|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2013 4:07 pm
 
This is a PRP between Van (Kurama no Koishi) and Kiran (Kazu-chan).
Setting:
After his first battle in the tournament, a terrible loss, Kiran runs into Van.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2013 4:20 pm
Kiran rubbed at his ribs as he walked around after his battle in the tournament. Surprisingly, nothing was broken. A little bruised from the crushing hug he received, but no broken bones. What a humiliating loss! And it was only the first round. When he entered the arena, he thought that guy - Som, he thought he heard someone call him after the fight - would be a push over. Som didn't seem too bright, looking more muscly than strategically smart. A little outmaneuvering, and Kiran thought the battle would in the bag for him.
He hadn't expected to nearly break his hand with a single punch to the man's arm. What was the deal with that? The man felt like he was made of solid steel! If he hadn't gotten caught in the bear hug, Kiran thought he may have stood a better chance. But after headbutting the man to escape being crushed to death, he knew the match was done for him. He was surprised he didn't run into a wall on the way out of the arena. His head still hurt after that blow.
Find a spot to sit, Kiran dropped down onto the bench, not caring how undignified he might look. He was happy now that he never told his family that he entered the tournament. Imagining them in the stands watching that fight made him feel worse about the loss. Until he remembered hearing Van's voice in the crowd. He groaned and held his head in his uninjured hand. The other hand was bound up in bandages now. He looked completely pathetic in that fight, and of course, the Legion Captain had to be present to witness it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2013 5:38 pm
Van had been a little disappointed, to say the least, when she watched Kiran’s fight earlier in the afternoon. The match had looked so promising, too! Realistically, though, once Som had gotten him in that hold there didn’t seem to be any way for Kiran to get away alive. He was lucky to have escaped without broken bones or without, oh, getting his intestines squeezed out of him. She’d shuddered at the thought.
The fight had receded into the back of her mind by now as she continued monitoring the battles. There were a few familiar faces in the crowd, and she knew that Noble and Legionnaire alike were watching the fights, feeling the other side out. Van had decisively won her own match, so she’d done her part. Any sticking around now was simply for entertainment.
And it was entertaining, but after seeing the last big brute choke a little girl nearly to death Van decided she needed a bit of fresh air. She was sitting by herself on a bench now, sipping coconut water straight from the fruit. The city was giving them away for free to the tournament participants, which was a nice gesture if anyone got out of a fight with their esophagus intact.
Scanning the crowd, she saw a familiar head of blue hunched over just yonder. Van figured he could probably use some cheering up. Standing, the captain collected a coconut and straw from one of the counters and made her way over to the Noble. A wry smile marked her face as she stood over Kiran, holding out coconut and straw for him to take. “Hey, champ.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2013 11:31 am
Kiran didn't feel much like talking with anyone, which seemed to be working well for him as people passed by where he sat without giving him much notice. Perhaps later he would consider checking out the other fights taking place in the tournament. Maybe he would catch some fights of people he knew. Both Van and Yue made appearances at his fight. He wasn't sure if they finished their fights already or were waiting for their matches to come up.
When a coconut appeared before him, Kiran lifted his head, following the arm up to the woman's face. He felt a little sick when he saw the Captain standing in front of him. But he managed a weak laugh as he accepted the drink from her. "I think you have to win to be called champ." He held the coconut in his uninjured hand, though he didn't bother to drink from it. It hurt to even try curling the fingers of his right hand. He hoped that injury would heal up before he had to fight again.
"Did you already have you fight?" Kiran probably should have made a sweep of things before heading directly to his match, but the excitement of it all had him a little overeager to get right into his fight. Now he wished he had tried to get a little information on his opponent beforehand. Surely, some of the other fighters would have known something about the man that he could have overheard. "I bet you won." He grinned at Van, but it didn't quite reach to his eyes.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2013 4:35 pm
Even Van could see that the recent loss was not far from Kiran’s mind. The smile he offered her now wasn’t the same as the ones she got when they happened upon each other in the city. Part of her realized he might have wanted to be left alone, but she thought she wouldn’t be infringing too much if she decided to stay. Chuckling, she seated herself next to the man. “Winning’s relative,” she said, staring back out at the crowd of people passing them by, “Som’s a total loser if you’ve ever seen him around the city. Dumb as a brick.”
She laughed suddenly, turning again to Kiran. “Which makes you a winner, at least in my mind.” Noticing then that the man hadn’t made an attempt on his coconut yet, she continued, “You better drink that. I had to fight a bunch of ugly brutes to get that. Plus, it’s good for you.” She didn’t actually, but she’d say anything to bend a situation to her advantage. Words were no object.
The woman shrugged when he directed the conversation back to her, not wanting to boast about her match. It had been a quick and dirty affair, lasting barely a few minutes. Van wasn’t proud of how she’d pulled out the victory, but she’d had to do it in the name of the Legion. She had to be ruthless for them. None of these thoughts surfaced in her tone as she stated simply, “Yeah, mine was this morning.”
She sniffed then, as if she thought he thought too highly of her. “I did, but only because I wasn’t fighting you!”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2013 8:29 pm
Kiran laughed, hiding a wince when it made his ribs hurt. "He looked dumb as a brick," he agreed with a more natural smile. "Did you see the way he charged head on like a bull or something?" He shook his head as he dropped his gaze. "With his size, I thought he would be a lot slower, but once he got going, it didn't seem like even a mountain would stop him." He could remember that sudden sense of panic as Som came barreling toward him.
His head lifted, and he stared at her. His cheeks felt a little warmer at the comment. "Well, at least someone thinks so," he joked, grinning like a joker. He glanced at the coconut in his hand then lifted it. "Then I best not let your bravery go unappreciated." He took a long sip of it from the straw. It was pretty good.
So she already had her battle. Kiran was a little disappointed to hear that. "I'm sorry I didn't see it. But congrats on the win!" He smiled for real, happy that she managed to win her match. "Perhaps I'll catch your next fight." He sipped again from the coconut, feeling more relaxed now sitting beside Van than he did right after his fight with Som. He tried not to laugh too much at the end of her comment. "But we would have put on quite a good show if we were up against each other."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 12:17 am
Van gazed heavenward, recalling the details of Kiran’s match. She’d sat through so many of them today that they’d sort of all melted together in her memory, but she did remember a few things, including the particularly clever way the Noble fighter had gotten out of Som’s death grip. “I did,” she confirmed, a look of amusement briefly flickering across her face, “By the way, how’s your head?” The woman reached out to touch her friend’s forehead, pushing his bangs up to examine for injury. It seemed like a dangerous maneuver when he’d tried it. Ribs and hands would heal before a head injury would.
She laughed again and lowered her arm when Kiran suggested watching her next fight, a nervous edge creeping into her tone. She wouldn’t really want him watching if she had to snap another elbow back, or Goddess forbid, a neck. “Thanks. I might get self-conscious if I know you’re watching, though, so don’t tell me until afterward!” For all of their fighting, she got the feeling that Kiran somehow still saw her in a decent light, and she didn’t want that to change for the worse even if she deserved it.
Pausing to take a sip from her own coconut drink then, she considered her next words for a second before speaking. “Though if it’s Som, I’ll be sure to send him a message from you. ‘Cause you and me? Our history of fighting goes back a long way, so the only person allowed to beat you is me!” Van chuckled at her own words and leaned back then, reflecting on the number of fights they’d weathered, including the first one they’d ever had. They had come a long way since then.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 1:27 pm
"Could be better." Kiran blinked somewhat dumbly as Van placed a hand to his forehead. His eyes almost crossed as he stared up at that hand. "It probably wasn't the smartest move. That dude's head isn't just dumb as bricks but hard as steel." He winced at the memory of the moment his head collided with Som's head. "But what else could I do in that moment? It was either do something drastic to break his hold on me or have my insides squeezed out by that death grip."
Kiran grinned, not daring to laugh yet. He couldn't imagine Van get self-conscious in a fight simply because he was there to watch her. "All right. If I come to watch your match, I won't tell you beforehand." He took another sip from his coconut drink as he tested the fingers of his right hand, fighting back a wince when he realized they hadn't done much healing yet. It wasn't too long after his fight though, so that wasn't too surprising.
"If so, be sure to keep your distance," Kiran warned in all seriousness, though he was happy that Van would wish revenge on the Som after how their fight went. "But you'll probably do better with your swords. I probably would have snapped my tonfas in half if I tried striking them against him." He managed a small laugh at that thought. Instead of his tonfas, he nearly broke his right hand. He lifted his coconut to Van and smiled. "Here's to a long history."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 9:59 pm
“Yeah, you scared me for a second there,” she agreed, recalling the match a little better now that some of the finer details had been established. She nudged his leg with her toe. “Should have known you’d get out of it, though.” Van smiled, meaning her words. If she’d learned anything from fighting with the man over the past several years it was that winning was never a certainty for either of them. The only thing that was, was the knowledge that the other would find some novel way to fight – and luck was always a major deciding factor. “Are you going to do any of the exhibition matches, now that you’re done?”
She said nothing when he assured her he wouldn’t tell her that he was coming, instead continuing to sip on her coconut to avoid acknowledgment. There were still a few days left before she proceeded in the tournament, and it wasn’t something she much wanted to think about. Since her training with the grandmaster she’d come to dislike the usually unnecessary brutality that was expected of her position as captain, but there was little she could do about it now. It was good, from a military standpoint, for others to see her as heartless and cruel and bloodthirsty. They just weren’t things she wanted her friends to see her as.
Hearing his toast almost too late, Van lifted her drink to touch his, the two fruits colliding with a soft thunk. “Hear, hear.” The woman felt one corner of her mouth lift in a crooked smile. “I’m not sure I want to toast to future fights, though. Those are kind of tiring.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2013 12:16 pm
"I'm almost surprised I didn't end up cracking my head open on his skull." He offered her half a grin. "Guess my head is a lot harder than I thought." He wouldn't admit it out loud, but for a moment in that fight, he wasn't so sure that he would get out of that death grip. If the man hadn't released him after that headbutt, Kiran wasn't sure what else he could have done. The blow left him too woozy to stand straight right afterward. If he remained in Som's hold, he didn't think he would have managed to yell out his forfeit before Som crushed him to death.
"If I'm feeling up to it, I might." He held up his injured hand. "I might be fighting one handed though." Nothing was broken, so he hoped it would heal quickly. But he couldn't be sure that his hand would feel better by the next time he needed to fight. The throb didn't seem to be lessen very quickly. As long as he didn't move his fingers much, he could ignore the pain in his hand. His back only felt better because they put some kind of ointment where his skin was scraped away by Som's rings before they bandaged that wound.
Kiran grinned as the coconuts clunked together. Right now, a future fight against Van didn't sound like something he wanted to think about. After fighting Som, Kiran wanted to relax for a good long while before worrying about fighting again. "Do you know when your next fight is supposed to be?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2013 4:58 pm
The captain nearly snorted at Kiran’s suggestion that he had a hard head. Of course he did—the fighter’s tenacity and ability to show up as a thorn in her side on missions when she needed it the least was nearly unmatched. Of all the people she’d fought with in the past, she could always depend on Kiran to be inconveniently present. She’d even say so now, if only she could think of a way to phrase it so that it didn’t sound like an insult.
“To be honest, some of the people here only need one hand to beat,” she said, recalling how she’d considered fighting her own challenger with one hand as a handicap. “But I guess they’re being weeded out as we speak. Maybe you should wait then; you might need it to stop me from taking over your base sometime.” The joke was mostly just that—a joke. Still, the allusion to the fact that they always ran into each other while fighting for their respective factions remained. They wouldn’t always be cracking jokes over coconuts like they were now.
“My next match is at the end of the week, I believe,” she answered then, her brow furrowing as she sought to confirm the date in her memory. Van’s smile faltered a notch as she thought about it. Her style of fighting was better suited to stealth under the cover of night. Hand-to-hand combat with some of the crazies who’d no doubt passed the first round was daunting even as a captain—it wasn’t fun and games from this point on. “Maybe I should start getting ready for that.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2013 10:37 am
He wasn't sure that comment made him feel better. He was one the people that got "weeded out" in the first round, after all. And with his strength, Som probably could have squeezed him to death with just one arm. But he cracked a smile and let that thought fly away. "Well, as long as I don't come up against a living boulder again," he joked.
That was something to keep in mind though. He wouldn't be much use to the Nobles if he got too beat up in the tournament. Until his hand and ribs healed, he would probably be out of commission. He hated being kept off a mission because of an injury. "Ha ha! Don't worry. I'll probably be back in fighting shape in no time." He grinned like his usual joker self.
Kiran nodded, making sure he remembered to check around when the end of the week rolled by for Van's fight. "I'd offer to help you, but," he managed a little laugh, "I should probably be resting up. I wouldn't make a very good sparring partner at the moment."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2013 4:10 pm
“It’s alright,” Van answered, placing the now-empty coconut in her lap. “Wouldn’t want to get beaten up before my next match.” Not that she expected Kiran to do so on purpose. It was always interesting to see who would come out on top when they did fight, since it changed every time. All things considered, they were evenly matched... but that didn’t meant she wanted to fight him. Spars were alright, though.
She reached over to give Kiran’s shoulder a friendly squeeze. He seemed happier than he was earlier, which meant that her mission was accomplished. How funny it was, the difference between their first meeting and their present one. If someone had told her student self that she’d come to be on good terms with the Noble, she would have laughed, or possibly thrown up. “I’m gonna head out and train, then, in case I run into a living boulder next time.”
Getting up, she offered the man a smile before turning to leave. “Try to stay out of trouble, alright? You better be in one piece when I see you next.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2013 5:13 pm
Kiran finished his drink, which was quite refreshing after the fight, and set the coconut beside him on the bench. They shared a number of battles against each other since their first encounter. Back then, he wouldn't have imagined that their first fight would turn into a friendship of sorts. Definitely not the most stable of friendships when he considered the number of times that they met on the battlefield, but a friendship nonetheless.
"It's probably bad of me to say, but I really hope someone puts Som in his place next round." He grinned at her. It was probably bad for him to hold a grudge. This was merely a tournament, but he didn't exactly take kindly to being nearly squeezed to death. It kind of left his pride hurting, and revenge had a nice sound to it right then.
Kiran laughed lightly, placing his good arm around his waist to hold his aching ribs. "I'll try my best, but you know me. Trouble just sort of finds me." He paused with a thoughtful look. "Or is it the other way around?" Well, he didn't actively run out looking for trouble. He just seemed to stumble upon it or cause it, popping up to be a wrench in someone's plan. "Well, I haven't been broken yet." His grin turned cheeky as he waved to her. "See you around. Maybe I'll catch up to you after the next round of fights."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
