Summary:Ranna enters her first fight. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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The pit is noisy. Cheering. Jeering. Betting. The fights have been going for the past hour and a half and they show no signs of stopping. Kian Allard Liao is present. This isn't really his scene. It could be, sure, but he makes his money in the racing circuit. The, er, slightly less than legal racing circuit.
No he's here to bet, and to watch. Ryoshi's fight should be up next. The people who run this ring are just dragging out the bloodied form of the last defeated fighter.
The fights are brutal, but so are the people here. He's been watching. Yakuza. Russians. Italians. Irish. CEO's and common lowlifes. It's a cross section of the criminal and corrupt, all here to watch their blood sport.
The doors are opened to the pit to let out the next combatants. Ryoshi should be one. He has no idea who she'll be fighting yet.
Ryoshi still has the problem with her implants. She'll go and see Hank when she has some money, no matter what the kindly doctor, scientist?, said. Which is why she's taken to the fight circuit. This is her first official fight … and she's more than a little worried.
Spilling out into the cage, the small dark skinned woman with a mask covering the lower part of her face, dressed in loose clothing looks around at the spectators and then for Shiranui's face in the crowd.
There's not a flicker of fear in her dark eyes, though the other Ninja might not miss the slight tension at the corner of her eyes.
Where her opponent works the crowd and makes a show, the small woman moves quietly to stretch and ready herself. She's not a showman and it shows.
The other ninja is indeed in the crowd, toward the top of one of the risers. Keeping to the shadows and generally staying down. He doesn't flash Ranna any recognition. But he does watch.
Her opponent is indeed a showman and this is an armed match. He has what looks like a nine part staff, so at least this will be with a weapon that she has seen before. There are spikes on each terminal end so that's… novel.
Finally with the crowd roaring the leather clad, and equally masked, man turns to look at Ryoshi, points at her as if to 'call her out' and begins to lazily spin his weapon while he starts to circle. He's looking for an opening and assessing her stance and footwork. Ranna knows that because she will be doing the same.
Not seeing Shiranui through the lights and the crowd, Ryoshi swallows and sends up a silent prayer - to who or what is a good question - before turning to her face her opponent and offering a small, polite bow.
She's wearing her bracers, but has taken up a set of short batons. No embellishments like her opponents, just good sturdy weapons - Ranna is going to rely on her speed and her skill.
Not her power. Right?
Circling slowly, Ranna paces the big man - he towers over her as most people do. Quite deliberate she darts in to test his defenses and stumbles.
Quickly righting herself, she darts in again.
The spiked nine part staff swings over Ryoshi's head and then comes down just to her right as she darts out. When she comes in again the swing is much lower, aimed at her calf. Fexible weapons are tricky. If you don't know exactly how to deflect them they just wrap around your weapon, or your limb. And if you're not careful you just get hit by some part that you weren't paying attention to earlier.
But Ryoshi knows this. And she knows that this guy seems well trained as he spins the OTHER half of his staff to bring it in on her head while she's busy.
To the observers, Ryoshi seems clumsy and slow - not overly but certainly not up to the level of the opponent she's been pitted with. This surely won't very long - he's bigger, faster and has a much longer reach and will make ground beef of her easily.
Seeing the staff swing, noting where both ends are, Ranna times her step carefully.
The end seems to catch her shin, the small ninja tumbles - the other end of the staff whistling through the air above her head, as she tucks and rolls beside and behind the behemoth. Her staff whips out to strike him hard between the shoulders, the woman moving with a noticeable limp to his other side.
Ryoshi's opponent stumbles forward and turns. He lets his long flail slide down his hands until he has it at nearly full extension and spins around in a wide arc meaning to catch the limping woman around the midsection and end the fight. That blow alone if it landed might kill her as the ends of this thing are indeed spiked.
And if it didn't the subsequent coup de grace might do it anyway.
"AAAAAAHHHH!" The man is vocalizing now, putting a lot of effort into making this blow hard and fast.
This is just what Ryoshi had expected from her opponent. She's often overlooked or written off because of her size. Shiranui wasn't wrong that she gave away heaps in the weight department and there's no way she can get consistent, sustained blows on this man.
Also - she doesn't want to appear too good. Being underestimated works for her usually.
Dropping to the ground, as flat as she can go, Ryoshi strikes out with her baton, smashing the mans ankles and tangling them up.
She vocalises too, grunts as well - though it's probably not heard over his bellowing.
The crack of baton on ankle can be heard throughout the arena and the crowd collectively gasps which might be somewhat satisfying for Ryoshi. The man with the flail loses his balance and goes down but gamely tries to roll with it. Literally. He rolls away from Ryoshi and tries to bring himself up but can only manage to come to one knee.
That is still enough though to re-acquire Ryoshi as a target and snap out another swing of his nine part staff at her. Though it's awkward because he has to drag the weapon up off the ground first and because he's favoring one leg and can't get all of his weight down. The sure thing just became a lot less sure.
Ryoshi keeps rolling as the man hits the ground, spinning up onto her knees and rolling to her feet - her toes to be precise.
One baton swings to block the incoming strike, Ranna moving more quicly than she had been before, certainly fast enough that people may not realise what's happening.
She steps inside the staff, right up to the big "Hiya …." The tone is light and high - a counterpart to his gutteral ones - the baton coming down hard on his shoulder. Hard enough to shatter it if he's not wearing any padding.
Then she tumbles, up and over, keeping her legs tucked close to make it hard to grab her.
He is wearing padding but the blow still dislocates his shoulder and makes him drop the staff. He does scissor his legs, trying to trip her up but even if he succeeds it's questionable how he's going to win the fight. He's got one bum leg and one bum arm now. Not a really good recipe, that. The crowd roars in anticipation of a finishing blow.
Up in the stands Shiranui smiles. He did, after all, bet on Ranna. And it is looking like that bet is going to pay off for the both of them.
The scissored legs catch Ranna as she tumbles, sending her sprawling in an undignified heap. Not that she minds, it makes it look all that much more convincing that she's not that good… She turns to rise…
Ow. That hurt. She landed on her shoulder.
"Do you yield?" She points her baton at the behemoth in a parody of the way he'd called her out. Waiting just long enough for an answer, the small woman hobbles over and puts a chock hold on the man. He can't move and he can't breath.
He'll either pass out or tap three times to be concede.
He struggles. He squirms. He tries to grab Ryoshi. And eventually he passes out without tapping. The crowd cheers as his struggles grow weaker and weaker. Bloodthirsty bastards aren't they.
And the end of it Ryoshi is left standing in the arena to the sound of applause. People took note of that.
And Shiaranui is cashing in on that. Because why not.
She can leave now. The prone form of her opponent will be dragged out. And her winnings will be waiting for her. Shiranui will probably be around if she wants to risk talking to him. And if not she knows where to find him outside this place.
Ryoshi doesn't take much time to exit. Following the large mans body out. Her shoulder aches as does her shin - she didn't get out of this scot free, though a lot more easily than she … should … have.
It takes sometime for her to exit the building, she didn't try to find Shiranui inside - she didn't see him in the seats, afterall. Instead, making sure she's not followed, the dusky skinned woman heads to their usual meeting place, not far from here really.
"Shiranui?" She calls out as turns down the alley. She wouldn't put it past him to test her right now.
Shiranui is counting money when she arrives. It's a small stack of bills but clearly winnings that he received. "Forty. Sixty. Eighty. Two thousand. Hello Ryoshi. I'm here." No he's not testing her. He saw the fight, he knows she at minimum got winged. She couldn't limp too badly on the way out lest she be targeted… but she also might have been hamming it up. He's not sure.
"That seemed to go well. Ish. How are you feeling?" And did she get paid? He expects she got paid. More than a night's work at the Shops that's for sure.
"Two thousand dollars? Is that what you made?" Ryoshi finds a box and sits down, stretching her leg out and wincing. Kian can see a wet patch - blood most likely. "Wait … you were there? Who did you bet on?" Not her she reckons. "… Wait…. you were watching? I didn't see you, I was looking."
She's still got her mask on, of course. Can't let anyone see who she really is.
"It went better than I planned and I hurt less than I expected. Mixed feelings really - I have some money now and its a good start to getting me fixed. But I *hurt* and he got some lucky hits on me."
"You of course. I was watching. I was in the upper risers. Didn't want to call attention to myself." So he had come to watch. Not cheer her on per se but probably make sure she got out alive if it looked to be going poorly. And make a little money. Why not. This is rent. Well. Part of rent, anyway.
"When's the next fight?" He asks, putting the money away. He'll have to get that to a safe place later. Banking is difficult when you earn by less than legal means but he's got a bit of practice.
It's a good question where Ranna keeps her money. Or will keep her money. She's been on the move consistently since the Order sent the … order … down. "I… would have liked to have known you were there." She finally says quietly. "And I'm glad I'm didn't let you down."
"Was it convincing then, that I only sort of knew what I was doing and that was a fluke tonight?" It's important to her, for some reason.
"Next weekend. They gave me a slot each weekend if I want it. For a while I'll take it up."
"Pretty convincing yes. It looked like you were novice. Or nervous. Or just not that good. You want people to bet against you, I take it?" It makes the odds go up though he's not sure it affects her pay. Then again it might. He hasn't really investigated that part of the fighting circuit.
"I understand the arena moves. They have a full on circuit. Just, you know, illegal." He's not really picky about that because he has to do it too.
"I'll be around when I can. Just to make sure you don't get dead." Because being broke is much better than being dead. "You know you could probably fight powered. The pay would be better. But the fights would be a lot more dangerous."
As it stands she can probably get away with cheating a little bit.
"What? Why would I want I want that?" Ranna shakes her head. "I didn't want them to think me competent, it makes them overconfident and they make mistakes." Ranna's dark eyes meet Ryoshi's mask over her scarf. "What danger could a little girl be, after all."
"It was like that at home too. I learned to fake my opponents into overextending themselves."
"Now I've won my first fight, that's going to be more difficult to do. And I expect that I'll have others try their luck after schools out, so to speak."
It seems that Ranna is used to that sort of thing.
"It does move. You can find out where or I can tell you. And I don't plan on getting dead. I'm doing this so I can stay alive."
Those eyes fix on his mask his, the small ninja shaking her head. "I could. Yes. I would do well but my opponents might not and I've no desire to kill, Ryoshi. I've … done enough of that."
"You've been talking to the local vigilantes too much." Shiranui complains. Well, mock complains. He straightens up and looks at her very seriously.
"Well either way this will keep you going as long as you don't get badly hurt doing it. How long until you have enough for…" He gestures to the back of his head. Her surgery. He knows she wants to pay for it. He also figures she'll want to, you know, rent her own place. Eat food that isn't ramen. Maybe get some transportation. All things that are much easier to do with actual money.
"Have I?" Ranna's eyes smiles tiredly "Or is it that beating you gave me, made me realise something? Don't worry, Shiranui, I'll happily kill when we're in the field. In the ring though? I… want to show that I can restrain myself and know that it's my decision and not something that I'm driven to."
Clearly the smaller ninja has been thinking on things.
"I don't know what it's going to cost. I'll wait till I have about $20K and then offer that. If Doctor McCoy, Hank, won't take it, I'll put it away for good use." She stretches, wincing as her shoulder pulls and spends a few moments just trying to get it to stop hurting.
"I expect I'll be out for a bit when he does it. I … don't know." Pausing, Ranna looks up again and lets out a long slow breath. "Can I ask a … favour, Shiranui?"
"Mmmmmmmmm." Shiranui watches her for a moment and then nods. "Fair enough. I suppose you would want to prove to yourself that you can make your own choices." After all she'd been dancing to someone else's tune for so long.
"What's the favor?" He expects that surgery of that manner will put her out for at least a little bit. She'll want a safe place to hole up. No good getting attacked while she's recovering from that. It will go horribly no matter how it turns out.
"I want to prove to you that I can." Ryoshi answers quietly, dropping her eyes under his regard. To know that when she fights beside him, he can trust her. She knows what she tried to do when the implants triggered.
"Do you have a bath at your place? I … want to soak after that and where I am at the moment …" She doesn't continue. He knows it's not his safehouse, though she uses that some nights. "It's ok if you don't want me there … I…." she shakes her head, almost telling him to forget she asked but stopping herself.
Her recovery? She's not even thought on that. One thing at time for Ranna.
"Ah yeah. Washing up. Sure thing." That means her knowing where his place is but Shiranui doesn't really mind that because much like her, he moves it a lot. Slightly longer term, but he can't afford to get caught either. So he rents and he usually does so under short term basis. Six months, usually. And yes. There are baths. They're handy for things like, say, sore muscles.
"Come on. We can go there, you can clean up. Use the spare room." Which he has this time. Something of a luxury and an unnecessary one at that but hey, he has it.
"Are you sure?" Ranna looks up in surprise. "Uh… thank you. I'll make it up to you." Straightening, the small ninja stretches. "Let me get dinner on the way, to start that."
There's a wince as she moves. She did take a beating, really.
"If you have some time this week, I could use a sparring partner."
For now though, she's going to take some time to reflect and celebrate. She survived.