Description: The sky isn't falling and neither are Noboru or Frei as the brawny ninja and the chi sage fight it out intro-stage-to-Bulletstorm style, stuck to the wall of a tall building. Up until the end anyway. (Winner: Frei)
Bucharest, Romania, 12:15 AM.
The wailing sirens of emergency response vehicles echo through the narrow streets, the haunting sounds drifting into perfect harmony like the howls of distant wolves. Abruptly, however, the spell breaks and the sirens clash violently with one another in a way seemingly designed specifically to set the nerves on edge. it's just one of many strange things that have happened tonight.
Police cars, fire trucks, and ambulances are clustered in a flashing, squealing pack around the destroyed remnants of the Athenee Palace. Most of the upscale hotel lies in a smoking, sparking pile where it had stood so proudly only moments before, but only most of it. Large sections of hotel are scattered all across this slice of the city, some imbedded deep in the faces of other nearby buildings. Emergency personnel swarm through the mess of smoking rubble to pull out survivors wherever they can find them.
No one mentions the swirling vortex of wind and energy that appeared out of nowhere to create such destruction. The citizens of Bucharest consider it bad luck, not to mention bad manners. One just doesn't talk about these sorts of things.
High, high above the street stands a tall, rather strapping figure with shaggy golden-brown hair. His long midnight-blue coat hangs loose about him, thick arms folded across his chest as he stares down at the human swarm with mismatched eyes. Like the locals, the ninja doesn't question how he is standing on the sheer brick wall of a neighboring building, nearly ten stories above the frantic emergency responders. He does have a good idea though.
A crowd of mostly transparent spirits in antiquated clothing stand in a wide circle around the ninja. They were there when he woke up here after taking a steel beam to the head in free fall. He's already tried to smash in one of the windows scattered about, but it reformed almost before he could pull his hand back through. They've been whispering in his head that they want a fight. He'll probably have to give them what they want.
Let's flash back a week or so to when Castlevania basically appears out of nowhere in eastern Europe and, perhaps unknown to most, a vampire lord of the most ancient kind arose from his dark eternal sleep to basically punch things in the face with fire, proving that there are a few constants in the universe and "people have a strong need to punch other people in the face, usually with fire" is approaching one of them.
Zoom in on one short redhead at his kitchen table reading the morning news off an iPad while he shovels frosted mini wheats (shut up) into his mouth. Observe as he reads the story of the appearing castle and all the other attendant nonsense. Marvel as he almost chokes on his cereal (shut up) reading this news.
And so he booked a flight to Budapest and got himself a hotel room and that's where Frei was at roughly 12:10am when he suddenly sat bolt upright in his hotel bed and said, out loud: "Something's not right and I am NOT going to be in my boxers when it ha--"
That was when his room windows exploded in a shower of glass and debris.
Roughly 30 seconds later, the young sage is standing horizontally on the side of a building, wearing a shirt, dark hunter green boxers, and holding both his jeans and his shoes in his hands. Looking down, he raises an eyebrow, and simply says: "...well, shit."
And then he notices there's someone else here. And THEN he notices the ring of apparent undead chanting 'fight! fight! fight!' and not in a figurative manner. Others might not, but for whatever reason, Frei is *actually hearing ghosts talk*. His reaction is... less than expected. "Wonderful," he mutters. "Ghosts acting like a middle school gym class crowd. Marvy."
He looks over to Noboru, taking in the mountain of a ninja, and clears his throat. "Uh, hi. I suspect we're going to have to punch each other for a while. Or that's the message I'm getting. But uh, I'm... you..."
He holds up the jeans and sneakers. "Just like, can I have a second? Before punching starts."
COMBATSYS: Frei has started a fight here.
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Frei 0/-------/-------|
Lets flash back about 5 minutes ago, just before all this craziness went down.
Noboru is seated at a delicate wooden table for two. The big ninja's silk mask is pulled down around his throat. In his left hand he holds a tourist brochure for a local museum, skimming over the attractions with a mild sort of interest, while His other hand carefully cuts up an omelet with his fork. It is quiet and peaceful. He is just in the process of lifting a bit of cheese and meat stuffed egg to his mouth when a huge metal beam smashes through the wall behind him. The flying length of steel crashes directly into the back of his head with a loud 'CLANG!, catapulting him over the table and out of our imaginary sight.
Return to now.
The bulky ninja, the back of his head still matted with blood, glances slowly over at Frei. Fixing the smaller man with a tired, sidelong stare from his icy blue eye, he lifts his broad shoulders in a very mild sort of shrug. Any other time he might have said no. he might have already been on the man and punching, maybe he would have tried to use those jeans as an improvised garrotte. But now? Now he has a hell of a head ache.
What sort of ghost tornado deprives a man of his omelet? This is just BS.
COMBATSYS: Noboru has joined the fight here.
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Frei 0/-------/-------|======-\-------\0 Noboru
We'll never know if that omlette was any good. RIP, egg deliciousness. You were too good for this broken, battered world.
It's difficult to struggle into pants when you're afraid lifting one leg off the ground is going to send you sailing into the abyss. Once that seems to be established as false, however, Frei quickly tugs on his jeans, smoothes them down, and pulls on his sneakers, giving the surface of the building an experimental toe-tap or two before looking down. Ten stories? Give or take. He remembered Hotaru talking about doing an SNF in actual freefall from a cargo plane at like 30,000 feet so really what's a ten story drop? He actually makes a 'psh' noise at his own memory before turning to Noboru and saying "Thanks. You're a mensch."
Then there's a pause, and some shuffling movements in the ranks of the ghosts who are as impassive as ever until Frei suddenly turns to one, points, and says: "YOU. C'mere."
This takes the ghosts by surprise, or at least it appears to because they stop moving for a moment. This was clearly not in the plan.
It doesn't help that Frei is apparently in Stern Schoolmarm Mode, arms crossed. Apparently all those years working the YFCC gave him that sort of moment. "Look. One, I can hear you so stop acting surprised. Two, we're about to fight for your amusement so maybe have a little respect, and three, that's probably silk and must have cost a fortune so lay off."
This is when Frei turns to Noboru and ducks at him, aiming a right cross (trailing fire; reference earlier pose) at the bulky ninja's face, saying casually: "That IS real silk, right? I didn't just risk my life defending some sort of fake rayon ninja mask thing?"
COMBATSYS: Frei successfully hits Noboru with Quick Punch.
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////////// ]
Frei 0/-------/-------|======-\-------\0 Noboru
"WHUMP!'
That is the sound of a flaming right cross smacking an unusually large ninja square in the left cheek. The punch forces the man's face to turn so that his blank white eye is staring down at Frei from its surrounding scars. Though the eye looks completely trashed, there is the feeling that the ninja is studying the chi user through it.
"Hrrrrr." Noboru rubbles in bass annoyance, thick arms dropping from their crossed position to hang limp at his sides
. "It is symbolic. A veil of morning. There is a slight possibility, unlikely, that we started this trend among our impressionable cousins." the big shinobi states in deep, articulate Japanese. As he talks he rocks his head back to the sound of a single, loud neck crack, then, still staring at Frei with his empty white eye, his left hand snaps up in an attempt to grab the Redhead full by the face. His gloved hand is easily large enough to smother the man one-handed, like one of those tailed spider-looking things from the alien movies.
If Noboru can get hold of Frei, he will squeeze hard while lifting him one-handed into the air, then half turn and take a single step with his left foot before launching the unfortunate fighter further up the wall toward the roof. So is that up, or north? Silly ghost physics.
COMBATSYS: Noboru successfully hits Frei with Medium Throw.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////////// ]
Frei 0/-------/-----==|======-\-------\0 Noboru
That's a very large hand.
Frei weighs pretty much next to nothing, which -- given his reputation for being a pretty tenacious and hard to put down fighter -- probably comes as something of a shock. But let's just say that if you're still not entirely certain what sort of movements mean you're going to fall off a building to your death or not, trying to evade someone's close-range attempt to just GRAB YOUR FACE with a fancy pivot and spin maneuver probably isn't going to work out, which is why Frei suddenly goes sailing UP the building and through an air conditioning unit in a cloud of obscuring dust.
There's a brief pause, and all the ghost faces turn from Noboru to the dust cloud, before it slowly disperses, revealing Frei standing, brushing dirt off his shirt, and then clearing his throat.
There's a slight chill in the air around Noboru, which is basically his only warning that something is coming. "Right, veil of mourning, gotcha," the redhead says, before snapping his fingers, causing the air around the beefy ninja to more or less flash-freeze solid (™ Kula Diamond). Over the sound of the moisture in the air crackling into sudden, frozen rigidity, Noboru MAY hear Frei ask: "But it IS real silk, right?"
COMBATSYS: Noboru blocks Frei's Hatsuyuki.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////// ]
Frei 0/-------/----===|======-\-------\0 Noboru
The moment Frei goes airborne, Noboru starts to walk. He doesn't seem in any sort of hurry, but the slow, measured steps he takes trace the path set by the Sage's flying body. What is visible of his face above the black veil is calm but intent. The look of someone fairly used to tossing around people who punch him in the face, even if he isn't exactly enjoying himself.
"Yes." Is the shinobi's grunted response as the air around him chills, then suddenly flashes into ice.
Noboru's steps slow as ice forms across his body, threatening to stop him entirely. But, with a rippling flex he smashes the ice open with his shoulders and slogs right on through it, and the transparent crowd of ghosts, into Frei's personal space.
There is nothing fancy about Noboru's style. If it weren't for the spark of intelligence in his eye you might mistake him for a relaxed, sloppy sort of brawler. So, with frost dripping from the ends of his shaggy brown hair, he surges forward and swings both fists up in a quick one two hook combo aimed for the sides of the smaller man's head, then snaps both gloved hands down and in, trying to get a solid grip on the young man's upper arms. If he can get that grip the real pain will come.
COMBATSYS: Frei just-defends Noboru's Chiropractic Therapy!
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////// ]
Frei 0/-------/----===|=======\-------\0 Noboru
Frei's dealt with plenty of brawlers in his time. This man... is no brawler. Of course what most people don't know about the cheerful-seeming redhead is that the Japanese half of his ancestry were court-sanction assassins who delivered the shogunate's justice _personally_ for a non-trivial portion of post-Sengoku era Japan. Not that there's much left of killing intent in Frei's style, after all (his mother is a different story). But he knows enough to know the difference between 'lol punching' and 'seems legit'.
This is why he takes Noboru's followup verrrrrrrry seriously. The shorter fighter's entire torso swings back from the one-two leadin, the punches swinging perilously close to the sage's face, but keeping close is necessary, because as Noboru heads into the second stage of his attack, Frei's own hands suddenly whip around to meet them. Not palm out, but just the index and middle fingers extended, almost like a kujikiri hand sign. The ninja can feel sudden pressure between his hands and Frei's, accompanied by the air between them basically... rippling, like a stone thrown into a perfectly reflective pond, as Frei applies just enough chi pressure to gently turn Noboru's attack aside.
"Ah, good. I like the color, by the way," the redhead says casually.
And then his hands turn inward, palms together, gathering up the remnants of the chi he just expended. Waste not, want not, after all. Compressing the force into a tight sphere, he then lets his hands come apart, more or less detonating a chi-based force bomb right in Noboru's face. I mean, he's not gonna fall off the building and die despite the horizontal push, right?
...right?
COMBATSYS: Noboru fails to interrupt Reiki from Frei with Precordial Thump.
- Power fail! -
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////// ]
Frei 0/-------/--=====|=====--\-------\0 Noboru
The two punches being dodged isn't all that surprising, but when the Ninja's hands sweep in and are reflected off of a rippling field of condensed air, the big man takes note. Glancing down between his hands he focuses his attention through his scarred eye and watches the masterful weaving of chi going on under his nose. Each flow shows up bright and sharp to his mystical vision, being forced together between Frei's hands, slowly turning into a bomb. Something that he would have thought of himself, if he only had the talent.
"Hrrr." Is all Noboru has time to grumble. Besides not seeming like much of a talker, he has a bomb to deal with. His right hand snaps back, fingers curling into a tight half-fist with the knuckles extended. His left hand hovering beside the chi ball to take measure, he pauses for half a second, then drives his right hand up and forward. His intent is to ram his fist through the chi and disperse it mostly harmlessly, then continue the strike up into Frei's chest. But that isn't what happens.
The wind bomb detonates with the big Shinobi's fist half way through it. The force is enough to smash his upper body upright and force his arms out to his sides, staggering him back a couple of steps as he fights to keep his balance. His dark blue coat whips open to reveal knives, a short sword, and several other nasty things secured to a weapon harness beneath, and his golden brown hair is blown straight back from his face. The force of the raging wind tears open his shirt and causes thin trickles of blood to start leaking from thing lacerations in the fair skin beneath, but despite all that the hulking man does not fall. He's made of tougher stuff than that.
A raised eyebrow, a low whistle. That's... that's a lot of cutlery going on under that jacket. Like, a LOT of it. Weaponry that, to now, hasn't actually made an appearance in this fight. Which could mean a lot of things. It could mean Noboru doesn't like using weapons. It could mean he was saving them for when things get 'serious'.
It could mean Noboru is like that Freeman guy and just waiting for the voices to tell him now is the time to give the redhead of partial Irish descent a Glasgow(*) Smile.
There's a brief moment where Frei fixes the ring of ghost onlookers with a piercing 'don't give him any ideas' glare. One of the ghosts shrugs.
Cracking his knuckles, Frei turns back to his opponent. "Okay before the punching resumes, can I ask you a serious question? Can you hear them talking?" Jerking a thumb at the ghosts, Frei watches Noboru's reaction carefully. The last time Frei heard spirits talking to him... let's just say that situation was Very Serious and he has little to no desire to go back to it, thanks.
He gives Noboru a second or two to answer, then decides to get back to the violence, closing the gap between them with deceptive speed and then slicing his hand, in a knife hand position, through the air, across Noboru's midline. Aside from the strike itself, the path it takes glows with a silvery-gold light, like a metallic glint, that makes a sound like a struck tuning fork if it hits.
(* Yes, Glasgow is Scotland and Frei is 1/3 Irish, shut up)
COMBATSYS: Frei successfully hits Noboru with Houken.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////// ]
Frei 0/-------/-======|=======\-------\0 Noboru
Noboru staggers to a halt and gets his feet more securely beneath him, boots splitting so he can anchor himself to the brick wall with the insane grip strength in his toes. This is actually what he is known for among his fellow shinobi, over his size and strength, and even over his chi and psy vision. The crazy grip strength in his fingers and toes that allows him to free climb glass sky scrapers and cling to the bottom of planes.
He has done both.
"Yes." responds the ninja bluntly to Frei's question, chin ticking a bit to one side to stare at the ghost who shrugged just moments ago. Idly he grabs the flaps of his coat and pulls them close. he hasn't been hired to hurt this boy. There is no need for any of that.
The big shinobi's attention drifts back to Frei just in time to study his approach, watching as the silvery gold blade whips around toward his abdomen. He has no desire to see his guts spilled out over the wall, so he tenses up his abs and hunches forward. Lifting his left hand he balls it into a fist and brings it crashing down toward the chi blade in an attempt to knock it down and away, but he is too slow. The blade whips past the spot he was aiming fore and slices neatly across his stomach moments before his fist swishes through the air behind it.
As the air rings with the sound of Frei's tuning-fork blade attack, the fronts of Noboru's coat and shirt sag down like a gaping mouth. The skin behind it parts slightly and blood drizzles out, but behind that and the thin layer of fat his abdominal muscles can be seen, glistening wetly and locked like stone. There is no cutting them.
Noboru doesn't make a sound. he only stares down at Frei, icy blue eye focused but not angry. One of them might have to die to get off of this wall, but he doesn't think so. Maybe if he can just knock the kid out. His gloved right hand clenches, knuckles jutting out in the familiar half-fist, before he takes a single step forward and lunges, body extending in a somewhat slow, but brutal punch aimed right for the center of the Sage's forehead. The amount of force the ninja can put behind a single blow is likely quite a shock, even considering his size. He is hellishly strong.
COMBATSYS: Noboru successfully hits Frei with Temporary Diplopia.
- Power hit! -
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////// ]
Frei 1/-----==/=======|======-\-------\0 Noboru
If Frei has learned anything about this type of fighter -- and by now, the redhead has considerable experience dealing with fighters of basically all kinds -- is that if you can somehow power through their one big Hulk Smash moment, you will find yourself at a considerable advantage in retaliating. And so he decides to take a risk and see just how much punishment Noboru can dish out.
As Frei extricates himself from the ruins of a fire escape into which he was just punched so hard it bent around the shape of his body, he mutters aloud: "Pretty damned hard."
With the creaking of metal, he slowly pulls himself out of the wreckage, shaking himself out and adjusting a crick in his neck before nodding at Noboru. "Not bad, not bad. I'd make some joke about asking if you're SURE you're a ninja but, uh... have you dealt with Seishirou Ryouhara? I don't think ANY ninja is a ninja anymore. Everyone's dual class or something."
Pulling himself into a defensive stance, Frei takes a deep breath and locks eyes with Noboru, centering himself. The air around the shorter fighter becomes alive with chi, tiny dancing motes of multicolored light which flit this way and that. "You don't have to answer that, by the way."
COMBATSYS: Frei charges his next attack!
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////// ]
Frei 1/----===/=======|======-\-------\0 Noboru
Joints crack and pop in Noboru's knuckles as he slowly straightens, then flexes the fingers of his right hand. Staring past the digits toward Frei, the big ninja studies the sage for signs of wooziness. Nope, not even a little unconscious. Damn. Well, he tried.
Stepping forward out of his punching stance, the shinobi drops both hands back down to his sides and strolls casually across the ceiling toward the redheaded fighter. His icy blue eye gives him another brief once over, even as his blank white eye studies the flows of chi converging around the boy. This is, probably going to hurt quite a bit.
prowling casually into Frei's personal space yet again, Noboru leans back slightly and anchors his left foot into the bricks while his right snaps up, then forward in a powerful thrust kick, trying to knock the boy right back into the fire escape he so recently pulled himself free of. Like everything about the ninja it is a relaxed, sloppy-looking move with that hellish strength behind it. At this point nobody should believe he's actually that sloppy. It's a trap!
COMBATSYS: Frei interrupts Fierce Kick from Noboru with Empowered Ashura Ressenjin EX.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ]
Frei 0/-------/----===|======-\-------\0 Noboru
Apparently traps are in vogue today. Why do you say that, narration?
FIVE SECONDS AGO:
Groaning with pain as he attempts to crawl out of the wreckage of a fire escape, something catches Frei's eye:
His bokken, forgotten in the tornado.
There's a faint grin across his face.
Basically: http://youtu.be/mj07qh51zPI?t=4m58s happens.
NOW:
There's a loud *WHUMP* as Noboru's kick slams into Frei's stomach, making the redhead double over just a bit, expelling air in one great burst. Problem: he doesn't actually MOVE. In fact, once his head comes back up from the involuntary snap of a huge amount of force being delivered to his midsection, he's... actually smiling. It's not a smile with any malice in it, which is the weird part, perhaps: he doesn't seem to be taking any joy in what's going on.
But he IS smiling, and he adds: "For the record, I know that trick too."
And then his hand moves back, gripping the wooden handle of the bokken slipped through his back belts loops, and in a series of smooth, flowing motions, the redhead surges forward at point-blank range in a practied series of connected slashes, the blade surging with a dark, purple-black chi that's cold to the touch, before he spins and delivers one final, horizontal cut intending to basically bat Noboru away like a baseball slugger.
In that brief pause between witty remark and wooden sword, the shinobi's silk veil is ruffled by a soft snort. The sound isn't exactly amused, but between it and the mild look in the ninja's good eye, he is clearly saying 'this might as well happen.' Shit has already been so weird today.
Then the chi-infused bokken is swishing up toward his head and he lifts his left forearm to block. Wood meats flesh with a solid 'thonk' and the ninja retracts his right foot, dropping it back to the ground. However, when the wooden weapon is swept around toward his right he can't get his guard up in time and takes the hit on his bicep. Stepping back to try and get some room to maneuver, the ninja blocks another swipe with his forearm, then misses the next guard completely and takes a swipe to the side of the face. After that, there is no blocking. The weapon slams into his shoulders, head, and chest, forcing him to step backward with each blow, until the last swing is swept around and the blast of chi accompanying it knocks him tumbling off of the wall. Perhaps something in the chi broke the spell holding him, or perhaps the ghost saw that he was defeated and decided to discard him.
As Noboru falls backward into space he twists, blood trailing behind him from many small cuts and slashes. The shinobi falls faster and faster out of sight, but Frei can sense a tiny spark of chi being summoned. The amount of energy is laughably small. No martial artist could even summon a single fireball with such a pathetic amount of energy. But the Sage can clearly feel how masterfully the ninja wields hit tiny spark.
The last glimpse Frei has of Noboru is the ninja molding his chi into a hard shell across his skin, with webs running through his bones and organs. Will it be enough to save him upon impact with the ground? The redhead may never know.
COMBATSYS: Noboru takes no action.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Frei 0/-------/----===|
COMBATSYS: Noboru can no longer fight.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Frei 0/-------/----===|
Let's be real: a mere fall off a tall building probably wasn't REALLY going to kill anyone who might be up here and fighting worth a damn in the first place. So Frei's not *that* worried. Still, he does shield his eyes with one hand and watch Noboru's descent to the extent that he's able, before a combination of distance and it being dark makes that impossible. And then, when it's clearly been a few minutes, he grimaces and clutches his stomach with one hand and his forehead with the other. "God, what are they FEEDING kids these days."
Slipping his wooden sword back into his belt loops, the redhead stretches, then looks around at the hungry(?) ghosts. "So, I gotta ask... was this a 'JOIN OUR DARK SERVITUDE IN THE ETERNAL COLD OF DEATH' sort of thing?" He even does as grim and dark a voice as he possibly can on that last part.
A few of the ghosts avert their gaze. One appears to be really interested in his fingernails. Apparently Frei was on the money.
Sighing, the redhead shrugs. "I dunno, y'all, like... we're not really fight to the death types in this business, you know? Maybe next time more danger? Like, uh... you could something on fi--"
And then he's dropping to the street like a rock. You probably saw that coming.
COMBATSYS: Frei has ended the fight here.
Log created on 12:06:36 08/09/2014 by Frei, and last modified on 20:26:24 08/10/2014.