2111/The Path You Have Chosen

The Path You Have Chosen
Date of Scene:	27 April 2015
Location:	Reptilon <Rep>
Synopsis:	Makoto seeks out Kakarot to test her strength against him. It becomes a learning experience.
Cast of Characters:	723, 767
Tinyplot:	A Wish for the Future

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Kakarot (723) has posed:
Fern Valley, Reptilon. A breadbasket for a world, a place of growth and vibrant life on a harsh landscape.

Reptilon is also a world at war. A war betwen the forces of a multiverse and a powerful invading force of some of the finest warriors known, a race born and bred to fight. Their king is known to be a terrifying visage of death on the battlefield.

It is even more strange that he bears the face of a much kinder, gentler man. Nevertheless, Kakarot sits on the ground in the middle of the lush Fern Valley, his eyes closed and legs crossed as he meditates in the middle of what would undoubtedly be hostile territory.

It is like he dares the people of Reptilon to come for him. But so far, he has been left alone.

Makoto Kato (767) has posed:
    An insanely powerful man, king of a warrior race, is meditating in the middle of a nice, open field, openly challenging any from his enemies to appear and fight him. Is it pride? Hubris? Confidence? It's unclear.

    But a rather short, rural Japanese girl steps into the clearing, her cloth-wrapped feat rustling against the lush grass.

    She has a few mild wounds that are healing, bruises here and there, and tape across the bridge of her nose and a cheek.

    As she steps in, she leaves her bag by a tree, before approaching slowly. "I heard you were a great warrior. The king of a proud people. I am Kato Makoto, of the Rindoukan School. I wish to challenge you to a fight, with no terms nor expectations. I'd rather survive, of course, but if the fight is good enough, dying isn't so bad." She calls.

    She raises a hand to scratch the back of her head. "I heard there's a bunch of politics going on, too, but... I don't really care? Everyone says you're strong. I want to see. That's all." She finishes, giving a little bow and salute. She doesn't take a stance, just standing there. He didn't confirm he was going to fight her, yet.

Kakarot (723) has posed:
And so it was that not a lizard, but a human female appears to challenge him. He doesn't move when she approaches. He is silent as she calls out her challenge, and his eyes snap open and focus on her. "You are here to challenge me?" He asks, simply. "Is this some kind of Confederate trick?" He does not move yet, simply watching the martial arts woman with an intense gaze.

Makoto Kato (767) has posed:
    Makoto looks at Kakarot confusedly. She tilts her head, not even comprehending. "Yeah, I'm... here to challenge you? Like I said?"

    Makoto seems a little offended. But only a little. "Sorry, I don't understand. If you thought this was a trap, or a trick, would you fight me anyway? If you're worried it's deception, does my word mean anything?"

    She steps forward. "If your enemies are so numbered that they'd send one person openly to fight you, what harm is there in accepting? You gain, and lose, nothing. If you're right and I'm tricking you, you're exactly where you'd be otherwise. If you're wrong... Well, we have a good fight!" She claps her fist into the palm of her hand.

    "You can always say no, that's your right as the challenged."

Kakarot (723) has posed:
There is a grunt as Makoto lays out her reasoning. And he nods. "It is a good point." He stands, then, conisidering the girl before her for a moment. "You want to see my strength, then." He looks down at his hand, which he clenches into a fist. The flesh creaks for a moment as his muscles begin to bulge out slightly. "Very well. I accept your challenge."

He looks up towards Makoto. "Let's begin."

ROUND 1, FIGHT

There is an explosion of movement as Kakarot launches himself through the ferns, the leaves blasting back flat in the wake of his passage as he hurls himself towards Makoto. She has just enough time to prepare a defense of some kind as he slams his hand forward with a simple straight punch aimed for her midsection. There is no fancy maneuver here, simply a punch with massive power behind it. A way of testing, perhaps.

Makoto Kato (767) has posed:
    Makoto is about to smile, or nod, or take her stance, or really do anything, but the speedy karate girl has one problem. Her opponent is just plain better than her now then her at her best, and he's got the initiative.

    She brings her hands forward, and as he strikes at her midsection, she catches his punch with her hands, as she leaps backwards, sending her flying backward as she simply accepts the momentum, bleeding it off as she twirls through the air, breaking some momenum by spreading out her limbs, and then catching herself on a tree, which promptly snaps in half.

    Half slammed into the tree, half riding it down, she takes a moment to re-evaluate her strategy.

    Alright, Makoto - step one! Don't get cleanly hit.

    Something dark and slithering just below the surface becomes excited, as her fierce grin flickers on her face. Oh yes. "Great." She breathes, launching herself off of the tree and back towards Kakarot, shaking off her already tingling palms as she flips into a fierce axe-kick that, while telegraphed, is backed by as much power as she could muster. Which isn't 'all of it', but, it's short notice.

    "You /are/ as strong as they say! Speed, power... Do you have technique too?!"

Kakarot (723) has posed:
Makoto lunges for Kakarot and he raises his arms to block the axe-kick. the impact of the leg on his bracers causes him to suddenly have to brace to keep from getting moved backwards, eliciting a grunt of surprise. Eyes widen for a moment, and he throws himself backwards just as fast as he approached, giving himself a moment of breathing room. "And you are stronger than I expected. As for technique..." He shifts his stance. A martial artist can tell immediately that it looks like a grappler style from the outset, but-

suddenly, with a flash, a small ki ball is launched towards Makoto, but that is a feint as he leaps into the air with arms outstretched in a flying press. Whether it hits Makoto or the vegetables around her, it's going to land with crushing force. "Maybe a bit."

Makoto Kato (767) has posed:
    Grappling? Oh shit. Makoto knows grapplers. They're dangerous, because unlike someone who just beats you down when they connect, Grapplers tend to convert connections into 'you instantly lose and are also a pretzel'. She loosens her stance, preparing to move, and is glad she does.

    The blast of Ki, while it may be surprising in the sense that he can do it, is something she is actually prepared to counteract. That someone other than her current Hobo Master is throwing energyblasts, though, is a bit startling. Was he a student of Ansatsuken?!

    As the blast of ki streaks out, a sworl of purple and black flames flare from the palms of her hands, as she slaps the energy out of the air, parrying ki with ki.

    The flying press is half-ducked, half scrambled under, and the sheer force of his landing sends her sprawling to a knee, blown back by the sheer force of his shockwave.

    She sucks in breath, before standing. "Then you /are/ a complete warrior. I don't have to hold back at all!" She exclaims happily, tensing and relaxing slowly as more of that dark purple ki bleeds off of her in little licks, before she brings up her stance again. "Please don't take that as disrespect. Even if I lose, being able to go all-out is refreshing."

Kakarot (723) has posed:
The ground craters under Kakarot as he hits the ground, and he immediately kips up into his stance once more. The girl's sudden ki blast is another thing he has to keep an eye on. When Makoto begins bleeding off the dark purple ki, however, Kakarot's eyes narrow slightly. "I've never seen anything like that..." He states, simply, his Scouter flipping over his eye and beeping at him as he does the inevitable.

"..." He pauses. The Scouter doesn't explode. Yet. "You are an unusual one." He says, moving in again. "I want to see your power. Give me all you have!" He twists, suddenly slamming a foot into the ground. The ground roils, shockwaving towards Makoto has he drives inward to attempt to land a grapple and twist the girl around to land a suplex. "Why did you come to challenge me? Why are you fighting?" He asks.

Makoto Kato (767) has posed:
    "It's something I picked up." Makoto explains, as she breathes, that dark presence within her probably doesn't register in the raw numbers of her 'power'. Which is respectable, but... It fluctuates up and down randomly, for no real explainable reason. In fact, it's synched to her deep breaths, as she tenses and relaxes.

    The device gets an odd look. "Is that part of the fight?" She wonders, the purple energy continuing to bleed off her arms and shoulders and back. "Unusual? I guess. I'm a Street Fighter."

    She tenses and leaps up, to dodge the shockwave, and is then grabbed out of the air, twirled around, and suplexed into space squash, the ground blissfully soft as she's cratered into it, her head being buried in the ground.

    Her world swims, as she pushes off from the ground, shaking her head. She's now dirty, and muddied, and if it wasn't soft, tilled earth she was being pushed into her head would have been turned into a piece of rotten fruit.

    "I came to challenge you... because I seek strong opponents. Becuase I want to grow! To learn, to improve. Not for anyone else, but for me. To prove that I'm the strongest. I fight because that's what I love doing the most. And if you want to see my power..."

    She drops into a tight stance, as she tenses sharply, her fists brought to her hips in a horse stance as she lets loose a power-kiop.

    There's a flash, and a surge of red in her skin, as the burning off of ki ceases. Her power spikes, as she leaps forward, going into a classic flurry of punches, her movements less 'dashes' and more flash steps at this point, as she begins to go totally all out.

    Kakarot has dealt with people who flurry like this before.

    Makoto isn't flurrying for speed, though. She had speed. And the Tanden Renki gives her /power/.

Kakarot (723) has posed:
Now... Now it gets interesting.

The mystery of the dark power is untouched upon. He has no time to consider what it means, as he's in the middle of a fight. And Street Fights don't just sit around. YOU PRESS A. THIS AIN'T A CUTSCENE.

As she unleashes her power, Kakarot is surprised again, watching Makoto's power level spike drastically.

He smiles. As she flash-steps into him, her first few blows smash into him, crushing armor and ripping it away, pummelling into flesh. Bones creak under the impact and flesh twists, purpling as blood vessels rupture under the impact. There is an explosion of ki as Kakarot suddenly moves in a blur, slamming his fists forward to meet the rest of the deadly flurry, both sides crashing into each other with constant thunderous impacts. The flurry turns into a high-speed, high-impact kung fu duel as the pair react and counter within split seconds in order to find weaknesses in each other's guard and exploit them.

"This is good. You are a good fighter! I've never seen this kind of talent out of a human before!" Well, maybe he did, but he was like four or something when he destroyed Earth and you know how it is when you try to remember your childhood years. "You've got some interesting goals. To be the strongest... you have a good start!"

A colossal strike sends him skidding back, and he pauses, breathing heavily as energy flickers over him, crackling. "Tell me. what are you willing to do in order to become the strongest?" He asks. He doesn't press the attack, waiting either for her to come after him or answer.

Makoto Kato (767) has posed:
    BITCH THIS AIN'T A CUTSCENE is the theme of today, as Makoto finally connects cleanly. Then the flurry becomes a high-speed war, fist meeting chest, collarbone, face, empty air, forearm, palm, and elbow. It's a classic ballet of close quarters clashing, each side taking damage, each side dealing telling blows. But in each trade, Makoto is the loser. She's slower, she's less powerful, she's frankly just that little bit less talented. Measurably outclassed in every aspect but guile and hidden weapons, when Makoto sends Kakarot flying with a colossal attack, the cross-counter laid upon her sends her sprawling out, driving a furrow through the field and coming to rest some meters away, panting. The redness of her skin and the increase in power remains, as she draws her panting, battered self up. Ki burns are all along her body, and welts, cuts, and bruises develop or weep tears of blood. But there's something odd. The blood she bleeds is dark, black even.

    She draws herself up, panting. "Thank you. You are as strong as they say. Stronger, even. But what I am willing to do..." She draws back into her stance, as something changes about her. She relaxes... something, and there is another outwelling of power. This one is easily recognizeable by Kakarot, but perhaps is horrifying all the same. The purple ki that had been bleeding off of her in small amounts now pours off of her in a thin, flamelike aura. The power of Killing Intent. As she breathes, staring hard now at Kakarot, the whites on Makoto's eyes leech out to black. "Is to embrace my desire to win completely."

    It's not that her wounds are healed as she surges back forward to clash again.

    It's that she doesn't feel them... or that she just doesn't care. Each hit is unrestrained, the fierce strength of striking to kill with every attack, enhanced with flares of purple ki, as she pushes herself farther into being a human-shaped demon.

Kakarot (723) has posed:
Black blood. The cast upswell of ki power causes Kakarot's Scouter to detonate as he watches the dark power rise up. The difference is shocking. Kakarot may not know of the Killing Intent as a force, but it is obvious in how it roils around her, dripping off in waves. He can feel it in her strikes as she smashes into him, flesh tearing as she rips open a gash in his arm, ki-infused strikes scorching him as Kakarot, King of the Saiyans, is suddenly faced with a raging, demonic force that takes joy in slaughter, the dark love of blood and the berserk dance of destruction.

Kakarot reels from the impacts, his blood staining the ground of Reptilon. Another fighter might show fear at the dark majesty of battle in its purest form. Another fighter might rage at what they might see as 'evil'.

Kakarot laughs. "YES! YES, THIS IS IT! THIS IS THE POWER!" He can't help himself, his own ki resonating as the air explodes around him, exploding into light and fury as he, too, embraces his own terrifying rage. Super Saiyan Kakarot, bleeding both ki and blood, slams into Makoto with the force of a comet, the ground shatters and cracks, planets burning in flame as they both strike at each other. The air becomes a haze of smoke and destruction as they trade blows, annihilating forces brought to bear. Where they dance, the land shatters and dies, plants crushing and withering from their simple passage, rents and craters opening in the ground, The ground shakes as Kakarot is crushed into the ground, only for him to twist it and rip up a boulder from the ground and hurl it at Makoto, following it up with a beam blast of ki. Light and dark waves smash against each other over and over. If anyone wasn't aware this was happening, they'd know now. This battle is probably visible from space.

Makoto Kato (767) has posed:
    Light and darkness flash outward, visible from space. The blazing form of the Super Saiyan, and the insplotch of the Dark Hadou burn outward, flashing and clashing against each other. No longer is their movement visible, and their strikes rage in bloody afterimages and flurries. Even if she's committed to each attack, committed in mind and body, she just doesn't connect as much, or as hard. She's ravaged. She's bloodied and broken, and she's probably lost a rib or two. Her body is screaming at her, but her berserk Ki empowers her onward, holds her together. The moment that Kakarot breaks to throw a rock at her, and follow with a beam blast, makoto drops to the earth, drawing her own hands back. But this isn't some simple beam. Oh no.

    "Metsu!" She begins. "Haoh! Sho Kou Ken!" She throws both arms open and wide, vertically, a ripple of massive purple energy in a discrete blast rather than a beam that's larger than she is, turning the boulder into powder and clashing against Kakarot's beam.

    Oh yes. She's beam CLASHING.

    And even if she'll lose, she has the audacity to try.

Kakarot (723) has posed:
The beams strike each other, the two beams blossoming into a terrifying energy sphere that rips up the ground around them. The land rumbles, rocks rattling about and hanging in the air that grows thick with crackling ki power. The dark power begins pushing forward, and Kakarot's grin grows even wider, even as the sphere begins to scorch him with proximity. "This is the power of your will... of your killing intent... The drive that even a human can master! HAHAHAHA! But now it is my turn! HERE IS MY OWN WILL!"

"KAME.... HAME.... HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Kakarot's ki power, directed and magnified, pours into the existing beam clash, magnifying several times over as he releases most of his restraints and allows himself to also feel the joy of destruction, if only for a few seconds.

Perhaps they are not so different, in the end.

Makoto Kato (767) has posed:
    As the super powered ki blast clashes against the beam, things stand still for a time. And then Kakarot's joy, his unrestrainted power, crashes through as the Kamehameha pierces through the clash that had drawn so close to connecting and sends a deep, burning furrow through the tilled earth.

    Those few seconds of joy for Kakarot are of pain and sheer determination to survive - to win - to destroy.

    Makoto throws her palm forward, and her purple flame of dark ki splits the beam apart, having it wash around and behind her. As the seconds pass, the area of occlusion thins and narrows, as the purple ki grows redder and redder, and then finally crimson as she pushes everything she has into this barrier before her. Her focus holds out ALMOST long enough that she would get by with only major burns of her everything, most of her gi in bloody scorched tatters, and her aura of purple ki flagging and guttering. But that was if she would hold out for the entirety. She doesn't.

    The last seconds of the beam hit her straight on, and she is driven into the ground, scorched in pain and almost broken down at an atomic level. When it's over, she's a mess. Bleeding from everywhere, a tattered wreck of a girl. The redness of her transformed state fades to normal skintone, and only her eyes remain blackened, defiant against even after choking on death-beam.

    She staggeringly rises, takes a step, before falling over flat, choking and coughing.

    It's a wonder she's a live at all.

    Finally, her eyes clear. "Y-you're..." She chokes, as she just lays there. In the dirt.

    It's very unsanitary.

Kakarot (723) has posed:
The conflict ends. The fern-laced field they were dueling in is now a smoking crater of flame and cracked earth, like the mouth of Hell had opened here for a time.

Perhaps it did, as two demons danced.

Kakarot steps forward, looking down to the near-dead Makoto as his aura snaps and sizzles around him... For a terrible moment, perhaps, he might attack again.

But he does not. The aura dies, and Kakarot slumps for a moment, exhaustion clear on his features as he smiles to the fighting girl. "Live, girl. Live and learn. On the path you have chosen there is no good, no evil. Never stop until you become the greatest in the multiverse. One day, you might even get there."

At that, he turns away, letting Makoto lie thre in the dirt. She will live or die on her own merits and will.

And maybe a radio call. People do that sometimes.