SNF: Todoh vs Hotaru vs Jiro with Maxima Surprise - Part 1
OOC: This is a 3 way FFA, where Maxima steps in and dishes out the pain after 6 rounds. Poor Todoh ends up being the primary target for the first half.
IT'S A SATURDAY NIGHT SLAM!! Sure, it's always taken a backseat to the Saturday Night Fights and Neo Leagues and what have you, but the old legends just won't die. (Put enough money in anything by Howard Enterprises and you've got a real zombie of a franchise! HURRRRRGH, VIEWERS, VIEWERS....)
Especially when you got Haggar at the helm. BUT THIS ISN'T ABOUT HAGGAR. And that is probably why the stadium isn't quite at capacity for the fight. It is turning in a perfectly respectable 18,800 sold tickets or so. Which, to some analysts, may be a bit of a wonder considering the lineup.
The program's time is off. The show was supposed to start a little over five minutes ago, but there's been no announcements or anything of the sort. Even the advertisement train came to a brief lull, but how could this be? Some vagrant take a leak on the Capcom Wrestling Association's power generator again?
A mysterious, vaguely familiar voice to at least one person here suddenly belts out from horrible feedback. "AND NOW-- gah, this piece of crap--" PHREEEEEEEEEEEeeee... "--AND NOW! The moment you've been waiting fooooor! That's right! You paid good money to see this, and you're gonna get your money's worth all right! Yeh hah hah haaaaah!"
The spotlights don't come on. This is slightly confusing. Where's all the glam and glitter that comes with this sort of thing?
"TURN IT ON YOU DOOFS! I mean it! Ahem. Oh, this thing's still on?! Argh! I mean, YES THEY ARE! OVER IN THAT CORNER, from some lowly part of Southtown or something, beats me where the Sakazakis get them from, it's none other than..." A pause. Difficulty reading the name? "HOTARU FUTABA! Yay, yay, yeah, yeah, go on." Or difficulty thinking of a way to make fun of her name?
"AND OVER IN THAT CORNER! Or the other one, I don't know, I'm just announcing BECAUSE I SAID SO, uh... blonde hair, you know what, I don't know his name BUT HE'S COMING OUT OF THAT CORNER OR THE OTHER ONE!! It's... some other guy!" Confused clapping and cheering for Jiro. The spotlight points at the wrong corner for a short while. What the heck is going on?
"AND DON'T BOTHER LOOKING AT THE OTHER ONE! That's because the greatest fighter the world has ever known," oh dear, "MASTER OF THE MOST MYSTICAL TECHNIQUES THAT STUPIFY THE WORLD AT LARGE," oh my, "IS ALREADY IN THE RING!" The spotlight aimlessly skirts around the outside of the ring. "I said, IS ALREADY IN THE RING! GAH! OVER HERE! HERE! HERE! HERE!" A figure can be made out waving an arm around while something is slung over their shoulder. Once whoever's operating the spotlight manages to work up the courage to do so, it is none other than... hm, some guy. Long black hair, the moustache, white headband, the infamous gi shirt and red vest, that overly large greenish hakama, those oriental toe-hugging socks. Hmm. Who could that be? He has a red umbrella with a horrible parody of his face etched on and some poorly drawn kanji clearly sewn on top of something else.
The crowds are silent. A cricket even chirps. A great big grin on his face very quickly turns sour, his arms crossing with microphone in hand. "WELL?!" It is amazing how well his voice can carry even without a microphone immediately near his mouth. Now is a good time for the other two to come into the ring.
This is the last time the Capcom Wrestling Assosciation ever gives in to Ryuhaku's constant pleading to be the guest announcer.
Usually SNF events are run rather professionally. A lot of the staff and crew manning each of the events have been doing it for a while. With decent pay, benefits, and a reduction in death threats, most of the employees tend to stick around for a while as well. This means that on average, one can expect a SNF broadcast to get rolling rather smoothly.
Tonight doesn't seem to fit that tradition in the slightest. That might have to do with the guest announcer. Hotaru's brow twitches slightly. She recognizes that voice. Isn't he supposed to be /down/ in the ring though? He was part of this interesting fight designed around applying pressure to the fighters, in the sense of time, to get the bout done quickly, before presure gets applied, in the sense of a cyborg giant crusher of children. Did he chicken out? Has he gone completely mad?! Stepping into the ring just after the spotlight zips on to another corner, Hotaru is left standing in the dark in her corner without any light on her at all, hands clasped behind her back.
Jiro's introduction goes even worse than hers, causing the girl to bristle a little. That's no way to treat her boyfriend! Speaking of Jiro, if he so much as hits her in this random brawl, will she even talk to him ever again?!
"So we meet again, Ryuhaku Todoh!" Hotaru states, pointing at the Todoh-ryuu veteran as soon as the spotlight finally manages to locate the dojo master. "Without a rampaging robot or a pit full of plastic balls or a mud-trap laden front yard or pouring rain, this time there's nothing diluting this match between us!" Well, you know, other than Jiro. And the cyborg enforced time limit. As the Sakazaki's representative this weekend, it's up to her to take down the Todoh menace!
It's another Saturday Night Fight. Oh joy. The folks that Jiro is getting paired up against has been interesting. This is perhaps punishment for his inability to take out Kain in the fight. He has to deal with some joker who can't announce a match worth a damn. But, no matter. Jiro has to deal with the match one way or another.
So, when he enters the ring, Jiro has his hands tucked into his pocket, lowering his head as he heaves off a long, suffering sigh. "This is ridiculous." He shakes his head after hearing his introduction. Then, a feral grin starts to curl up on his lips.
He'll just have to -educate- Todoh who he is in the most painful manner.
After steping into the arena, Jiro glances back to see Hotaru and Todoh. He leans back against the tightrope, allowing them to banter while offering both of them a nod and a smile. Though, the smile towards Todoh is more of a predatory sort before it fades to a stoic gaze.
"Well..." He leans forward, cracking his knuckles, "Time to get on with the fight, no?"
"Wow," the Canadian known as Maxima remarks with a blink as the proud voice of Todoh booms over the stage.
"... That's a pretty weird way to introduce a fight."
The mysterious Canadian fighter had arrived at the SlamMasters Arena a good hour or so before the fight was supposed to actually begin; it was during this time that he received his instructions, explicitly: 'Wait until the timer goes out, and then hit them with everything you've got. All of them'
'Man,' Maxima had wondered aloud, 'isn't that kind of mean?'
'We here at Saturday Night Fight have found that question to be irrelevant, and furthermore are not legally responsible for any harm caused during the course of a fight.'
And that had been the extent of 'listening to Maxima's heartfelt concerns.'
Now? Maxima is rather undramatically sitting in a single steel, foldable chair that, for all intents and purposes, seems to be really too small to handle his weight -- ESPECIALLY his weight. The wonders of pro-wrestling engineering is all Maxima has to chalk it up to. The be-sideburned cyborg contents himself by watching as the spotlight suddenly flashes on. He squints, peering at the entrance of the fighters. Hotaru, he knows firsthand. The others... he knows from the files being instantly pulled up from his databanks, and just from reputation. Ryuhaku Todoh and Jiro Kasagi. "Interesting guys," he notes. His gaze shifts, refocusing on what had been currently occupying his attention: a book collecting Marmaduke comic strips. This will be his entertainment until its his time to make his entrance.
"Ha! Ha! Ha! Oh Marmaduke, what WON'T you do??"
The crowds suddenly cheer at Hotaru's bold entrance worthy of some of the greats in the past of the Capcom Wrestling Assosciation's history! The elder Todoh, somehow, gets the idea that the spotlight he so attempted to squander for himself is quickly leaving his grasp. Shows him right for all the trouble he went through to skew things in his direction.
To this effect, he stands in such a way where his back and side faces Hotaru, spinning the umbrella about in one hand as she calls him out like a true professional wrestler! This umbrella should appear very familiar, from a battle a while ago. Hotaru may remember it.
"Hmph! So, you think this is--" the crowd actually manages to drown him out with chants of 'Futaba! Futaba!' He really should have thought of one of the vast numbers of insultive English puns he could've appended to her name, stolen liberally from Takuma's little black insult book. A vein bulges in his head as the momentum is already on Hotaru this early on! How dare she prove more popular!
At least Ryuhaku knows who his true fans are! He'll have to give that cricket from earlier an autographed T-shirt or something. Todoh-ryuu Kobujutsu is a proven hit among the international cricket population at large and may be an untapped market once they develop the level of intelligence required to comprehend the idea of commerce.
"Bah!" The microphone and umbrella are thrown away like mere accessories before the actual fight, each one clattering against the ground outside of the prestigious fighting ring with their own percussive noises appropriate for a flimsy souvenir and a piece of fine audio technology alike. Like some kind of punchline. "Your boasting infuriates! Your prancing about like a prissy little ninny bugs me to no end!" What? His hands clasp together, hunched over with teeth clenching and grinding while the crowd just barely loses the fight to chant over his taunts. "Well then!! Show me with your might!"
His eyes travel off towards his right. "Oh. Him too. What is he, some dental firm's poster boy?" He sees your feral grin clear as day, boy. Put them away before you blind someone that would otherwise see the awesome(?) technique(?) of the mighty(?) Ryuhaku Todoh(!)!
Of course, the umbrella in question didn't /always/ have Todoh's face emblazoned on its surface. It used to be a piece of the Sakazaki marketing campaign during the summer, featuring Ryo-sensei's mug for all the clouds to see. But now the master of the chief rival dojo has defaced it with his own image instead, creating the first Counter Advertising Umbrella ever!
Hotaru tightens her prissy little hand into a fist and shakes it back at the older fighter. "That's Jiro! You didn't even announce his name for the fight!" The girl gestures toward the young man with her other hand, her shouts barely audible over the excitement of the audience as this match gets started... kind of... sort of...
Actually, seconds begin to tick. With Todoh having taken over announcing duties... and then thrown away the mic, no one is left to actually /start/ the match. Seconds begin to tick by while camera crew and audience alike try to puzzle out just how this bout got off to such a rocky start. Hotaru could tell them though. It's all because Todoh was involved.
"Wait, uh, is this counting against the timer?" the girl finally asks after a moment, looking askance toward an official off to the side. The guy kinda shrugs and points her toward Maxima with kind of a 'Who knows. Up to the big guy, right?' look on his face. "Oh brother." The lights are still not really turned on correctly, and the spotlight is in a constant state of undecision as to who to focus on. But Hotaru is done waiting, pointing toward the boasting Todoh a second time. "All right, you better be ready. Time to start this fight!"
A fair warning given, lights or no lights, announcement or no, Hotaru leans back against the ropes in her corner then /springs/ forward, using the mometum to speed her assault on her dojo's primary rival. Aggressive, she comes barreling in as if about to strike him, until her arms snap out at the last moment attempting to get a grip on Todoh's arms. He's seen this assault before though - and more than once felt the stomping feet as Hotaru charges right up the front of him if he isn't so fortunate as to avoid the brazen attack.
The strangest thing is that Jiro is not too angry as he should be. He's actually staring at the man as if he was the craziest person on earth. Both eyes shut in contemplation, then he re-opens his eyes to get a good look at Hotaru and Todoh. There is a heated rivalry going on. Oh yes, that's right. Kyokugen and Todoh-Ryuu.
He shrugs for once, then he looks at Maxima. "...This should be interesting, I suppose." Then, his sights focus on Todoh, before he finally sprints towards the elderly man with the intentions of driving him -through- a wall.
But instead, Jiro lunges forward out of nowhere with a blind-siding clothesline. At the process, Jiro is lunging himself for further exertion of power.
"HA HA HA! Marmaduke just took his owner-man's chair! What a scoundrel!!" Maxima laughs boisterously as he turns the page. You can ignore him starting... "HA HA HA HA!!" ... now.
COMBATSYS: Hotaru successfully hits Todoh with Shin-Jou Tai.
COMBATSYS: Jiro successfully hits Todoh with Fierce Punch.
- Power hit! -
"The name is Jiro Kasagi. Remember it, asshole."
Ryuhaku Todoh is probably up there on 'crazy'. Maybe he comes just shy of someone who says that Kyokugen is the superior martial art [citation needed]. But there are fighting analysts who will blatantly point out that Todoh standing in the center of the ring is a very tactically stupid place to be at the start of a ring fight. A man so confident in his own ability must be aware of these terribly dangerous risks, yes?
Hotaru leaps off from the ropes with a momentum that'd make some of the best ring fighters envious, a flying ball of tiny kicking fury which, despite Todoh's apparent best efforts in moving back to let her fly to the opposite rope instead of the movement of his left foot to the side is any indication, caught by split-second grab timing that not only gets him from the arms but leaves a bunch of bone-crunching kicks that send him flying back with but an underwhelming grunt of surprise, and maybe some other adjective-laden verbs of some other sort appropriate for such a straightforward, potent assault.
"See that counter?!" Ryuhaku calls out as he steadies himself, hands clapping above and over his head with such a snap that the entire arena might have to pause to cover their ears. Which is, predictably, a good time for Jiro to get the jump on him. He picks up the movement of one of Jiro's feet against the canvas and sways just downward a bit to crouch.
Only it's at the optimal level for Jiro to actually land a clothesline, straight in the back of the head with popped out eyes, a 'nggh,' and a forward roll across the canvas to one of the turnbuckles. It was no small impact - Todoh hits the corner in a sitting position, mildly dazed.
Jiro says something, it's hard to pick up when the head goes throbbing after that one. It's about the time Todoh lifts his arms up and, try as the spotlights may to hide it, cannot deny the formation of that wonderful blocky yellowish-orangeish chi that will most certainly be used in some vaguely exciting manner displaying the sheer power of his entire technique at once?!
Such technique like gently giding them downward in such a way that makes grown men like Jiro cry? "YOU DON'T INTERRUPT ME!" Todoh calls scoldingly in the way only older men like him could.
Yikes. Double trouble for Todoh as Hotaru and Jiro both end up clobbering him. From the perspective of the audience, the outcome was inevitable. While the couple have never been openly public about their relationship, there's plenty a paparazzi journalist looking for a scoop on famous fighters to have put it together by now and get the word out. Whoever decided to toss Todoh into the ring with the two of them by himself really has it in for the old man. Perhaps Geese has had enough of his background cameo'ing antics. Perhaps he dislikes Todoh-ryuu as much as Kyokugen styled karate. Or maybe someone on staff was offended by Todoh blocking traffic one afternoon while arguing with Takuma in the middle of the street?! Who knows.
Hotaru lands from the backflip that completes her aggressive, yet inexplicably nearly always successful attack. Just in time to watch Jiro's famous clothesline deck Todoh in the back of the head and send the man tumbling out of control to the corner. Wincing a little, the girl reminds herself that this is supposed to be a Free For All, not a Free For Todoh bout. "Well, if you didn't carry on so, you wouldn't make yourself such a target," she points out with a firm tone, quiet compared to Todoh's shout of defiance however. But after something like that, she feels kinda bad. Soft hearted to a fault, she turns her attention elsewhere for a brief moment.
Todoh decides to give Jiro a taste of the tried and true Kasane Ate but Hotaru had already made up her mind to give the young man an attack to watch out for. Stepping in at his side, perpendicular to the cascading wall of chi, Hotaru gives Jiro three quick palm strikes to deal with, from low to high into his side. She might be hoping he just avoids it... but she has to follow the premise if the fight, right?
COMBATSYS: Todoh successfully hits Jiro with Kasane Ate.
COMBATSYS: Jiro dodges Hotaru's Strong Punch.
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Hotaru 0/-------/-----==|===----\-------\0 Jiro
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Maxima 2/<<<<<<
Hotaru betrayed him! How could she?! They were supposed to be teammates! Oh, right, this is a free for all match. So he can forgive that.
As Hotaru attempts to come forth with the triple palm strike towards the face, Jiro is actually sweeping straight past her and he rolls away from her direction...
...Right into the brutal wave of the Kasane Ate. Crushed by the sheer force, Jiro is flung across the ground and he grumbles in pain. "...Tsch." He slowly pushes himself up, dusting himself off. He manifests the chi in his grasp, allowing for the energy to shape from the scarlet blaze.
It's a free for all, right? Well, he is debating between Hotaru and Todoh. However, Jiro wants to make Todoh -pay- for that blast. So Jiro shifts straight towards the man's direction with the intentions of cutting him in half with the chi-blade.
Two strokes were made as Jiro sprints past the man.
COMBATSYS: Jiro successfully hits Todoh with Firebrand.
It's not Todoh's fault that the Sakazaki patriarch wanted to get into a heated debate over whether or not those yakisoba noodles sold at the local market are in fact delicious, right smack dab in the middle of that busy intersection! Whatever their stances were on the matter, or why they were even arguing in the middle of the intersection to begin with quickly melted away when Ryuhaku got punted across the street. (Because he let him, for he knew in his heart he was right and the ache will haunt Takuma one day. Really.)
Hotaru backing off of the eldest fighter in the ring gives Todoh at least some time to properly stand, throbbing ache in his head and a handful of angry determined female-powered kicks making it just a tinge bit harder to breathe aside. At least five solid blows between the two, it's quite a bit to soak to stand up and keep doing whatever it is he does.
Oh yeah. Not shutting up, yelling like a buffoon, and maybe throw another ball of chi. Also, strange appearances in obscure places. Which one applies when Jiro decides to rush for him?
"You want some of this?!" Todoh clasps his hands together, lightly and gently rather than that roaring clap noise experienced by all here moments before. The chi blade cometh, and Todoh doesn't look like he cares! So much, that when Jiro comes swingin' with the blade of chi, Todoh tries to sway off to the side.
The side Jiro is swinging from. That's... not smart. The chi blade goes through him, a clean slice that only meets a little friction and resistance going through a human body that has so exhaustively practiced honing the very power of chi, against the strength of a young man wielding such with the thirst for revenge. The end, visual result is nowhere near as exciting as the above paragraph sounds, for the whole effect just sees Todoh losing his footing as he's hurtled off to the side of the ropes.
He chooses to favor the leg of the side not struck, a wince and a wandering eye between the two young fighters. Oh, he sees it now. They're in this together! They're clearly in this together! Such a misconception quickly clouds out any other possibility. But he has himself a little boon to his side, throwing himself up against the ropes. He's sort of distant from the two, so what could he be planning?!
"Yeh hah hah hah! You think that puny little chi can stop ME?! How about I show you what true mastery over this power!" Such trite dialogue! But he must be this confident, throwing his arms up as he is slung back towards the two of them. Even in movement, he narrows his eyes to try and focus a personal favorite the way he knows how. The movements, easy to tell. But the chi doesn't form from above at all.
He loses his footing towards the end, tumbling nearly onto his side with some sort of undecipherable yell followed by something much more legible. "WAAAIYAAAAAH!!" And with that, little blue chi blades thrust themselves up from the mat in a wave pattern! The angle is not nearly as straight intended. What would have targeted both veers off too far to the side, leaving Hotaru to face the brunt of a technique that has always an odd dissonance compared to the way he usually throws it.
It's really like he picked it up off someone else, but he'll never cop up to that! Never! Nuh uh! And heedless of such controversy, this odd blue Kasane Ate spreads out conically as it fans out to the fullest extent of its reach.
COMBATSYS: Hotaru reflects Cho Kasane Ate from Todoh with Kobi Kyaku.
Jiro avoids her palm strikes with apparent ease. Though it's questionable how much her heart was even into them hitting the young man to begin with. That leaves Todoh to contend with the young man's chi blade as the two clash. And once again, things go poorly for the Todoh-ryuu master, Jiro's hit nailing him a second time.
It is with a worried glance that Hotaru looks over toward Maxima, wondering how much valuable time remains. With no means of guaging it for herself, all she can do is just stick to going all out before the hammer drops! While she had hoped to let up on Todoh out of some deeply rooted sense of mercy that overcomes even deeply rooted rivalries between dojos, Todoh's next attack provokes a defense from the girl that proves to be an attack at the same time.
"Don't call Jiro's chi puny!" the girl retorts only to button up all the sudden. Um, yeah, time to focus on something else. Like that underground Kasane Ate coming at her! Drawing upon her fine chi control, Hotaru kicks out and up, leaving a blue swath of energy in the path of her leg. "KYA!" The two sources of power collide for a moment until at last Todoh's own Kasane Ate, now slightly weaker, comes barreling back at him!
There is a blink from Jiro, especially considering that Hotaru and him are fighting. There is actually a relunctant sigh coming from Jiro. At one end, he wants to make it so that he'd focus on both of them. But at the same time, well...
*SNAP*
Puny chi? "Not as puny as yours. That attack didn't hurt as it should had." Though, when he sees Hotaru defending his 'honor' with indignant rage, Jiro just stares.
...Wow, that's kinda hot.
But for now, his attention shifts towards Todoh, then he sprints straight towards his direction while Hotaru sends the wave of energy back towards him.
Jiro skids to a halt behind Todoh. He shuts his eyes for a few moments, taking a deep breath in quiet concentration. A feral grin manifests once more as the eyes of the pyre come to life. Then, the scarlet blaze echos in existance as the erosion bursts from his body. The inferno lits and crackles in the air, especially as his voice erupts with a powerful roar as the flames -explode- from his body, aiming to consume the man in the storm.
COMBATSYS: Todoh endures Jiro's Defiance!
COMBATSYS: Todoh negates Reflected Cho Kasane Ate from Hotaru with Cho Kasane Ate.
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Hotaru 0/-------/-----==|=====--\-------\0 Jiro
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Maxima 2/<<<<<<
Some say Todoh is in a bad position. The oddsmakers in the darkest recesses of the underworld that take bets for this stuff call Todoh a long shot, despite all his boasts. But in his very heart, the beats of a mighty warrior pump an honored bloodline through this man's noble body! His head, probably projecting some sort of strange alternate reality where the majority of his boasts all come true.
But all these exaggerations, they must have a basis on /something/, right? They have to, if he's still parading around like he's the greatest there is and ever will be. "It's puny! Miniscule!" Todoh taunts above the roaring waves of chi that bear a very strong resemblance to a certain other member of the family's own interpretation of the time-honored (yeah, right)n.
Jiro taunts. Todoh giggles in a way that should not make him very comfortable to be even close to him with words like that. He even lets Jiro go behind him! The scarlet blaze envelopes Todoh as he simply places his hands together. It's not a pleasant kind of chi that one should really /stand/ in. But he does! He might not quite be up to snuff at readily gathering chi en masse like some, but his own technique already makes use of what is there in an efficient way.
What happens is an expression of this as Todoh sits in the blaze, teeth chattering as the poorly angled Cho Kasane Ate comes back at him at an equally queer angle. He decides to draw on what Jiro provides so very readily even as it consumes him in heat and more than enough force that should have thrown him off his feet. Damn you kids and your flashy chi ways, this is how the pros do it!
"WHOOOYEEEEAAAAAH!" His arms thrust up and down, an odd coloration in the second straight wave of bladed chi that comes out from the ground rather than above, spreading out and taking on a normal hue (...for this technique) as it meets the returned technique head on. A bright flash envelopes the whole arena for an instant as the two forces, coming at one another from a disjointed angle in the case of the first, meet in such a way that the chi blades bend and separate and dissipate, leaving absolutely nothing in the middle. The colliding forces have simply come to a halt, as though the universe itself could not decide the true winner of a fight between a Kasane Ate and another Kasane Ate of equal worth.
"I GOT MORE WHERE THAT CAME FROM!" Todoh calls out, breath heavy from the passing burning sensation. He does absolutely nothing with Jiro still being behind him. Does he truly even register him as a threat, even as he withstands powerful assault after assault? And can he /really/ throw out a third?!
Time will tell. (Again.)
Sending Todoh a dish of his own Kasane Ate was more defensive reflex than actual intent, but Hotaru had certainly expected it to strike the older fighter all the same. But the girl should've known that trying to hit Ryuhaku with a Kasane Ate would be virtually impossible, and he goes on to prove that that is indeed the case!
The twin fountains of energy collide and in the end, fizzle out completely between the two fighters. That wasn't expected. Hotaru actually comes to a complete stop for a moment to blink in abject surprise. All the attacks the two rival representatives have thrown at each other, never before has such an exchange taken place where the both of them have basically cancelled each out for multiple attacks. "Not bad..." she admits with a quiet mumble.
But this isn't a fight about standing still and ruminating upon the differences or similarities in their abilities. There's a presently amused Maxima off to the side and Hotaru knows from first hand experience that when he ventures into this mix, things are going to get painful real fast. The clock is ticking down quickly.
Whelp, there's no helping it. She's going to have to go after Jiro at some point anyway, and after all that, is there any hope Todoh is going to survive the time limit? The older fighter stands between her and the young man, but for Hotaru that doesn't present too much of a problem to overcome. Just a matter of jumping up, her left foot coming down to seek purchase on Todoh's shoulder to provide a place for her to land and deliver a swift kick toward /Jiro's/ shoulder with her right foot. Clean hit or no, she's obviously not going to stay perched on the Todoh-ryuu master for long. A backflipto the center would definitely be in order.
COMBATSYS: Hotaru successfully hits Jiro with Light Kick.
There is something to be said about the collision of power between Hotaru's manipulation of reflecting the Kasane Ate and the elder Todoh managing to negate it. That was actually a very impressive display. The young man does, however, look towards Hotaru.
Sigh. Yeah, there is really no helping it. Seriously. Considering that this is a triple threat match? They -have- to fight. Then, she comes forth with the strike towards his shoulder. He catches the sight and attempts to move back, but Jiro is caught and winds up to his shoulder.
A grunt.
Well, here goes nothing.
"....No hard feelings. Let's give it everythine we got!"
While Hotaru is up in the air during her back flip, Jiro is sprinting towards Hotaru, then he springs off of the ground and shifts his body weight outward as both legs push forth for a drop kick towards her stomach to give her a rough landing from her back-flip.
Sweat forms down the brow of the eldest fighter of the trio in their desperate battle to end the fight before someone else decides to end it right for them. He has taken plenty of heat (somewhat literally moments ago!), plenty of pain. But there's always that little part of Ryuhaku Todoh that just drives him forward, for the glory of the family style! Or for the shame of the hated Kyokugen way. Either one's good. Both at the same time, even better!
Hotaru closes the distance in record time with a hop, a skip, and a jump off his shoulder! "Ah!" He snaps a hand up to grab her, but she just manages to get right out of his reach as she kicks off of Jiro and off his shoulder alike. If he were of the mind to really think anything positive of all for such a dirty Kyokugen groupie he'd have acknowledged that she knows how to be very light on one's shoulder to the point of barely even noticing her at all!
But he is never so polite to admit this! Never! But then Jiro, that spry little dog and DENTIST POSTER BOY ends up having to go over him, conveniently putting himself in between Hotaru and himself right when he's of the mind to swing his left leg almost completely straight upwards. What was going for Hotaru's chin (if he didn't swing too high) was now going for, of all things, the back of Jiro's head.
His reflexes fail him completely in knowing who's in line to eat that foot. Not that he'd admit this was a fluke of ill timing and coincidence, oh no.
COMBATSYS: Hotaru fails to interrupt Medium Kick from Jiro with Hakki Shou EX.
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Hotaru 0/-------/--=====|=======\-------\1 Jiro
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Maxima 2/<<<<<<
Jumping into the middle of things then bailing before things get too rough is pretty much a maintstay of Hotaru's style of fighting. Hit and run tactics help make up for not being able to take too many hits before she's no longer able to fight. Hence it is that for a moment she's atop Todoh's shoulder, kicking for Jiro, and in the next instant pushing off into a backflip to get her some distance...
And she would probably keep at that game as well, were it not for the pressure of time weighing down heavily on her mind. Not a fighter capable fo dishing out nor surving the damage most fighters can, time is usually something she relies on. But there's no time to play run-around-the-arena tonight!
Before she's even landed, her forearm has already started to glow a vibrant blue as she powers up her attack before she even lands. She knows Jiro's coming for her, so she has to strike preemptively. But there's just not quite enough time. Unlike Ryo-sensei, the girl isn't quite as adept at lobbing chi projectiles in the air. Normally she has to land first. "Ah!" And so land she does - only to take a drop kick to the stomach that sends her tumbling back hard, the attack she had intended to deliver fizzling out as her concentration is shattered.
IT'S A SATURDAY NIGHT SLAM!! Sure, it's always taken a backseat to the Saturday Night Fights and Neo Leagues and what have you, but the old legends just won't die. (Put enough money in anything by Howard Enterprises and you've got a real zombie of a franchise! HURRRRRGH, VIEWERS, VIEWERS....)
Especially when you got Haggar at the helm. BUT THIS ISN'T ABOUT HAGGAR. And that is probably why the stadium isn't quite at capacity for the fight. It is turning in a perfectly respectable 18,800 sold tickets or so. Which, to some analysts, may be a bit of a wonder considering the lineup.
The program's time is off. The show was supposed to start a little over five minutes ago, but there's been no announcements or anything of the sort. Even the advertisement train came to a brief lull, but how could this be? Some vagrant take a leak on the Capcom Wrestling Association's power generator again?
A mysterious, vaguely familiar voice to at least one person here suddenly belts out from horrible feedback. "AND NOW-- gah, this piece of crap--" PHREEEEEEEEEEEeeee... "--AND NOW! The moment you've been waiting fooooor! That's right! You paid good money to see this, and you're gonna get your money's worth all right! Yeh hah hah haaaaah!"
The spotlights don't come on. This is slightly confusing. Where's all the glam and glitter that comes with this sort of thing?
"TURN IT ON YOU DOOFS! I mean it! Ahem. Oh, this thing's still on?! Argh! I mean, YES THEY ARE! OVER IN THAT CORNER, from some lowly part of Southtown or something, beats me where the Sakazakis get them from, it's none other than..." A pause. Difficulty reading the name? "HOTARU FUTABA! Yay, yay, yeah, yeah, go on." Or difficulty thinking of a way to make fun of her name?
"AND OVER IN THAT CORNER! Or the other one, I don't know, I'm just announcing BECAUSE I SAID SO, uh... blonde hair, you know what, I don't know his name BUT HE'S COMING OUT OF THAT CORNER OR THE OTHER ONE!! It's... some other guy!" Confused clapping and cheering for Jiro. The spotlight points at the wrong corner for a short while. What the heck is going on?
"AND DON'T BOTHER LOOKING AT THE OTHER ONE! That's because the greatest fighter the world has ever known," oh dear, "MASTER OF THE MOST MYSTICAL TECHNIQUES THAT STUPIFY THE WORLD AT LARGE," oh my, "IS ALREADY IN THE RING!" The spotlight aimlessly skirts around the outside of the ring. "I said, IS ALREADY IN THE RING! GAH! OVER HERE! HERE! HERE! HERE!" A figure can be made out waving an arm around while something is slung over their shoulder. Once whoever's operating the spotlight manages to work up the courage to do so, it is none other than... hm, some guy. Long black hair, the moustache, white headband, the infamous gi shirt and red vest, that overly large greenish hakama, those oriental toe-hugging socks. Hmm. Who could that be? He has a red umbrella with a horrible parody of his face etched on and some poorly drawn kanji clearly sewn on top of something else.
The crowds are silent. A cricket even chirps. A great big grin on his face very quickly turns sour, his arms crossing with microphone in hand. "WELL?!" It is amazing how well his voice can carry even without a microphone immediately near his mouth. Now is a good time for the other two to come into the ring.
This is the last time the Capcom Wrestling Assosciation ever gives in to Ryuhaku's constant pleading to be the guest announcer.
Usually SNF events are run rather professionally. A lot of the staff and crew manning each of the events have been doing it for a while. With decent pay, benefits, and a reduction in death threats, most of the employees tend to stick around for a while as well. This means that on average, one can expect a SNF broadcast to get rolling rather smoothly.
Tonight doesn't seem to fit that tradition in the slightest. That might have to do with the guest announcer. Hotaru's brow twitches slightly. She recognizes that voice. Isn't he supposed to be /down/ in the ring though? He was part of this interesting fight designed around applying pressure to the fighters, in the sense of time, to get the bout done quickly, before presure gets applied, in the sense of a cyborg giant crusher of children. Did he chicken out? Has he gone completely mad?! Stepping into the ring just after the spotlight zips on to another corner, Hotaru is left standing in the dark in her corner without any light on her at all, hands clasped behind her back.
Jiro's introduction goes even worse than hers, causing the girl to bristle a little. That's no way to treat her boyfriend! Speaking of Jiro, if he so much as hits her in this random brawl, will she even talk to him ever again?!
"So we meet again, Ryuhaku Todoh!" Hotaru states, pointing at the Todoh-ryuu veteran as soon as the spotlight finally manages to locate the dojo master. "Without a rampaging robot or a pit full of plastic balls or a mud-trap laden front yard or pouring rain, this time there's nothing diluting this match between us!" Well, you know, other than Jiro. And the cyborg enforced time limit. As the Sakazaki's representative this weekend, it's up to her to take down the Todoh menace!
It's another Saturday Night Fight. Oh joy. The folks that Jiro is getting paired up against has been interesting. This is perhaps punishment for his inability to take out Kain in the fight. He has to deal with some joker who can't announce a match worth a damn. But, no matter. Jiro has to deal with the match one way or another.
So, when he enters the ring, Jiro has his hands tucked into his pocket, lowering his head as he heaves off a long, suffering sigh. "This is ridiculous." He shakes his head after hearing his introduction. Then, a feral grin starts to curl up on his lips.
He'll just have to -educate- Todoh who he is in the most painful manner.
After steping into the arena, Jiro glances back to see Hotaru and Todoh. He leans back against the tightrope, allowing them to banter while offering both of them a nod and a smile. Though, the smile towards Todoh is more of a predatory sort before it fades to a stoic gaze.
"Well..." He leans forward, cracking his knuckles, "Time to get on with the fight, no?"
"Wow," the Canadian known as Maxima remarks with a blink as the proud voice of Todoh booms over the stage.
"... That's a pretty weird way to introduce a fight."
The mysterious Canadian fighter had arrived at the SlamMasters Arena a good hour or so before the fight was supposed to actually begin; it was during this time that he received his instructions, explicitly: 'Wait until the timer goes out, and then hit them with everything you've got. All of them'
'Man,' Maxima had wondered aloud, 'isn't that kind of mean?'
'We here at Saturday Night Fight have found that question to be irrelevant, and furthermore are not legally responsible for any harm caused during the course of a fight.'
And that had been the extent of 'listening to Maxima's heartfelt concerns.'
Now? Maxima is rather undramatically sitting in a single steel, foldable chair that, for all intents and purposes, seems to be really too small to handle his weight -- ESPECIALLY his weight. The wonders of pro-wrestling engineering is all Maxima has to chalk it up to. The be-sideburned cyborg contents himself by watching as the spotlight suddenly flashes on. He squints, peering at the entrance of the fighters. Hotaru, he knows firsthand. The others... he knows from the files being instantly pulled up from his databanks, and just from reputation. Ryuhaku Todoh and Jiro Kasagi. "Interesting guys," he notes. His gaze shifts, refocusing on what had been currently occupying his attention: a book collecting Marmaduke comic strips. This will be his entertainment until its his time to make his entrance.
"Ha! Ha! Ha! Oh Marmaduke, what WON'T you do??"
The crowds suddenly cheer at Hotaru's bold entrance worthy of some of the greats in the past of the Capcom Wrestling Assosciation's history! The elder Todoh, somehow, gets the idea that the spotlight he so attempted to squander for himself is quickly leaving his grasp. Shows him right for all the trouble he went through to skew things in his direction.
To this effect, he stands in such a way where his back and side faces Hotaru, spinning the umbrella about in one hand as she calls him out like a true professional wrestler! This umbrella should appear very familiar, from a battle a while ago. Hotaru may remember it.
"Hmph! So, you think this is--" the crowd actually manages to drown him out with chants of 'Futaba! Futaba!' He really should have thought of one of the vast numbers of insultive English puns he could've appended to her name, stolen liberally from Takuma's little black insult book. A vein bulges in his head as the momentum is already on Hotaru this early on! How dare she prove more popular!
At least Ryuhaku knows who his true fans are! He'll have to give that cricket from earlier an autographed T-shirt or something. Todoh-ryuu Kobujutsu is a proven hit among the international cricket population at large and may be an untapped market once they develop the level of intelligence required to comprehend the idea of commerce.
"Bah!" The microphone and umbrella are thrown away like mere accessories before the actual fight, each one clattering against the ground outside of the prestigious fighting ring with their own percussive noises appropriate for a flimsy souvenir and a piece of fine audio technology alike. Like some kind of punchline. "Your boasting infuriates! Your prancing about like a prissy little ninny bugs me to no end!" What? His hands clasp together, hunched over with teeth clenching and grinding while the crowd just barely loses the fight to chant over his taunts. "Well then!! Show me with your might!"
His eyes travel off towards his right. "Oh. Him too. What is he, some dental firm's poster boy?" He sees your feral grin clear as day, boy. Put them away before you blind someone that would otherwise see the awesome(?) technique(?) of the mighty(?) Ryuhaku Todoh(!)!
Of course, the umbrella in question didn't /always/ have Todoh's face emblazoned on its surface. It used to be a piece of the Sakazaki marketing campaign during the summer, featuring Ryo-sensei's mug for all the clouds to see. But now the master of the chief rival dojo has defaced it with his own image instead, creating the first Counter Advertising Umbrella ever!
Hotaru tightens her prissy little hand into a fist and shakes it back at the older fighter. "That's Jiro! You didn't even announce his name for the fight!" The girl gestures toward the young man with her other hand, her shouts barely audible over the excitement of the audience as this match gets started... kind of... sort of...
Actually, seconds begin to tick. With Todoh having taken over announcing duties... and then thrown away the mic, no one is left to actually /start/ the match. Seconds begin to tick by while camera crew and audience alike try to puzzle out just how this bout got off to such a rocky start. Hotaru could tell them though. It's all because Todoh was involved.
"Wait, uh, is this counting against the timer?" the girl finally asks after a moment, looking askance toward an official off to the side. The guy kinda shrugs and points her toward Maxima with kind of a 'Who knows. Up to the big guy, right?' look on his face. "Oh brother." The lights are still not really turned on correctly, and the spotlight is in a constant state of undecision as to who to focus on. But Hotaru is done waiting, pointing toward the boasting Todoh a second time. "All right, you better be ready. Time to start this fight!"
A fair warning given, lights or no lights, announcement or no, Hotaru leans back against the ropes in her corner then /springs/ forward, using the mometum to speed her assault on her dojo's primary rival. Aggressive, she comes barreling in as if about to strike him, until her arms snap out at the last moment attempting to get a grip on Todoh's arms. He's seen this assault before though - and more than once felt the stomping feet as Hotaru charges right up the front of him if he isn't so fortunate as to avoid the brazen attack.
The strangest thing is that Jiro is not too angry as he should be. He's actually staring at the man as if he was the craziest person on earth. Both eyes shut in contemplation, then he re-opens his eyes to get a good look at Hotaru and Todoh. There is a heated rivalry going on. Oh yes, that's right. Kyokugen and Todoh-Ryuu.
He shrugs for once, then he looks at Maxima. "...This should be interesting, I suppose." Then, his sights focus on Todoh, before he finally sprints towards the elderly man with the intentions of driving him -through- a wall.
But instead, Jiro lunges forward out of nowhere with a blind-siding clothesline. At the process, Jiro is lunging himself for further exertion of power.
"HA HA HA! Marmaduke just took his owner-man's chair! What a scoundrel!!" Maxima laughs boisterously as he turns the page. You can ignore him starting... "HA HA HA HA!!" ... now.
COMBATSYS: Hotaru successfully hits Todoh with Shin-Jou Tai.
COMBATSYS: Jiro successfully hits Todoh with Fierce Punch.
- Power hit! -
"The name is Jiro Kasagi. Remember it, asshole."
Ryuhaku Todoh is probably up there on 'crazy'. Maybe he comes just shy of someone who says that Kyokugen is the superior martial art [citation needed]. But there are fighting analysts who will blatantly point out that Todoh standing in the center of the ring is a very tactically stupid place to be at the start of a ring fight. A man so confident in his own ability must be aware of these terribly dangerous risks, yes?
Hotaru leaps off from the ropes with a momentum that'd make some of the best ring fighters envious, a flying ball of tiny kicking fury which, despite Todoh's apparent best efforts in moving back to let her fly to the opposite rope instead of the movement of his left foot to the side is any indication, caught by split-second grab timing that not only gets him from the arms but leaves a bunch of bone-crunching kicks that send him flying back with but an underwhelming grunt of surprise, and maybe some other adjective-laden verbs of some other sort appropriate for such a straightforward, potent assault.
"See that counter?!" Ryuhaku calls out as he steadies himself, hands clapping above and over his head with such a snap that the entire arena might have to pause to cover their ears. Which is, predictably, a good time for Jiro to get the jump on him. He picks up the movement of one of Jiro's feet against the canvas and sways just downward a bit to crouch.
Only it's at the optimal level for Jiro to actually land a clothesline, straight in the back of the head with popped out eyes, a 'nggh,' and a forward roll across the canvas to one of the turnbuckles. It was no small impact - Todoh hits the corner in a sitting position, mildly dazed.
Jiro says something, it's hard to pick up when the head goes throbbing after that one. It's about the time Todoh lifts his arms up and, try as the spotlights may to hide it, cannot deny the formation of that wonderful blocky yellowish-orangeish chi that will most certainly be used in some vaguely exciting manner displaying the sheer power of his entire technique at once?!
Such technique like gently giding them downward in such a way that makes grown men like Jiro cry? "YOU DON'T INTERRUPT ME!" Todoh calls scoldingly in the way only older men like him could.
Yikes. Double trouble for Todoh as Hotaru and Jiro both end up clobbering him. From the perspective of the audience, the outcome was inevitable. While the couple have never been openly public about their relationship, there's plenty a paparazzi journalist looking for a scoop on famous fighters to have put it together by now and get the word out. Whoever decided to toss Todoh into the ring with the two of them by himself really has it in for the old man. Perhaps Geese has had enough of his background cameo'ing antics. Perhaps he dislikes Todoh-ryuu as much as Kyokugen styled karate. Or maybe someone on staff was offended by Todoh blocking traffic one afternoon while arguing with Takuma in the middle of the street?! Who knows.
Hotaru lands from the backflip that completes her aggressive, yet inexplicably nearly always successful attack. Just in time to watch Jiro's famous clothesline deck Todoh in the back of the head and send the man tumbling out of control to the corner. Wincing a little, the girl reminds herself that this is supposed to be a Free For All, not a Free For Todoh bout. "Well, if you didn't carry on so, you wouldn't make yourself such a target," she points out with a firm tone, quiet compared to Todoh's shout of defiance however. But after something like that, she feels kinda bad. Soft hearted to a fault, she turns her attention elsewhere for a brief moment.
Todoh decides to give Jiro a taste of the tried and true Kasane Ate but Hotaru had already made up her mind to give the young man an attack to watch out for. Stepping in at his side, perpendicular to the cascading wall of chi, Hotaru gives Jiro three quick palm strikes to deal with, from low to high into his side. She might be hoping he just avoids it... but she has to follow the premise if the fight, right?
COMBATSYS: Todoh successfully hits Jiro with Kasane Ate.
COMBATSYS: Jiro dodges Hotaru's Strong Punch.
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Hotaru 0/-------/-----==|===----\-------\0 Jiro
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Maxima 2/<<<<<<
Hotaru betrayed him! How could she?! They were supposed to be teammates! Oh, right, this is a free for all match. So he can forgive that.
As Hotaru attempts to come forth with the triple palm strike towards the face, Jiro is actually sweeping straight past her and he rolls away from her direction...
...Right into the brutal wave of the Kasane Ate. Crushed by the sheer force, Jiro is flung across the ground and he grumbles in pain. "...Tsch." He slowly pushes himself up, dusting himself off. He manifests the chi in his grasp, allowing for the energy to shape from the scarlet blaze.
It's a free for all, right? Well, he is debating between Hotaru and Todoh. However, Jiro wants to make Todoh -pay- for that blast. So Jiro shifts straight towards the man's direction with the intentions of cutting him in half with the chi-blade.
Two strokes were made as Jiro sprints past the man.
COMBATSYS: Jiro successfully hits Todoh with Firebrand.
It's not Todoh's fault that the Sakazaki patriarch wanted to get into a heated debate over whether or not those yakisoba noodles sold at the local market are in fact delicious, right smack dab in the middle of that busy intersection! Whatever their stances were on the matter, or why they were even arguing in the middle of the intersection to begin with quickly melted away when Ryuhaku got punted across the street. (Because he let him, for he knew in his heart he was right and the ache will haunt Takuma one day. Really.)
Hotaru backing off of the eldest fighter in the ring gives Todoh at least some time to properly stand, throbbing ache in his head and a handful of angry determined female-powered kicks making it just a tinge bit harder to breathe aside. At least five solid blows between the two, it's quite a bit to soak to stand up and keep doing whatever it is he does.
Oh yeah. Not shutting up, yelling like a buffoon, and maybe throw another ball of chi. Also, strange appearances in obscure places. Which one applies when Jiro decides to rush for him?
"You want some of this?!" Todoh clasps his hands together, lightly and gently rather than that roaring clap noise experienced by all here moments before. The chi blade cometh, and Todoh doesn't look like he cares! So much, that when Jiro comes swingin' with the blade of chi, Todoh tries to sway off to the side.
The side Jiro is swinging from. That's... not smart. The chi blade goes through him, a clean slice that only meets a little friction and resistance going through a human body that has so exhaustively practiced honing the very power of chi, against the strength of a young man wielding such with the thirst for revenge. The end, visual result is nowhere near as exciting as the above paragraph sounds, for the whole effect just sees Todoh losing his footing as he's hurtled off to the side of the ropes.
He chooses to favor the leg of the side not struck, a wince and a wandering eye between the two young fighters. Oh, he sees it now. They're in this together! They're clearly in this together! Such a misconception quickly clouds out any other possibility. But he has himself a little boon to his side, throwing himself up against the ropes. He's sort of distant from the two, so what could he be planning?!
"Yeh hah hah hah! You think that puny little chi can stop ME?! How about I show you what true mastery over this power!" Such trite dialogue! But he must be this confident, throwing his arms up as he is slung back towards the two of them. Even in movement, he narrows his eyes to try and focus a personal favorite the way he knows how. The movements, easy to tell. But the chi doesn't form from above at all.
He loses his footing towards the end, tumbling nearly onto his side with some sort of undecipherable yell followed by something much more legible. "WAAAIYAAAAAH!!" And with that, little blue chi blades thrust themselves up from the mat in a wave pattern! The angle is not nearly as straight intended. What would have targeted both veers off too far to the side, leaving Hotaru to face the brunt of a technique that has always an odd dissonance compared to the way he usually throws it.
It's really like he picked it up off someone else, but he'll never cop up to that! Never! Nuh uh! And heedless of such controversy, this odd blue Kasane Ate spreads out conically as it fans out to the fullest extent of its reach.
COMBATSYS: Hotaru reflects Cho Kasane Ate from Todoh with Kobi Kyaku.
Jiro avoids her palm strikes with apparent ease. Though it's questionable how much her heart was even into them hitting the young man to begin with. That leaves Todoh to contend with the young man's chi blade as the two clash. And once again, things go poorly for the Todoh-ryuu master, Jiro's hit nailing him a second time.
It is with a worried glance that Hotaru looks over toward Maxima, wondering how much valuable time remains. With no means of guaging it for herself, all she can do is just stick to going all out before the hammer drops! While she had hoped to let up on Todoh out of some deeply rooted sense of mercy that overcomes even deeply rooted rivalries between dojos, Todoh's next attack provokes a defense from the girl that proves to be an attack at the same time.
"Don't call Jiro's chi puny!" the girl retorts only to button up all the sudden. Um, yeah, time to focus on something else. Like that underground Kasane Ate coming at her! Drawing upon her fine chi control, Hotaru kicks out and up, leaving a blue swath of energy in the path of her leg. "KYA!" The two sources of power collide for a moment until at last Todoh's own Kasane Ate, now slightly weaker, comes barreling back at him!
There is a blink from Jiro, especially considering that Hotaru and him are fighting. There is actually a relunctant sigh coming from Jiro. At one end, he wants to make it so that he'd focus on both of them. But at the same time, well...
*SNAP*
Puny chi? "Not as puny as yours. That attack didn't hurt as it should had." Though, when he sees Hotaru defending his 'honor' with indignant rage, Jiro just stares.
...Wow, that's kinda hot.
But for now, his attention shifts towards Todoh, then he sprints straight towards his direction while Hotaru sends the wave of energy back towards him.
Jiro skids to a halt behind Todoh. He shuts his eyes for a few moments, taking a deep breath in quiet concentration. A feral grin manifests once more as the eyes of the pyre come to life. Then, the scarlet blaze echos in existance as the erosion bursts from his body. The inferno lits and crackles in the air, especially as his voice erupts with a powerful roar as the flames -explode- from his body, aiming to consume the man in the storm.
COMBATSYS: Todoh endures Jiro's Defiance!
COMBATSYS: Todoh negates Reflected Cho Kasane Ate from Hotaru with Cho Kasane Ate.
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Hotaru 0/-------/-----==|=====--\-------\0 Jiro
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Maxima 2/<<<<<<
Some say Todoh is in a bad position. The oddsmakers in the darkest recesses of the underworld that take bets for this stuff call Todoh a long shot, despite all his boasts. But in his very heart, the beats of a mighty warrior pump an honored bloodline through this man's noble body! His head, probably projecting some sort of strange alternate reality where the majority of his boasts all come true.
But all these exaggerations, they must have a basis on /something/, right? They have to, if he's still parading around like he's the greatest there is and ever will be. "It's puny! Miniscule!" Todoh taunts above the roaring waves of chi that bear a very strong resemblance to a certain other member of the family's own interpretation of the time-honored (yeah, right)n.
Jiro taunts. Todoh giggles in a way that should not make him very comfortable to be even close to him with words like that. He even lets Jiro go behind him! The scarlet blaze envelopes Todoh as he simply places his hands together. It's not a pleasant kind of chi that one should really /stand/ in. But he does! He might not quite be up to snuff at readily gathering chi en masse like some, but his own technique already makes use of what is there in an efficient way.
What happens is an expression of this as Todoh sits in the blaze, teeth chattering as the poorly angled Cho Kasane Ate comes back at him at an equally queer angle. He decides to draw on what Jiro provides so very readily even as it consumes him in heat and more than enough force that should have thrown him off his feet. Damn you kids and your flashy chi ways, this is how the pros do it!
"WHOOOYEEEEAAAAAH!" His arms thrust up and down, an odd coloration in the second straight wave of bladed chi that comes out from the ground rather than above, spreading out and taking on a normal hue (...for this technique) as it meets the returned technique head on. A bright flash envelopes the whole arena for an instant as the two forces, coming at one another from a disjointed angle in the case of the first, meet in such a way that the chi blades bend and separate and dissipate, leaving absolutely nothing in the middle. The colliding forces have simply come to a halt, as though the universe itself could not decide the true winner of a fight between a Kasane Ate and another Kasane Ate of equal worth.
"I GOT MORE WHERE THAT CAME FROM!" Todoh calls out, breath heavy from the passing burning sensation. He does absolutely nothing with Jiro still being behind him. Does he truly even register him as a threat, even as he withstands powerful assault after assault? And can he /really/ throw out a third?!
Time will tell. (Again.)
Sending Todoh a dish of his own Kasane Ate was more defensive reflex than actual intent, but Hotaru had certainly expected it to strike the older fighter all the same. But the girl should've known that trying to hit Ryuhaku with a Kasane Ate would be virtually impossible, and he goes on to prove that that is indeed the case!
The twin fountains of energy collide and in the end, fizzle out completely between the two fighters. That wasn't expected. Hotaru actually comes to a complete stop for a moment to blink in abject surprise. All the attacks the two rival representatives have thrown at each other, never before has such an exchange taken place where the both of them have basically cancelled each out for multiple attacks. "Not bad..." she admits with a quiet mumble.
But this isn't a fight about standing still and ruminating upon the differences or similarities in their abilities. There's a presently amused Maxima off to the side and Hotaru knows from first hand experience that when he ventures into this mix, things are going to get painful real fast. The clock is ticking down quickly.
Whelp, there's no helping it. She's going to have to go after Jiro at some point anyway, and after all that, is there any hope Todoh is going to survive the time limit? The older fighter stands between her and the young man, but for Hotaru that doesn't present too much of a problem to overcome. Just a matter of jumping up, her left foot coming down to seek purchase on Todoh's shoulder to provide a place for her to land and deliver a swift kick toward /Jiro's/ shoulder with her right foot. Clean hit or no, she's obviously not going to stay perched on the Todoh-ryuu master for long. A backflipto the center would definitely be in order.
COMBATSYS: Hotaru successfully hits Jiro with Light Kick.
There is something to be said about the collision of power between Hotaru's manipulation of reflecting the Kasane Ate and the elder Todoh managing to negate it. That was actually a very impressive display. The young man does, however, look towards Hotaru.
Sigh. Yeah, there is really no helping it. Seriously. Considering that this is a triple threat match? They -have- to fight. Then, she comes forth with the strike towards his shoulder. He catches the sight and attempts to move back, but Jiro is caught and winds up to his shoulder.
A grunt.
Well, here goes nothing.
"....No hard feelings. Let's give it everythine we got!"
While Hotaru is up in the air during her back flip, Jiro is sprinting towards Hotaru, then he springs off of the ground and shifts his body weight outward as both legs push forth for a drop kick towards her stomach to give her a rough landing from her back-flip.
Sweat forms down the brow of the eldest fighter of the trio in their desperate battle to end the fight before someone else decides to end it right for them. He has taken plenty of heat (somewhat literally moments ago!), plenty of pain. But there's always that little part of Ryuhaku Todoh that just drives him forward, for the glory of the family style! Or for the shame of the hated Kyokugen way. Either one's good. Both at the same time, even better!
Hotaru closes the distance in record time with a hop, a skip, and a jump off his shoulder! "Ah!" He snaps a hand up to grab her, but she just manages to get right out of his reach as she kicks off of Jiro and off his shoulder alike. If he were of the mind to really think anything positive of all for such a dirty Kyokugen groupie he'd have acknowledged that she knows how to be very light on one's shoulder to the point of barely even noticing her at all!
But he is never so polite to admit this! Never! But then Jiro, that spry little dog and DENTIST POSTER BOY ends up having to go over him, conveniently putting himself in between Hotaru and himself right when he's of the mind to swing his left leg almost completely straight upwards. What was going for Hotaru's chin (if he didn't swing too high) was now going for, of all things, the back of Jiro's head.
His reflexes fail him completely in knowing who's in line to eat that foot. Not that he'd admit this was a fluke of ill timing and coincidence, oh no.
COMBATSYS: Hotaru fails to interrupt Medium Kick from Jiro with Hakki Shou EX.
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Hotaru 0/-------/--=====|=======\-------\1 Jiro
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Maxima 2/<<<<<<
Jumping into the middle of things then bailing before things get too rough is pretty much a maintstay of Hotaru's style of fighting. Hit and run tactics help make up for not being able to take too many hits before she's no longer able to fight. Hence it is that for a moment she's atop Todoh's shoulder, kicking for Jiro, and in the next instant pushing off into a backflip to get her some distance...
And she would probably keep at that game as well, were it not for the pressure of time weighing down heavily on her mind. Not a fighter capable fo dishing out nor surving the damage most fighters can, time is usually something she relies on. But there's no time to play run-around-the-arena tonight!
Before she's even landed, her forearm has already started to glow a vibrant blue as she powers up her attack before she even lands. She knows Jiro's coming for her, so she has to strike preemptively. But there's just not quite enough time. Unlike Ryo-sensei, the girl isn't quite as adept at lobbing chi projectiles in the air. Normally she has to land first. "Ah!" And so land she does - only to take a drop kick to the stomach that sends her tumbling back hard, the attack she had intended to deliver fizzling out as her concentration is shattered.