[1st/9th] Week --: Round 2: Feng Yin vs. Mineto Mitsuyo

Shadowwind · Aug 12, 2013

The biting sands flitted in the desert wind. The arid heat was enough to already cause the researcher a shortness of breath having only appeared moments earlier. The days since his fight with Zakki, his skin seemed to reject healing from the absurd amounts of radioactivity he had absorbed. The initial damage to his right arm had locked his shoulder. While the limb was still usable, it caused a cascade of pain at the slightest provocation or threat of movement.

Already the pristine white bandages began to look splotchy as the intense heat caused drops of the black liquid that flowed through Feng’s veins to begin to pool onto his skin. From humans to the commander’s own. How... charming.

A smirk spread its way onto the scientist’s lips, which him squinting from the sun and wind the smile appeared almost predatory as he awaited the arrival of his opponent.

[149]

stuff

Inks · Aug 14, 2013

Mitsuyo took a deep breath – then coughed it back out, ducking his head against a flurry of sand and grit. Sand streamed from the peaked edge of the dune the redhead was traversing along, caught in the day’s light breeze. The pebbles and small stones winked as they tumbled through the air, brief reflections of a sun that loomed, bright and devastatingly hot, overhead.

Mitsu was already ready to go home. He had sand in his mouth, sand in his hair, sand in his shirt and in his boots and in places sand just shouldn’t be...and he hadn’t even found his opponent of the day. Only his own damning sense of sportsmanship kept him from climbing into the sky on the back of Ataru’s scrolls, ascending far, far above the wind-blown desert, and searching for the shinigami that way. He didn’t want the guy’s first impression of him to be that Mitsu was trying to start a fight before even introducing himself.

Not that Ataru wasn’t already released. Instead, he had one of the long, levitating rolls of parchment (the green-backed one – which he’d taken to calling ‘Ru’, if only to himself) wrapped about his face and neck, protecting him from the sand (sort of) and worst of the sun’s unforgiving heat (not really). Overhead, drifting along and rippling occasionally in the breeze, the Ataru’s red-backed counterpart (respectively nicknamed ‘Ata’) served as a parasol, throwing shade down to the redheaded shinigami. Not enough – not nearly enough; Mitsu was going to be soaked in sweat if his fight took longer than, like, sixty seconds – but it was better than nothing.

Why do I keep getting stupidly-hot places as arenas? Fuck fighting, I’m just gonna die of friggin’ heat stroke before I even—

Hey,look!

Obligingly, the shinigami turned and squinted into the distance – at the bottom of his dune and off near the horizon. An odd, bandaged figure had appeared, his spiritual signature a bright blip to Mitsu’s senses.

The boy hesitated, then sighed and headed that way, trudging resolutely through the sand. Ru, at his urging, uncoiled from his neck and joined its counterpart.

“Er, h...Hello,” Mitsu shouted while he was still a good fifteen meters away. That Echo girl had been polite enough, but that didn’t mean the same would hold true for every tournament competitor. And while he didn’t know much, he had heard the name Yin Feng before, if only in passing; the man was...

Researcher-Assassin.

What? That wasn’t what I was going to—

He’s a resassin.~

“I’m Mineto Mitsuyo,” he said in a rush, drowning out Ataru’s musings. “Third Seat of the First Division. You’re Yin Feng, right? I guess we’ll be...ya know...fighting...today.”

...Resasser? Ataru suggested.

Ataru. No.

Assearcher?

Argh, NO! Stop!

[455 / 455]

STATS. A-AAAHH. SAVIORS...OF...THE UNIVERSE

Shadowwind · Aug 14, 2013

The bandaged man gave a slight bow, he would be nothing if not polite.At least until he threatened to remove one of the starry-eyed third seat’s limbs. Such a maneuver tended to leave people less than enthusiastic with Feng. Already the first-divisioner had been weighed in the researcher’s eyes. Quirky, strange, could run the gamut between idiot and genius.

“A pleasure Mineto-san. I trust your first match did not leave you in too dire a state?” The former-assassin asked unsheathing his blade. “I would hate for this to disappoint all the lovely viewers.” Without uttering a word, the katana faded in his grasp. Steel was devoured before a wave of living darkness engulfed the blade. In a second the unreleased blade now resembled a crude outline of a weapon.

The black scimitar hung loosely in the man’s left hand, the researcher’s fingers clutched around the hilt. It was relaxation, but also preparation. There was no tenseness in Feng’s features other than what was required to be able to hold the weapon. Years of practise had left him with very little in the way of fear of unknown opponents.

Drawing the blade up in a call defensive posture, the bandaged biologist called out, as playfully as one might think Feng could have mustered, “The first move will go to you, when you’re ready.”

[223/372]

stats and things

Inks · Aug 18, 2013

Again?

“Oh. Um, all right, then.”

Mitsu was struck with déjÁ vu, and he almost opened his mouth to object. What was with people and having him make the first move? Was it something about him? Did he really seem so pitiful that they thought he needed a handicap?

He honestly hoped it was just a strategic decision. While he probably was a bit pathetic-looking for a shinigami...

...he didn’t need people feeling sorry for him. Not anymore.

The redhead shifted, and the toes of his boots sank deeper into rippled, sun-bleached sands. His eyes on Feng and the eerie black frame of a blade held in his hands, Mitsu said, “In that case... Give vision life, make the intangibles tangible. Bakudou five, Mage Eye.”

For a moment, the blue overtaking his eyes could be seen from across the desert, an ethereal light giving them a bright, internal glow.

The landscape faded, changed; the dust, the sand, the cloudless blue sky, and even the painful glare of the sun overhead all gave way to a world composed entirely of the flow of reiryoku – and already Mitsu was moving.

“Mitsu!” he shouted, drawing power from the tattoo on his palm.

Ataru.

The world turned dark – even with his vision altered he could feel the change. Waves of dark energy pulsed through the air, shading it black. Shadows descended upon the desert within Mitsu’s circle of influence, and without the sun’s heat rebounding off the gleaming sand, the temperature seemed to drop several degrees.

The redhead got a running start and leaped. He landed on Ru, took two steps, and jumped again; he stood in the air several meters up, ascending higher with each passing second.

[284 / 738]

Shenanigans!

Shadowwind · Aug 18, 2013

Feng’s reaction to anyone who saw him in the cloud would have been odd. Before he made any effort to leave the darkness that engulfed him, the man delivered a massive arc in front of him. He let out a sigh after feeling that he had missed the opposing shinigami. Never that simple sadly.

Rocketing backward in a shunpo the researcher emerged from the cloud squinting in the bright sunlight. Now where did he run off to? Pondering the question, the researcher began to scan the dark cloud in an effort to see if the man made himself apparent.Cat and mouse was always a specialty of mine," Feng murmured to himself.
[110/482]

stuff

Inks · Aug 20, 2013

Mitsu dropped into a crouch, slung his elbows over his knees, and sighed. The redhead hovered high above the ground, near the apex of the area influenced by his bakudou. The red scroll beneath his feet, while unyielding beneath his weight, rippled lightly on either side of him, and Ru had formed a loose coil below him, drifting in slow circles as he thought.

He stared down at Feng’s distant figure – his reiryoku burned bright against the relative dimness of the sands around them – and scowled.

Well shit. This was going to be one of those fights, wasn’t it?

Feng seemed content to sit out in the desert sun and wait for Mitsu to take the offensive...and Mitsu wasn’t about to risk closing with the guy until he had some idea what the properties of the man’s release were. And maybe not even then, honestly. Feng held his sword in a way that promised he knew how to use it. The longer Mitsu stayed out of the bandaged man’s range, the better off he’d probably be.

Oh fuck it. If he’s just gonna sit there and wait...

With another, more exasperated, sigh, Mitsu stood, moved from Ata to Ru, and sent the red-backed scroll off through the dark.

“The arrows that fell a hero,” he quietly chanted. “Falling sun. Mourn, precious moon, for the withering earth. Hadou forty-four, One Hundred Wooden Arrows.”

Arcane symbols wrote themselves across the scroll’s parchment, unseen in the darkness, and then the scroll emerged into the oppressive heat and sunshine outside of Break of Dusk. Cutting through the air like some ungainly, airborne serpent, Ata swooped in over Feng’s head.

Then a hail of arrows poured from the parchment, streaking down towards the researcher – their sharpened tips flickered with reiatsu.

[295 / 1,033]

RAT-A-TAT

Shadowwind · Aug 20, 2013

The scroll drew the man’s attention upward, drawing on a “Damn,” when the creation let forth its salvo. With a withering stare at the oncoming assault the blighted crescent in the researcher’s hand drove upward in response. His blade sliced through the arrows easily earning him a smirk that the kidouist had failed.

Until, that was, the now broken haft of the first cut arrow erupted forth setting its brethren into a chain reaction that left the former assassin gasping for breath on the sand. Pulling himself up with curses that would leave veteran sailors reeling. Ekibyou glided its way across the mans fingertip before activating. A slice fine enough to be confused for paper cut appeared as a sickening black ichor began to pour forth from the tiny wound. The dark liquor solidified into three identical copies of the researcher before the quartet began to spread apart each moving to take a different side from the darkness.

[157/639]

things

Inks · Aug 21, 2013

...Are you fucking serious?

“Why is it always fucking clones?” Mitsu groused, low and under his breath.

The redhead turned in place, his gaze jumping from one glowing blue figure to another, as Feng and his clones moved to surround him. Ata whirled, retreating back to Mitsu’s side, and its sharp, erratic movements were equal parts an effort to keep Feng from figuring out where it was headed...and Mitsu unintentionally relaying his frustration through his mental control over the zanpakutou.

Mitsu's grimace spoke volumes, and he’d probably be relieved, later, that no one could see the sheer exasperation on his face.

As far as he could tell, all four bastards were identical, and even though it was possible they had physical differences, that was something he wouldn’t be able to notice with his vision tinted solely in shades of reiryoku. He wasn’t going to risk leaving Break of Dusk to get a good look, either. Not unless he absolutely had to.

As his red-backed scroll raced through air, the redhead chanted, “Mitsu.” He channeled the spell into Ru, stepped from one scroll to another, and sent the scroll off.

Ru darted towards the Feng still standing amidst the craters of sand created by exploding arrowheads, and Mitsu and Ata followed to the edge of Break of Dusk’s influence. Mitsu honestly doubted this Feng was the real one (usually the first thing people did after making a bunch of clones was ‘run the fuck off’), but that was sort of the point. He needed to find out just what this guy’s clones were capable of.

Ru overshot the figure by a few meters, then twisted in the air. A second Break of Dusk spilled from its parchment. As the scroll and the possible Feng-clone were plunged into darkness, Mitsu widened his stance and took aim.

“Hitotsu!” he bit off. A bullet of white-hot energy coalesced at the tip of his pointer finger in one moment, and shot off through the encroaching darkness in the next.

[333 / 1,366]

what is this even

Shadowwind · Aug 22, 2013

Hmm so he’s not planning on leaving, the researcher mused sadly as the bacterial colony evaporated before the kidouist’s barrage. The sound of the blast into the desert sand placed the first divisioner above the clone. And of course he’s flying, Feng added with a slight sigh.

“I don’t suppose there’s a chance you come down and get into an old fashioned brawl to settle this is there?” Not waiting for an answer the two remaining clones and Feng himself walked forward into the darkness. The bandaged former assassin’s mind turned trying to figure out just how he was going to get airborn.

[103/742]

Inks · Aug 25, 2013

Mitsu blinked down at the speaking Feng with wide eyes and an expression torn between surprise and incredulity.

Is he serious?

“...Are you serious?” he asked.

...Damnit, Mitsu. If he hadn’t had reason to believe his Byakurai had already given his position away (hence the opponents currently closing in on him), he would’ve kicked himself for the stupidity. Not that it wasn’t still stupid – just less detrimentally so.

Just roll with it. Urging Ata a bit higher, Mitsu continued, “’Cause, uh, last time I checked, old-fashioned brawls don’t include giant black death swords. Or...ya know...clones.”

At least now he had a rough idea of what he was up against; the clones weren’t at all durable...which meant they didn’t need to be. Either they were offense-based...or they had some other use that Mitsu would have to wait to see. “Sorry,” Mitsu said, cringing a bit at the own nervousness in his voice, “but I’ll have to pass.”

He swallowed hard as the trio of Fengs drew near, hands clasped behind his back. A gust of warm desert wind blew past the fighters, ruffling hair and clothes indiscriminately. As it sighed in his ear, Mitsu spoke quietly.

“Star Shriek Blast,” he said, raising his left hand, curled into a fist, skyward. “One Hundred Wooden Arrows.”

The pearl of energy hidden in the shinigami’s palm began to hum. The next moment he opened his hand, and light spilled through the redhead’s fingers and across the desert, washing away the darkness and replacing it with blinding white light.

A heartbeat later, the hiss of streaking arrows filled the air.

[264 / 1,630]

warning for stupidity in this spoiler tag; OHOH I PUT A SPOILER IN THE SPOILER

Nargles · Aug 30, 2013

Hmm, really close one. Like Feng took more damage but immediately turned it into an advantageous counter attack. But on the other hand Mitsu ended up using more rei but was pretty much unscathed. If the fight continued I honestly have no clue where it would have gone to because it didn't quite pick up yet. I'm going to have to give the very slight edge/victory to Feng, but it was hard to conclude this one.

Ready to join Post Terminus?

[1st/9th] Week --: Round 2: Feng Yin vs. Mineto Mitsuyo

Shadowwind

Araevis' Lead Ecologist

Inks

Member

Shadowwind

Araevis' Lead Ecologist

Inks

Member

Shadowwind

Araevis' Lead Ecologist

Inks

Member

Shadowwind

Araevis' Lead Ecologist

Inks

Member

Shadowwind

Araevis' Lead Ecologist

Inks

Member

Nargles

Hollywood Meets Bollywood

Current Date in Araevis