Description: Yuri Sakazaki, daughter of Takuma and a brown belt looking to finally join the ranks of those fully versed in Kyokugen techniques, is the last person to watch over the Sakazaki Dojo as the entirety of Southtown becomes inhospitable to life with the choking volcanic ash clouds that blot out the sun and pollute the very air. Howard Rust, a fellow brown belt, comes to visit the dojo for one last round to check on whoever may still be around before going about his resolve to do what he can to bring as many people together to face the end fighting. Reflecting on their years of growth as fighters, these two look not to close the book, but to go out and simply turn the page into whatever comes next...
Southtown is about as good as lost. The volcanic ash in the air completely chokes out any light. The air cannot really be breathed without great risk to one's health. Communications are spotty at best, and all the stores have run out of air filtration supplies long ago. There are numerous disasters worldwide. Between the complete destruction of Metro City and much of the sea life having been totally killed by a freak freeze-over of an entire sea starting from the coast of Thailand... Southtown seems like it's gotten off light in comparison.
There is almost no one left in the city. Most have fled further in-land, away from the spreading ash clouds that seem to grow further and further out. Lava flows continue to threaten to extend and start great wildfires to swallow everything in its way.
No students come to the Kyokugen Dojo any more. Takuma Sakazaki has decided to go out with his old friends for whatever reason - probably doing their own investigations of the goings-on. The Sakazaki family home where their martial art is practiced, perfected, and beaten within an inch of their students' lives looks as though it has been abandoned for a long time, thanks to the layers of volcanic ash that cover the entire lot, the house... pretty much everything.
It's a dreadful sight, all around.
Howard Rust, looking bruised and battered in the wake of some recent events and revelations of a sort, makes the entire journey to the dojo on foot since he currently lacks a car. He is dressed in a strangely garish lime green and pink variation of his typical clothing (which includes the horrible hairpiece, which is also a bubblegum pink). He looks sullen, yet determined enough to make the walk across the empty lot where one would normally hear the shouts, cries, and tears of white belts.
He is, so far, the only person to have come to the dojo grounds in the last couple of days, as though he were still expected to. Ol' Rusty, as always, is seen through one of the toolbelt pockets by his left hip. Unlike the last few days, he's stopped bothering with the flu masks. It doesn't appear like it makes much a difference, any more, as the falling ash and embers brush against him.
The others may have left the dojo, but there are those who refuse to leave the dojo no matter what. Even though it looks like she's been through hell and back recently, due to a fight which she lost in Metro City, Yuri Sakazaki remains at the dojo, believing that her style of karate will help her overcome this situation. In fact, it may seem totally strange to see the dojo empty save for Yuri herself training in there. Her body has a few cuts and bruises on it, and she has a few bandages as well, but other than that she seems to be training almost like nothing's going on.
Even though there is lots of volcanic ash and other things, Yuri doesn't let it get in her way. In fact, she seems to adapt to it well, utilizing it as makeshift training obstacles to help her improve her skills. It's almost as though she's determined to make as much of a difference as she can, even if she is only one girl.
At the moment, Yuri is too busy being preoccupied with her training to sense that Rust is coming. She simply continues to focus on sparring with the dummy in front of her, practicing a few punches and kicks. She pauses occasionally to rub at a spot that she shouldn't have moved due to a previous injury, then resumes her training. It's almost like a faint light in a dark tunnel.
Coming across the way in, Howard slides the doors open. The sound of the sliding doors struggling against the ash that have piled up on the porch and, well, EVERYWHERE, is loud, distracting, and ultimately a reminder of just how much crap this town has gone through over the years. This is easily the biggest load of it, and what a pile of crap all this ash becomes!
It's dark outside, but somehow, Howard's visage casts a shadow still over the loneliness of the inside of the dojo. If the whole door opening thing doesn't announce him, a pop in one of his elbows sure does. He takes a while to say anything resembling a 'hello,' or 'how are you,' or anything of the sort. Maybe it's to just take in the sight of Yuri trying her best against the dummy already set up inside.
He closes the doors behind him, ostensibly to minimize the amount of ash that comes in... but considering he's absolutely covered in the stuff, it is impossible NOT to track ash in. Even Takuma had, at one point, largely given up on punishing people who tracked stuff in there - now he's not even present for it.
"Hey," Howard speaks up after clearing his throat. "'scuse me," he pats his chest with a closed fist, producing even more clouds of volcanic garbage to further pollute the air inside the dojo proper as he takes a nice, slow walk across the floor.
"Still... still at it, huh."
As soon as Yuri hears the door opening, she pauses and then spins around in her fighting stance, not expecting visitors at this time. "Who is it?" Yuri exclaims angrily, expecting there to be hostility of some sort here. Given what's been happening and how no students have shown up for at all while her father has run off to who knows where, she has good reason to be suspicious about this whole thing. Then Yuri hears that familiar voice and she turns around, her aggressive look replaced with one of friendliness, albeit rather forced.
"Oh, Mr. Rust!" Yuri says with a smile, although one can tell that it's very forced. "I'm so glad to see you're OK," Yuri says, as she starts towards him, showing a hint of injury to her leg as she limps a little bit. "Yeah, I know I can't do much on my own, but I know that Kyokugen Karate can definitely help to some extent." She sighs and rubs at her arm. "Although my recent fight may not have attested to that..."
"OK is, uh... uhhh, kinda," he waves his left hand about to and fro in a sort of wavy gesture as if to say 'kinda sorta,' "relative."5r It's true, he hasn't ever really been able to spare much the time to fill people on all the little misadventures he's been having. He sure looks tired, though - and like a twelve-story building collapsed on him (only a portion of it - a pretty big portion but you know, a /portion/). There is a definite sense of fatigue and wear in his every movement, as a pop in his knee is quick to reinforce as he stops to flex it out.
"I, I didn't get to... to see it," he says, apologetically, as he turns his head to the side and rubs the side of his head, taking in about as deep a breath as he can. The inside of this dojo is the closest thing to clean air for miles now, and even then the dojo has had weeks to pull in some of the outdoor ash every time someone opened the doors.
As Yuri comes closer, he does too, pretty much like old friends getting together despite the number of decades between them (two and a bit over a half).
"Y-Y'know I'd... I'd never doubt the, the effort you put into it," he's seen her determination first hand, even all the way back in the King of Fighters 2011 tournament when she all but inserted herself into their team so that she could compete and show her dad that she could hold her own. The rest of what happened, well, that's... storied history.
"It's, it's pretty rough for, well... everyone. I mean... Metro got," he looks sullen, "destroyed, like... washed away. Thailand's got... got that frozen ocean that, uh, killed all the... fish... it's... pretty nasty."
That's an understatement, but those are the only words he really has for it, as he turns back to face Yuri.
"Do... do you know where, uh... your brother... 'n Robert... Marco... and, uh, your dad went?" He coughs again, a consequence of trying to tough out the volcanic ash-filled air. He's done better than most, but now he immensely regrets not having something over his face - even if that ultimately didn't do him a lot of good!
Listening to Rust, Yuri's smile fades, very easily albeit as if she was truly forcing it and it wasn't too hard to let go of it. "I... I know... Everywhere we go, disasters are happening. Even in Metro City, where they've been washed away literally!" She looks down and scowls slightly as she remembers the match she failed previously. "I... no..." She shakes her head and looks up again, putting on a more stern look this time and taking a deep breath. Blowing it out, she shakes her head in response to Rust's latest question.
"No, I don't know where they are... All Dad told me was that he was going to Thailand. I haven't seen or heard anything from him since." She refuses to mention the letter about the Metro City fight, since she strongly believes that it was a forgery. "I wish I knew where they really were, I'm worried about them. And all of our students too!" She bites her lower lip.
Howard winces at the news that she doesn't know where the family is. He tries to put likely pictures in his head. Robert might be back home with his folks, he knows he's seen some guy in a magenta suit skulk around from time to time asking about him... Marco's probably still looking for his bear since Howard hasn't ever heard about whether he found him one way or the other... Takuma, well, she kind of confirms where he's gone off to. (He was under the assumption that he might've been at a Costco causing problems again.)
Ryo, though... he... he probably has an idea, but his train of thought is broken as Yuri bites her lower lip. The distress seeps through that forced smile she puts forward, and Howard goes along to take a step forward.
"The, the air really... really can't be, be breathed out there," he says as he jabs a finger backwards, "y-y'know most the students aren't as... ah, tough, as we are," actually he'd argue he's not as tough as Yuri if she's really willing to physically exert herself to the utmost in these conditions, given the dust is eating his lungs alive too!
He takes a deep breath as he considers what to say next - no, he's not constructing a lie. He's been around the Sakazaki family long enough to have a good picture of how they operate. No one in the Sakazaki family and their related associates would ever, ever, EVER abandon Yuri to fend for herself outright...
"Well... it's, it's hard times, but," Howard reaches out to put a hand on her shoulder, if she lets her, looking her in the eyes.
"I... I think your brother, and... and your father, they... both trust you."
He lets that sink in.
"Hell, I mean... look at you, you were... j-just, wailing on that thing," he gestures to the dummy, "if I didn't... didn't interrupt, you'd... ah, probably just, uhh... send it through the wall... again."
"You, you really came a long way since we first met, I mean... back when you snuck on our team, y-you remember that?" Those events were absolutely terrible and horrifying but now, years down the later, he's working up a snort for something that approaches laughter. That, or his sinuses are clogged by ash. Both are likely.
"Wherever they've gone, and... and I know they're doin' their best out there... to me, it... it sounds like they know that, that they can count on you." He nods again. "You aren't just a, just a kid any more."
At first, Yuri doesn't want to believe what is being said. She can't believe it, it has to be a joke, especially with that snort. But then, the words echo in Yuri's mind, and she softens up a little. She looks down for a moment, as if lost in thought about what has just been said. Then she looks up at Rust and nods her head affirmatively. "You're right. I don't want to admit it, really, but I am starting to grow up a little more." She sighs, realizing that her childish ways may have cost her a few battles here and there. "And I'm the only one here, while the others are hiding or something."
Yuri turns and looks at the training dummy she was sparring with. "Back then, when we were in the tournament... I wouldn't have been hanging around here in a situation like this. I'd probably have run off or something." She looks down at her fists, covered with ash and sweat, the former of which almost unconsciously causes Yuri to cough a few times. She takes a deep breath again, then looks to Rust. "You're right, I'm sure they're fine. Besides, I have to focus on what's here and now."
Here and now.
Here and now, there are disasters beyond the reach of any particular human beings to fix. No single human being could have turned back the six story tall tides that took Metro City under for good. No single human being could have predicted, nor done anything about, the sudden freezing of the sea off of Thailand's coast. No single human being could have stopped Mt. Fuji's lava flows. No single human being could have prevented all the disappearances in Paris.
What can anyone do here now?
Howard takes another good look at the dojo as it stands. All the little scars it has suffered that have yet to be patched up (which is a frequent happening, given how often bodies fly around here after a nasty uppercut or two).
"Wh-what I do know, Yuri, is... nothing's... nothing's gonna be the same after this. A... a lot of lives, I mean... everything's kinda... nah, it, really changed, and... and not for the better, but, it did." There's no take-backs on the disasters, no magic reset buttons for what he knows he's deciding to push through and do, as he faces back to Yuri again while stretching out one of his legs to get rid of a kink--
He grimaces again suddenly, bringing a hand down to rub his thigh. That's where he really took a nasty hit by one piece of falling debris! It's... sort of funny he decided to walk the length he did all the way to the dojo after the fact, as he looks back up to Yuri.
"H-Here and now, there's... there's pretty much... no one left. I, I've been around the neighborhood, just 'bout... just 'bout everyone's evacuated," and for good reason, the nearby forests could catch fire at any moment, and there's no way to really combat any fires that break out.
"It's, it's not gonna be safe to be here for long... I... I really wouldn't... push yourself, having to, ah, to breathe this in. I, I really worked myself to the bone when I was, ah, really young." He can speak from personal experience here. How much asbestos dust had he been exposed to in putting up and tearing down walls? Sooo much. He really should've sued for a hefty sum...
"Last thing... last thing you wanna do is, is, I-I'm not gonna hold back words here," he waves a finger, then points at his chest, "you don't wanna fuck up your lungs, this, this ash ain't no joke..."
He waves a hand around as if to try and clear whatever is in the air away, which is a futile gesture because there is so much of it.
"Y'know, it, it wouldn't do for you to get sick now."
By now, the realization of what's truly happening has settled in for Yuri, and tears are welling up in her eyes as she realizes that things are worse than they initially seemed. It's not fair and it's not right, yet Yuri knows at the same time there's nothing she can do about it. Thinking quickly, Yuri rubs her eyes and shakes her head, before coughing once again, then looking to Rust. "I'm sorry, Mr. Rust. But given how everything's literally going to hell, where should I go? What should I do?"
A pause as Yuri looks at Rust's thigh and then she coughs again too. "I know this stuff is bad for my lungs, but I can't leave my dojo behind." A pause as she glances at her dojo and all of the training equipment. "Still, I guess I have to learn to let go. We can always rebuild the dojo." Yuri closes her eyes in deep contemplation. "I just don't know what to do for now."
"D-Don't we, uh, rebuild the dojo... almost, ah, every day?" Howard rubs the back of his head. How much lumber does the entire school GO through? How many times have entire walls, the ceiling, and even the floor collapsed under all the physical abuse the students of one of the most physically demanding martial arts /in the world/ put themselves through?
Heck, at this point the students that stick with the school are also probably some of the best carpenters the world has to offer.
However, it is fair to ask what there is to do now - this dojo is basically Yuri's entire life, the focal point of her dreams of martial arts mastery, isn't it? By extension, a lot of Rust's, too. Is it the end of times?
She's asking him what to do. With the absence of her immediate family and their friends, it is down to just these two in order to make the final call.
"F-For now," Howard says as he looks back behind himself. Of course, he needs to address what /he/ plans to do. He knows he doesn't want to have Yuri worry further like she already does for her family...
But she doesn't see her as a child. He can't lie, either, facing her as he starts to speak what's going on.
"For now... for now, you, you oughtta get somewhere safe. They... they set up refugee shelters, ah, all over, shouldn't... shouldn't be hard. You wanna go north," he vaguely points in the direction he THINKS is north but otherwise illustrates the point.
"I'm... I'm gonna gather as, as many people as I know, because..." He thinks about what he wants to say here. He wants to say he has the answer, that he knows how to fix all this, but...
"I'm, I'm gonna head out to fight." Fight who? He pats Ol' Rusty with his right hand. "Iiii... I don't know if, if it's all really... something that can be fixed just by, ah, beating up the right person, but," he does his best to keep his eyes on Yuri the whole time. No lying, no sugarcoating it.
"A-As I said, things... even if, if we made this all go away, they aren't gonna be the same, Yuri. 's gonna be... really, really hard, from here on out, but," he nods his head as he continues, finding it easier to say it straight as he keeps saying it.
"Some... some very scary people're up to... to something even worse than... than what Vega's done, or... or those cultist types from 2011," he explains. He has become famous for having helped fight against all these. People see him as a hero who, by some means or another, sees the day being saved even when it all is well over his head.
IT's always been well over his head.
"I'm... I'm gonna get in touch with, with as many people as I can, 'cause... I, I don't think any one person's gonna... gonna stand a chance, Yuri, alone, but... things're just, just all fallin' apart at the seams, I mean... like, time, too. I saw it."
He'll save a certain someone the indignity of having their past blabbed about.
"I, I don't know if we can fix it, but, I'm not gonna... gonna stand 'round and wait for it to end without a fight."
The more Yuri hears from Rust about things that are happening and the way things are going, the more it starts to dawn on her that this may not be so easy after all. Or rather, she thought it was going to be difficult at first, but now it's truly started to sink in that there may not be a happy ending. More tears start to well up in Yuri's eyes, and a few start to slide down her cheeks. But then she wipes them away and shakes her head, reminding herself she's grown up and is not just a kid anymore. She tries to take yet another deep breath, but it's not easy with all the ash and soot all around. Then she looks to Rust again, forcing another smile.
"I'll try to find a refugee center then. But I'm not going to rest there. I'm going to do what I can to help out. Even if I can't fight the things that are happening, I can still try to help those who can't protect themselves!" Yuri cracks her knuckles. "I know I can do it!"
Forced smile or not, it's not easy for anyone to find the courage to still say they're going to do the best they can when the situation and environment itself breeds despair and helplessness. Everything is falling apart - even time and space is no longer keeping itself together. Everything threatens to swallow itself into the void of nothingness, if what that giant of stone said is true.
Howard turns around to face his back to Yuri as he looks back out the door. In a few moments, he's gonna have to step back out into that damn disgusting air. There's no way around it. He has a lot of walking to do, and all he has for breathable air is... that stuff.
"A-As I said, Yuri, it's, ah, it's... not something just, just one person's gonna be able to do." It's true. Even for the things he's famed for surviving, he wasn't alone. Hell, he hasn't really had a chance to get back in touch with Julia Chang nor Munin Arshe in the wake of their heroic final stand against Vega in South Korea - if it weren't for them, he wouldn't have stood at the end of it all.
"Honestly, I... I don't think there's, ah, there's many other people I'd take over you, if... if you'd wanna come along." He's already made it clear how dire the situation is, but he trusts her with stomaching things if worse comes to worse - after all, she is one of the best students of Kyokugen! She might not be at the level of her brother or the family friend Robert, but she's no slouch. She's young, with lots of room to grow - she has proven time and time again she's a truly dedicated student as one of two only known female students in this particular art of fighting.
"T-Tell you what," he says as he coughs again, clearing his throat once more with the predictable gestures as he turns back to face her, "get... get all you're gonna take with you," obviously there's some personal effects she might not want to leave behind, "I-I'll wait a bit. Once you're ready, well."
He looks back out towards the door. "You, me... 'n everyone up for it... we're gonna be in for a hell of a fight." He doesn't even quite know the full character of who or what they're going to be up against! He has but a name and only a vague riddle as to the location, but... one way or another, if not by himself, maybe anyone and everyone he pulls together will be able to suss it out.
They may have a fighting chance yet, albeit so slim as to be invisible from view.
Yuri lowers her head and takes a few deep breaths, albeit carefully to avoid coughing again. She grits her teeth as she considers all of her options, before coming to the realization that Rust has a good point. Even a tiny chance is better than none, and Yuri has finally come to the realization that this may be her only option, as opposed to staying at the dojo and hoping for a miracle. She looks to Rust, tears welling in her eyes and her teeth gritted, and gives him a firm nod. "All right, Mr. Rust, I'll do it. Just give me a few moments please." With that, Yuri disappears into the residential area of the dojo, obviously heading to her bedroom where all of her belongings are stashed.
It takes a little while for Yuri to get herself ready, but eventually she returns, carrying a backpack that looks to be fairly full but not too full that it would wear Yuri down while she were wearing it. "To be honest, I don't really have many things that I consider to be personal to me. So it's kind of easy to pick out what I need and don't need." She then reaches into her bag and produces a digital camera. She takes a few pictures of the dojo training area, almost like providing some last memories before putting the camera back in her backpack. "This may be good bye, but at least it's for a good cause." By now, the tears are streaming down her cheeks as she takes one long last look at the place she has called home for the longes time, before turning to Rust, and giving him a resolute nod.
"Let's go, Mr. Rust," Yuri says with a voice of determination, one that contradicts the tears streaming down her cheeks. "If we can get out of here now, we may still have that chance."
While Yuri goes upstairs to get her things, Howard goes up to the training dummy she's been working on. He gives it a few playful shoves and slaps--
No, this is the Kyokugen Dojo. They always throw real punches here. That is how things work. If they're going to leave this training dummy behind for a while, it's not going to be intact. He inwardly considers the best way to send this off. Jackhammer Kick? Hmm, no. A good Girder Sway? No, it lacks a bit of bite for the situation. Perhaps a Bulldozer?
Before he knows it, Yuri comes back down with her stuff and the explanation as to why it's actually a lot quicker than he first believes, beating him to the punch to asking if she were done so soon. He nods along with her explanations.
"O-One thing," he says as he gestures to the training dummy she was wailing on when she came in, "y'know, I... I just... don't think it's right we leave that thing... standing."
He can see it's hard on her. It's hard on him, too, even if he might not be in tears over it. He has been personally shown how his daily routine is no longer going to be a thing - if it ever will be again, chances are slim. He's a man who's always thrived on having a schedule and the guarantee of a day's work. He's a working man. That's how it goes for him. He's almost hardwired to expect to be awake and able to do his job (mostly getting beaten up at the dojo) for the better part of the day, to expect this to be his life until circumstances change as such that he might have a new livelihood... but he had great faith that this, at last, would be it.
Maybe it still can be, but... for now.
"Wh-what you say, ahh," he draws his legs apart in a ready stance, waving his hands in front of himself. The gathering stance for the legendary Haoh Sho Ko Ken, although... he's never quite gotten it right. He's not very talented in terms of chi manifestation compared to most at his level.
"Wh-what say you, we... give it a, a Haoh Sho Ko Ken, before we go," he sniffs, "'m not gonna... gonna leave that here to get busted up by, by a looter, or something. You game for that?"
At first, Yuri seems a bit shocked by this whole revelation. Rust wants to practice the Haoh Sho Ko Ken in the middle of a situation like this? It's totally dumbfounding to Yuri. But after a moment of thinking over what he's saying about looters, she realizes he does have a point. Not only would it prevent looters from breaking it or anything like that, but it would also be a good way of bidding farewell to the dojo in Yuri's opinion. Yuri stands silently for a moment, then puts her backpack down and then gets into the ready stance herself.
"You're right, Mr. Rust. It would be a good way to part ways with the dojo." She begins to wave her arms in the same manner, manifesting her chi and focusing her power into her hands. Almost like it's old school, she begins to remember the technique, and she nods to Rust as if to say, "Let's do this!"
It's a matter of dojo pride to utterly destroy just about everything they put up for use of practicing strikes and techniques and the like! Of course it's the ultimate send-off for this last training dummy as they all prepare to walk off to clearer skies, to regroup and get ready for whatever comes their way next.
He says nothing to Yuri, knowing full well that even at its simplest - and that's understating! - it is a technique that requires the utmost of concentration. Yuri, of almost all the students short of Takuma himself, is probably among the most skilled at executing it. He remembers sitting in the audience of that NDP match where she threw a Haoh Sho Ko Ken that damn near destroyed the protective barrier between themselves and the audience.
He couldn't tell the difference between hers and her father's when that happened. Standing next to her now, he is even more acutely aware of the chi manipulation through her than he had been when he first started. The power and conviction she puts behind it - it is, in turn, inspiring him to attempt to develop that into his own. He's gotten the motion right for the longest time, but the effect...
In tandem with her motions, he moves forth and shouts as he finishes circling his hands, pushing outward with one hand raised up high, the other low. There is barely much, if any, proper manifestation here - maybe the bit of flickery energy he's managed through his legs, but yet, he pushes forth with all the Kyokugen might he has accumulated.
"Haoh...!"
"...Sho ko KEN!"
With that, the two voices echo in unison, and with that, Yuri sends forth a huge blast of chi from her hands. Just like in the past during her fights, she sends it out loud and proud. That blast goes towards the training dummy, just like she's always done before. And this time, it hits harder than even she thought would be possible.
The training dummy is destroyed. For a moment, Yuri can only stare in disbelief as she realizes what has happened. Then she smiles to herself as she realizes that this is a sign that she has truly become stronger than before. Her skills have grown with her, meaning she's becoming less of a kid and more of a young woman now. It's almost like this is part of transitioning into adulthood. A tear of emotion slides from her cheek.
In one great cloud of chi-borne violence and destruction, the training dummy is no more. It is splinters - no, it may well have just simply completely evaporated. Such is the way of Kyokugen might, which pushes to greater and greater extremes not thought possible for the human body to perform... or, in some cases, endure. Through some of the most strenuous training imaginable, with an ungodly number of repetitive exercises until one's entire body aches, through any number of injuries inflicted from simple sparring or even practicing the more dangerous and demanding of the techniques...
In their wake, should one rise through it, a mighty warrior is forged forth. Such is the art of fighting!
With tears in Yuri's eyes, and grim determination on Rust's face, he pats Yuri's shoulder and helps guide her out of the dojo, to walk her through the volcanic ash-filled air into safety.
For now, the dojo may be empty, its students scattered to the winds... but Kyokugen might...
It is never truly bowed!
After getting her backpack back on, Yuri takes one final look at the dojo and the remains of the training dummy, which has now completed its life with a positive ending, before walking with Rust out of the dojo and into the streets. The air is still filled with ash, but Yuri seems to have adjusted to it somewhat. She doesn't say anything at the time, instead looking down at the ground as she walks. It's almost as though all of these emotions are clouding her mind and she's taking the time to think about what's been said and done today... and about how Yuri has truly started going from a spunky young girl into a young woman...
Log created on 20:23:43 09/17/2014 by Rust, and last modified on 22:44:34 09/17/2014.