic pose, still covered in the purple energy, "You're beginning to bore me."
With that, his leg rises quickly looking to catch her in the gut, hold her in the air for a moment, and then throw her behind him and straight into the ground with a great deal of force.
COMBATSYS: Takako fails to interrupt Death Tower from Vega with Kami's Roar EX.
- Power fail! -
*KNOCKED AWAY*
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Vega 0/-------/--=====|
COMBATSYS: Takako can no longer fight.
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Vega 0/-------/--=====|
"I'M NOT FINISHED YET!"
The loud shout of defiance comes at the same time the terrifying warlord grabs her bokken. She tries to wrench it free, but she can't. So she draws her head back instead. Yes, that injured, bloody, split skull will be the weapon which she uses to smite down this enemy!
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAA--ghck."
It is a less than noble moment for Takako, whose eyes bug out as Vega's kick hits home, and she crumples over his foot. The girl's momentum actually works against her, as she is neatly redirected into the earth, hitting it with the force of a careening juggernaut.
When the dust settles from the impact, there's absolutely no sign of Takako at all - just a small hole which has been punched deep into the earth, and the girl's prized bokken, embedded almost up to the hilt next to it.
COMBATSYS: Vega has ended the fight here.
Vega's grin subsides as he slowly lowers his foot and moves to the small crater left behind. Slowly, he peers down it with a raised eyebrow before he reaches out and takes the bokken by the hilt, examining it curiously. "Perhaps you escaped death after all, girl," he murmurs while eyeing the weapon, but the corner of his lips turns upwards and he settles the bokken against his shoulder as he turns back down the road and proceeds to walk the asphalt, heading towards the sprawling complex in the distance.
Log created on 14:31:26 07/10/2014 by Takako, and last modified on 17:14:34 07/10/2014.