Great Dojo

[YOLF]

Orcus

If this is a stage and the whole world around them naught but Yuzu's instruments, cast and lighting, then it seems as if Orcus is happy to indulge. He crosses his legs and hovers to the floor, folding them in the lotus position. The abyssal blade rests across his lap like a book, and his shoulders straightened as a storyteller in the midst of his home audience.

"The craving of a lout might ruin a few lives. The craving of a king might consume nations. But the craving of a hero can swallow worlds, and endure beyond death." His expression relaxes, but his lips curl opaquely and the crescents of his eyes do not seem to contain the sight of Yuzu at all. "He is the latter. Do you understand?"

A black nail grinds at the surface of Chaosbringer with a foul screech. "Eternity is sought by countless people, but few can justify it. Fewer will fight for something that they have already known in its worst aspect, when that state has deprived them of everything but pain. But strip away all visions of the future but suffering, and nothing remains to dissuade a soul from exploding. Power ceases to be a chain, for in the tools of bondage one recognizes only the means of their retaliation. The targets, the price, they don't matter, and their meaning is erased the instant this rampage has concluded."

Orcus chuckles as if contemplating a funny little secret.

"And if one understands all this, then he realizes, what comes next can be anything he desires."

[Hibiki]

Nika

Her pledge to fight the younger vampire at the promised time was pretty serious, but it didn't mean she would give up looking for opportunities to kill some time and look for other challenges. After taking trip through few other districts like some enthusiastic tourists and enjoying a bit of daylife of the city, she eventually ended up hearing rumours of a district where many martial artists gathered. Dojo something district, huh? Wasn't that the equivalent of gymnasion among those guys who got bombed city by city? She didn't particularly care about those guys hanging out here too. They didn't try to rob her fucking belongings after all, so no grudge on her part. But if the Japanese were here too in their own little Tokyo, what if those thieves in black uniforms hanged around in some Beer Hall District? Hadn't heard about one yet, but she would go on a preemptive strike if she caught wind of some. This wasn't a grudge that withered throughout decades. Hands off her gold!

While she internally rambled like someone who had lived for a long live, she follow directions and headed for that place that caught her eye. She never got to fight the samurai, and she heard wild and grizzly stories about things some of them did. Like eating colleagues of her last boss. As a maneater of sorts, she found it gauche and wasteful and just unpalatable, so she'd show them proper manners. That is, if such ghosts of the world war persisted around here. Japanese after all became a bit too much pacifist for her own liking by the time she went to sleep, falling from one extreme to another seemingly. Weird people. Now to think of that, wasn't Sakura a Japanese name? Her surname was vastly different though, or so maybe she was from some future where just cultures mingled so much that they changed to some extent. Maybe that explained the odd hair colour.

And so, an undead tourist and athlete armed with such eccentric assumptions and conclusions would soon 'grace' the District with her own presence, sticking her nose where she wanted.

[Aiden]

Mira

Months had passed. The tournament fell from public discussion as much as its winner fell from the public eye. Her social media presence descended to virtual nothingness save first for a change in relationship status from 'in a relationship' back to 'single' after only two days, and then to 'it's complicated' around a month and a half in. It was social and economic suicide for someone who'd previously made her living on donations from subscribers interested in a regular release of workout and kata how-to clips.

But of course, this was the dojo district: the land where legal proceedings to evict someone from their apartment involved martial arts battles with your landlord in the parking lot. It was on just such an occasion that Nika first met the former champion, Mira Lashi, as she kicked a musclebound monster of a man out onto the street with a look of obvious boredom. She was wearing a black skirt over bike shorts, a long white T-shirt, and a pair of sneakers. She had a large gym bag over one shoulder, while her other hand was holding her smartphone and finishing an update post. It flashed as if taking a selfie.

[Off on a new adventure. I'm going everywhere, and I'll fight anybody who walks up and asks! No, I won't wait up - sorry not sorry]

With that sent, she turned her eyes back to the grown ass man groaning on the ground. "So ya, don't go selling my shit or anything while I'm gone. I got a girl watchin' the place, so I'll know."

He groaned again in what may or may not have been acknowledgement.

Mira grinned all toothily. "Pleasure doin' business with ya."

Then she blinked, and looked over the sporty girl standing near her landlord. "Ah just sent that, ya know."

[Hibiki]

Nika

"You're already beating the shit out of thieves before they steal anything? I don't know if I'm into that, I say let them try and then crush them to the lamentations of their women and men. I chased once a whole organization for robbing my crib from one end of continent to another." The vampire said with a smug attitude as if she was ready to repeat that whole incident and come out on the top again.

Chasing any thief should've been a piece of cake, if this city was truly city sized. She actually had no clue about how big it was. But wait a second...

"Huh, you expected me for some reason? I'm not some kind of celebrity, but I do know someone with a kind of blue hair." She asked, genuinely puzzled this time about what the hell the person in front of her talked about. Not the first person she met here with a similar shade of hair but it could be just a freak coincidence, the crowds she had seen around had many people with weirdly colored hair and features. Could be thousands of blue and purple haired people. If blondies back in her lifetime were deemed barbarians, then what kind of aneurysm xenophobes would have suffered through here.

[Aiden]

Mira

Mira's eyes shot down to the guy who was stumbling to pick himself back up while hurriedly backing away and down the street. "He's my landlord. I'm goin' away."

She returned her sight back to the new girl, and tilted her head throughout her second look. "Just thought ya were takin' me up on the challenge. Prolly just a coincidence?" She pursed her lips together, then shrugged and adjusted her hold on her bag. "Haven't seen you around here before."

[Hibiki]

Nika

"I'm questioning who is the lord in this obligation. Is he even courageous enough to ask for the payment or every rent paid is a gift to your lesser? Not that I think much about these things myself. If I like arrangement I pay, if not I just move wbere my whim takes me. New horizons, new fronties, and yes, new challenges. What do you offer? Even if you leave this place, surely you have picked up something interesting from those East Asians."

The vampire radiated confidence, but repressed urge to smile too widely. Nothing about this woman made her feel as she was a night creature like her. Heeding a whim, she wanted to keep her little secret a secret for a bit.

[Aiden]

Mira

"Huh. Are ya new to the place? Most people around here have at least heard of Mira Lashi once." Rather than disappointment, Mira's eyes had brightened in excitement. She leaned forward with a smirk pulling at her lips and tilted her head. "Not sure what an Asian is, but I've learned a helluva a lot of ways ta fight around here. Ya have to, 'cause nothin' gets done without fighting here."

She put her phone in her bag, and clenched her right hand into a fist. "Ya want to go a round? I could use a warm-up before I head out."

[Hibiki]

Nika

"Everything's a competition, so this place isn't really different than others. It just puts a different facade to present to the world, a different gimmick. As good location for a sparring as any other."

Saying that, vampire spotted the nearest passerby trying to vacate the scene too after seeing the landlord beaten up, and approached quickly, nonchalantly putting the phone in their palm.

"Do me a favor and keep it in one piece, and I'll pay you a 100. Pawn it off, and you will end up like that landlord. Capisce?"

The person nodded hesitantly and cleared out, maybe knowing better than to do something behind the vampire's back.

"Sorry for that, I don't have a bag on me, and I'm not in mood for shopping again today. So, a warm-up, yeah?" Nika assumed a stance that some could mistake for a forward stance commonly used by Muay Thai practicioners, her both hands closed fights held forward to guard against blows. Hey, she clearly asked for a round first, so someone to got to be a challenger here, even if she had no clue about her strengths beyond roughing up a bodybuilder. Well, she would clearly know more soon.

[Aiden]

Mira

The blue-haired brawler hardly batted an eye at her opponent's eccentricities, and instead just underhand tossed her bag somewhere off to the side to land on top of someone's car. The alarm went off. "Ya. Don't normally pick fights with random folks otherwise, ya know?" Her eyes narrowed at the stance, and she made her preparations.

Mira bounced on her heels once, twice, "Alright, go!" And then shot forward like a blur to the eye. A sufficiently keen eye would see how she led with one hand open in front of her, another closed into a fist at her side, and sought to curve around her opponent to strike at her flank.

[Hibiki]

Nika

Maybe approaching this carefully was the right call after all. She couldn't yet tell how much relative effort this unusually strong tenant put into the opening move, but in her withered guts she could already tell she was going to be pushed a quite far whether she would win or lose. But the best defense was still an offense here, and instead of pushing her body to move around in a similar blur, she tried to outflank her challenger in a counterattack.

All that mattered was the difference in speed. Mira obviously had a slight edge in moving against Nika first, but she counted on her centuries long experience to prevail. Given perfect opportunity, she would try to strike thig or knee with bone shattering kick but even less accurate hit would pack a lot of her strength. So much for a warm up, she couldn't obviously underestimate someone as fast as her serious self.

[Aiden]

Mira

The martial artist's alpha strike clipped against her opponent's side, but left her open to the strange woman's bold counter. She allowed herself to be moved by the impact of leg against right thigh, her merely human body weight causing her to be knocked halfway across the parking lot. Where Mira's experience showed was in how well she caught her footing after that, and the narrow profile she presented following.

"Huh. Wow, you're pretty fast. Good on ya!" Grinning now, she held her hands out in a guard stance and beckoned her opponent with a 'come here' motion using her left fingers.

[Hibiki]

Nika

She had to think how she would crack this nut. Not that she would have to pause with a delay, she had been through too many battles to ever hesitate visible about her course of action. Still, it wasn't looking much tipped in her favour. No room here for a battle of attrition with a human who could match her pace. Such was a dilemma of obligate carnivores like her: short peak performance and long recovery. The vampire discarded many things and gained more, but no room for regrets here. This was merely an obstacle she couldn't even stand up in first place if she was still mortal. A challenge to conquer, to bask in glory of her achievements later like any respectable person born in her age. Can't outlast her? Then she'd gamble.

Even if her obsessions with speed and motion didn't care about the laws of this world that much, her  momentum and mass couldn't be enough to throw off someone of that strength. She needed a force multiplier. And there was enough parked cars, huh. One conveniently a bit to the left of the direction where her opponent was. She assumed that what she planned to do wouldn't seriously injure her if the hit connected.

It all depended if she'd move out of the way fast enough to get his by a vehicle, even one with enough speed and momentum. She didn't plan to throw one, that'd take too much time. She had better, if crazy idea. She would just slam into the car at full speed, a leap aided by her strength and not slowed down at all by the object in the way, propelling it along as she moved towards Mira like a vampire projectile. The combined mass and their sheer momentum would've been enough maybe to throw the athlete off her foot for the part II of her stratagem. But of course she first leaped at the  the car as fast as she could.

[Aiden]

Mira

At first Mira braced herself for a barrage of blows from her charging opponent, digging her feet into the asphalt hard enough to sink a few centimeters into the ground. Her eyes flicked back and forth to maintain sight of the superhuman mobility in play, but even she was left with her eyes widening as she used a car as a projectile by ramming into it and sending the couple of tons of sports utility vehicle right at her.

So she grit her teeth, and dug her feet through the ground, and then leapt over the moving vehicle with an Olympian gymnastic display. Up was the only direction that would work after all, but unfortunately that meant Mira didn't have the momentum to come back down and punish her opponent for the brazen attack.

In fact, if Nika could halt her momentum fast enough she could take advantage of the moment right before Mira's feet hit the ground again.

[Hibiki]

Nika

Halting her momentum was something easier said than to be done, given how much effort she put into gaining enough momentum for this stratagem to work in the first place. She and the car were sent 'flying' in the direction of the nearest row of street lamps, and here lied a decent, yet risky opportunity. As the car rammed down through the succession of street lamps, snapping them and adding to the property damage (anyone living here had enough sense to leave where they hid or vacated the place. This place was probably a warzone quite regularly, she bet), she twisted around her body mid flight and tried to 'jump off' the wreck, leaping off the surface of the car she was tackling microseconds ago.

She already kinda screwed up. But she was having a gods damned blast. With a wide grin that telegraphed her nature just to anyone with keen enough eyes to make out details in the blur of pure velocity and violent intent, she tried to grab her opportunity before Mira touched the surface of the Earth.

[Aiden]

Mira

It spoke to how good Mira was that she could turn at the last second to face her opponent in mid air rather than receive that flying tackle directly from behind. It spoke to her opponent's quick thinking and speed that this was the only thing she could do, and that the next thing she knew she was the center of a new crater on the outside of someone's apartment. Thinking quickly, and pushing through the shock going through her nerves from her back, Mira grasped at her opponent and tried to slam her back down into the ground.

"Haaaaaah!"