(Untitled)

[combiplay]

Who: Gamma, TYB!Yamamoto Takeshi [Will eventually be opened for intervention, of the TYL sort.]
What: Brawl based on a Bet. (Aka. Gamma is baiting TYL!Moto, by making terms TYB! can't refuse to meet.)
Where: The Fountain.
When: 2pm.

Comments

[combiplay]

"Haha..." All ready amped to start then, hey? Yamamoto wasn't too surprised.

This Gamma guy took everything pretty seriously, most of all himself. Seemed like it, anyway. He remembered those dogs pretty clearly, the ones standing at halt by his side, but--

Haha. The horse was new. Storybook duel, to a tee.

Well, maybe besides the awkward looking bird that was slowly waddling its way after Yamamoto, wide-eyed and naturally confused looking, quiet but for the light slaps of its feet against the ground. He hadn't been able to get the little guy to stay put, so, with a quick glance back and a sighing grin, he began to remove the katana from its perch on his shoulder, speaking as he did so.

"Hey, think you could lay off this thing? Maa, he just wanted to cheer me on, I guess, haha." Chin up, he gave Gamma a more secure, more genuine smile.

A duel is between people, right? So Left Field and the Knight's Horse should be left alone. Only seemed humane. Playing by the rules. Good sportsmanship.

That said, though, his smile lengthened, until it was thin, and twinkling, and smirking at his edges. Like patting the bat down before the pitch, it was his signal he was ready to tango, play ball.

"We should get started."

He'd promised Tsuna he'd be somewhere tonight, and he wanted to hold up to that promise.

He intended to put up his best fight, and he'd come into this with a plan, sunglasses, rather than blindfolded. Hah... it'd be enough. Because he'd make it enough.

It never occurred to him that this was the pre-game show. He steadied his blade, watched Gamma, and waited for the first pitch.

[blackfoxed]

He narrowed his eyes. Figured that the brat pack wouldn't have the first clue what their familiars were for.

Terse. "If you can keep him out of the fight."

Forte had snide mental comments to make about that remark but Gamma had already tuned him out. He might have thought twice about getting the creature 'activated' if he'd known it was going to mean constant backtalk. At least the Volpi couldn't speak.

He didn't bother to acknowledge Yamamoto's second statement, grimly punching his ring into the billiard box weapon. This wasn't going to be like the day in the woods, when he'd been screwing around and testing their abilities in his own time. Right now he didn't give a good goddamn how much Yamamoto had improved, he just wanted the boy's unconscious smoking body flat on the pavement and available to hold over the Rain Guardian's head.

Powering the full set of billiard balls and the Nero Volpi and his own flight all at once was a little out of the question under Nuadoria's suppression. Gamma stayed earthbound with the foxes circling close, and summoned only four of the balls, the crack of the pool cue sending them hurtling towards Yamamoto.

[combiplay]

Noted the first statement with the slightest tilt of his head into a nod, his lips staying settled into place. Haha, this was a bet, so it only made sense to take a gamble...

Gamma worked with electrical currents-- maa... but did that mean he was immune to them? Even Lambo could only stand up to a certain voltage, right? He'd thought it over the night before, the logistics. Gamma was a forward attacker, not too tricky, someone who wanted to bowl you over by a sheer power.

Saa... but what if all that energy was hurtled back at him?

The flame erupted over his own ring the moment the electrically charged set of four balls hit open air space, and Yamamoto copied that self-same movement. Ring into box, and;

"Rondine Di Pioggia!" Thick Japanese accent made the rounded Italian syllables choppy, but regardless of lexicon, out his own box animal came, flying a straight path towards Gamma's own onslaught.

Haha... it was a little smaller than he was expecting, less impressive than usual, but-- ah, maybe that was just the setting, regulating fairness? He wasn't totally aware of the suppression system, but by this battle's end, he probably would have at least an inkling.

A wave of water, though diminished, rain attribute.

Tranquil, water that was purely defensive, that should ware down Gamma's flames. And water, period... that should carry the electric current back at him.

Haha-- if it worked, that was!

Not taking any chances, though, he darted forward himself, trying to get into position to attack from behind him, as soon as the splash was over with.

[blackfoxed]

Oho, so the puppy had learned a few new tricks.

He vaulted out of the way of the incoming wave, activating the flames at his heels in a quick burst and moving to meet Yamamoto head on, not interested in dragging this out or in avoiding close quarters as per his usual strategy. The Volpi could chase down that pesky box weapon this time and Gamma's pool cue, coated in Lightning flame, held enough resistance to counter the edge of a katana. He wasn't faster than a teenager's reflexes, but he was stronger and fought dirty whenever a chance presented itself.

[combiplay]

Katana stilling when it met the pool cue, Takeshi was sharp enough to counter balance the unexpected stop with footing that kept him grounded in place. Haha, not the best position to be in, since metal conducted electricity...

So he'd have to move quickly.

Sliding his sword down, he let out a clear whistle to hail his bird back, so he could try to pull off the Tenth form. He had to try to end this quick and clean, maa...

Meantime, he bought himself a few seconds and hopefully some space by slicing forward, at Gamma's stomach, while backing up.

The problem with his movements was, as always.

They weren't brutal. A defensive swing had no intention of causing damage, just giving him room. Part of ending it quickly meant not dragging it out, scattering injuries.

Yamamoto was a clean fighter, compared to Gamma.

[blackfoxed]

And defensive moves like that were exactly what was wrong with the Vongola. Not taking things seriously. Not acting deliberately. Hesitating, and justifying it to themselves however the hell they liked, while people around them had to suffer the consequences.

This could have all been avoided if someone had just turned his blade to present the killing edge.

Gamma knocked it aside instead, snapping the pool cue around like an impromptu bo staff. He wasn't actually generating enough electricity to do more than give a nasty jolt every time pool cue and katana connected for too long, and that was fine, because he was angry and not wanting to waste the energy and would happily settle this with bare fists if he could get the damn sword out of Yamamoto's hands. Which wasn't likely until he landed a blow solid enough to make the boy's ears ring.

...or until he could get a fox manuevered around behind Yamamoto, leaping for his sword arm with jaws wide.

[combiplay]

His fingers tingled slightly from the second contact, but that was it. None of the burn there had been, that his body remembered acutely, from the first time he'd encountered Gamma. He'd felt those volts down into his teeth, like a burrowing force.

And he didn't think it was because Gamma was showing any mercies.

Haa, not that there was time to think. If Gamma needed his Volpi back to help disarm the swordsman, then that meant at least one would have to relent on their attack of his overhead backup. The bird came on fastest wings, giving Yamamoto just enough time to process a look of confusion at the splintered pool cue (saa... why would he waste his own weapon that carelessly?), before--

"Scontro Di Rodine!" The water, again, was lesser. Barely covered him on his sides when he struck again at Gamma's, propelling himself forward, trying to take him down in one clean, if blind, sweep.

[blackfoxed]

He'd waste a replaceable weapon if it wasn't doing him any good, which was the case here, as the Volpi missed its lunge amidst all the water and Gamma threw himself to the side. The blade opened up jacket and the shirt underneath, but no more than that.

Kids were geniuses, these days, activating water attacks around electrical box weapons. The fox went into its spin, not to fly at an opponent but cranking up its own voltage while still in contact with the wave, and all that water was surrounding Yamamoto, now.

[combiplay]

And maybe that would have been worth it, for a solid hit. He hadn't felt that particular catch, the hardness that a blade encounters when it had to slice through soemthing giving more resistance than air, water, or cloth. Frustrated breath of air finding its way through clenched teeth, he'd already be thinking his next move, something to keep Gamma on his toes, he couldn't let up, when--

A genius, Yamamoto had never been hailed as. Despite his trick of figuring out that water conducted electrical currents, it didn't change that fact that water was his main mode for cover and covertness, the backup to his strikes, and the element he'd grown accustomed to having on hand, comfortable with.

But comfortable was probably the last word he might have used to describe the sensation that accompanied getting doused.

Letting out a strangled cry, shock perhaps more than pain (electricity was a growing kind of ache, it startled at first, and hurt a few moments tardy), his footsteps slowed, hands loosening over the katana's hilt at the sudden burst of energy that ran through his body, along with the downpour of charged water.

Ah... crap.

The Volpi. He hadn't thought of that.

Haha... jeez... Gokudera woulda yelled at him for being so careless.

[blackfoxed]

No reason for Yamamoto to have seen the Volpi in action, unless the Storm Guardian had spent a lot of time going into details about his own fight with Gamma. Which, as one might have predicted, apparently hadn't happened.

Both Volpi wasted no time surrounding Yamamoto, the second growling as it approached--and Gamma called them off with a stern order in Italian. That had been a decent sort of scream. He thought Yamamoto could do better, though, and the boy couldn't scream if he was unconscious from too much voltage.

"Wanna try that one again?" he invited, standing just outside the reach of the puddle. Puddles. He'd have to watch his step on the pavement.

[combiplay]

"Haa..." Breathed, since Gamma was apparently giving him a moment to catch it. The grimace was erased in short order, replaced with another too-toothy smile as he raised his eyes to his opponent, adjusting the angle of his body, and tightening his grip again.

Why had he stopped, all of a sudden? Letting up was a bizarre move, unless the guy was worried about expending too much energy, or something. Speaking, too, was something he'd done in the last fight, only to waste time. Weird...

"I think I'll pass."

Admitted, relenting for now that... haha, yeah. Water might not be the best thing to attack alongside of. He'd have to make sure he was outside of range, before attempting that again.

So, for now. Just good, old-fashioned sword strikes. The field itself was pretty doused, as was his clothing, so if he had to be fast before-- he should be even quicker, now.

Not having all too many options, he'd charge.

Gamma's weapons worked better long range. For right now, he'd have to stick to getting in close.

[blackfoxed]

Why had he stopped? Because Forte was watching, and more specifically watching the sea bird thing that was Yamamoto's familiar, and it had been shifting restlessly. Gamma had no idea how well the X-S class childs obeyed a master without direct communication but he didn't want to be triggering that thing's combat form, if it felt Yamamoto was in mortal danger. Not when he had to conserve as much energy as he could for another fight, and another familiar that would, if he had his way, be pushed to defend its master.

And also, maybe, because he'd given his word that this would only be between them.

The pool cue was already busted, so it was nothing to crack it in half and charge the two pieces with Lightning flame--and these really wouldn't stand up to a direct strike, but he could deflect the katana at least as the wood was whittled away, and jolt Yamamoto each time he made contact. Gamma had trained against Genkishi and could handle himself against a sword--and Yamamoto was no Genkishi. The Volpi had to stand back for this anyway or zap them both via the water they were fighting in.

First strike, slapped aside, the wood splintering even when coated with solidifying flame. Rain attribute and its degeneration. He'd had that burn on his face from Gokudera's use of it for a week. Second, third, fourth, fifth, deflected or ducked under or twisted away, except the ones that nicked, and the one that nearly took his arm off at the shoulder when his weapon splintered like so much kindling under the blade. Forte screamed in protest, rearing and striking the air, the Volpi inching closer with teeth bared and Gamma swore, backing off as blood splattered the pavement.

[combiplay]

Seconds in between strikes, the time lessening with each fresh swing, short but powerful. Flurry the hits, back and forth, to throw off balance, and in their case, to remove the thin barrier of splinters that prevented him on both sides from getting a clean sideways swipe.

The fan of red that caught the very edge of Yamamamoto's vision confirmed that. The pool cue wouldn't be problematic anymore, as it had been that at best, sending small, haha, kinda annoying shocks down through his hands a breath's pause from each connection of katana's edge.

If he kept up with the slicing movements now, he might be able to wear Gamma down, and bleed him out... but, maa, that wasn't his style. Ending this as soon as possible was the best of all routes, and doing to least damage and getting the most graceful hit was something characteristic of swordplay.

In other words, he needed a lunge, not a strike.

The movement was subtle, but trained. He'd swing halfway to the right, hopefully forcing Gamma left. But his wrists, and fingers too, shifted once nearly there, and the sideways sweep changed directions. Went forward, instead, angled far left.

To hopefully cut straight, clean into Gamma's lower abdomen.

...Killed, or seriously injured, right? Saa, so long as he didn't make any sudden movements, it shouldn't pierce anything that would make the strike fatal. And this could be over with. So he kept his hands and eyes strong, and put all of his faith into his sword.

[blackfoxed]

It connected. Gamma was already off balance and unprotected on that side, remaining dinky chunk of wood (of course the one he had left was the more slender half) cut neatly in two when instinct--that switch, how easy, he watched it come and moved like this was back home, like he was at full power and it would take a higher purity of Rain flame than that to cut through anything he'd fortified with his own flame--made him use a real block instead of smacking the flat of the katana to the side. Stupid, and for a second he had a very clear vision of falling to the ground in two pieces as the sword bit into his stomach.

Fuck.

But a straight lunge like that left Yamamoto completely open in the front, and Gamma's hand shot out to catch the blade, trying to keep from being completely skewered and ow fuck his hand. The circular shield of Lightning flame he'd not used so far roared to life around his ring and he backhanded the brat with it hard as he could.

[combiplay]

He'd done it.

That thought flashed through Yamamoto's mind, prematurely. The katana had connected with its target at its prime point, and a clean cut through would be enough to take victory. A serious enough injury to end a fight without ending anything else, anything more serious. There was an adrenaline rush to winning, and a relief at the same time.

He probably should have learned from Gamma the first time, from Genkishi at least, that victory was a feeling that shouldn't sting into your consciousness until you were sure of it. Haa... this wasn't a fight that he'd picked, and it wasn't one that had a point beyond getting it over with, and keeping Gamma from starting it with someone else. Haha... Tsuna had enough to deal with, right? Gokudera, too. And he could handle it.

But his heart wasn't in it.

It was over with, and that was good enough.

And childish, maybe, to think so, too fast. Haha, maybe that guy would have told him as much.

Not that he was doing much thinking, once that kind of voltage slapped down on him. He was vaguely aware of his fingers loosening, and the katana slipping away, of his knees scraping the ground, maybe even of the fact that he'd let out a shocked sort of yell that rolled up into the back of his throat and got stuck, gasping.

And then it was all very quiet. His body burned, his face especially, and his vision was blurry. Instinctively, he scraped to grab the sword that had fallen beside him, but his nerve endings were jittery, fried by that blast.

Saa...

Maybe not over yet.

[blackfoxed]

Well.

Gamma cut the flames out instantly, absolute horror washing through him for a second and catching Yamamoto's shoulders before he could smack his face into the ground. If he'd killed him, if he'd murdered a fifteen year old boy in cold blood...

But that was ridiculous, and he shook his head, because. It didn't matter. It didn't matter how young the boy was, he was Vongola, and this was war, and Nosaru had been even younger when he'd become Millefiore and sent out to kill. Yamamoto didn't deserve mercy, none of them did, and certainly not from him. It was their fault. It was their fault that Uni's eyes were dead, that she never blinked when Byakuran leaned on her shoulder or whispered in her ear, that Nosaru let his hair grow long and talked too loud and snarled at anything that looked at him and that Gamma took the execution missions, one after another, because he was the leader of the Guardians but he wasn't, he was a Funeral Wreath now and he came back with blood on his hands and they stepped back from him, his own family. He had to wear gloves because the lights would explode, because he'd nearly killed someone just by touching him.

Byakuran was only a piece of it. He could have been stopped. He should have been stopped.

"But you didn't," he said, and it came out like a growl. He fisted a hand in Yamamoto's shirtfront and hauled him up, the boy's head lolling, and Gamma suddenly didn't give a shit whether the brat was dead from cardiac arrest (but that couldn't be, after all, the familiar hadn't exploded in fury yet). He had a fucking hole in his stomach. A little blood could be shared around.

He dropped him like so much meat in front of the Volpi and scooped up the katana. "Watch him. Do not eat him or stop his heart while you play. I'll be right back."

The foxes slunk closer, ears pricked and teeth bared, and Gamma went to find bandages and brandy and some sturdy wire.

When he got back five minutes later the sea bird was perched on Yamamoto's chest, glaring balefully at the Volpi, which were busily cleaning blood from their muzzles and paws and ignoring the familiar. Yamamoto's clothes were torn and bloody, bite marks visible through some of the rips, but he didn't look dead or eaten and one of the foxes trotted over to Gamma to deposit the Rain ring in his hand. He pocketed it idly. Maybe he'd give it to Byakuran. Maybe he'd give it back to the kid. Later. The sword was set neatly on the fountain edge and there it would stay.

Yamamoto would wake (when he did) on his feet, actually, and in the entrance to one of the buildings a few blocks away from the fountain, cord wrapped around his wrists and all the way down his forearms and holding his arms over his head, bound to the decoration on the arch above him. There was a door at his back but it was open, giving him nothing to push off from, and there was just enough slack in the cord to take the weight off his arms if he stood on tiptoe. The Volpi were still present, watching with ears pricked, and Gamma had his own shirt and jacket off, patiently wrapping bandages around his stomach with a lot of cursing in Italian and medicinal help from a bottle.

He hadn't bothered to get Yamamoto's box weapon yet. He could take his time, now, since the only trace left of them at the fountain was blood splatters and no particular trail.

And the sword, of course, left sitting there so innocently.