Disciples of the Dragon VII: The Legacy of Zxu'ro [Ochazuke]
[QUOTE=grampagen;4732303]He moved to clash against her, and could sense every minute articulation before it came, and yet it somehow it did not seem to matter. Every time he tried to catch her, Kenshiko slipped out of his grasp with an evasiveness like sand; as he pressed into her, she flowed with him, fluid, uncontrollable, yet reforming in an instant when her solid strikes cut into him down the bone. Her hands still guided his, this time with lethal purpose. The very same that honed those skills, the legs whose balanced strides he sought to follow. Seething, he stubbornly pressed forward, and sacrificed his balance. Kenshiko tore him off centre and tossed him through the ground.
Carving a trench and unearthing the stone from the muddy banks, Ochazuke pressed himself up, his stance shaky. After all this time, was this still the gap between them?[/QUOTE]
Ochazuke pulled himself up from the wreckage, seething as his limbs quaked. Ashes stung his eyes, the sharp taste of blood flooded his tongue as he spat to the ground and the scent filled his head.
The King's Court that once invited countless nations in a haven for tribute stood smitten with ashes, and roofless now stood exposed to the hellish world outside. The Crane Apostate tread through the field of his sense-awareness, but only found that the aura of the Tiger Master flood every facet of his waking meditation. Everything, from the wreckage wreathed in smoke, heirlooms facsimile and original, to the minutae of cracked pillars eroding to dust kissed by the breeze was revealed to him, but though on some intuitive level he knew he was not alone, where he stood before the last standing shrine wall, with only the sound of his own breathing to accompany him, he could detect no presence.
[i]Where did she go?[/i]
It was then he began to notice, not just where his ki reached over the area, but creeping in the very edges of his vision was a fine haze.
"Why did you come back, Ochazuke?"
Her voice was close, yet hollow. Bristling through the shiver in his aching body, it was as if her voice somehow spoke from within him. He could only hear the sound of his own haggard breathing, the firm beat of his heart as his pulse picked up. He found his footing, but all the sensations came at a disconnect from the world, as though everything was numbed by a phantom sensation. He moved his limbs, and though the bones were bruised, found something of a more sinister design; [B]by some means she was scattering the integrity of his ki. [/B]
"They're your people. What have you done here?!"
"Are they now? Everyone has their price."
[RIGHT][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdmiPTE4o4Y]BGM: Knives and Shadows[/url]
[/RIGHT]
[i]Behind...![/i]
Guarding his blind side, a heavy kick fell to his right and crumpled his stance inward. It felt as if it might have cut through him if he had not defended, and yet the pain bloomed in his shoulder. He flinched.
Thrown off balance from the force of Kenshiko's strike, combinations struck into the spaces he could not cover. A raw grunt escaped him as a fist stabbed into his chest, and his legs crumpled under their own weight as an elbow cut into his liver. Ducking inward, throwing his left out, he felt something and tried to hold the long guard, yet even as he fought to push her back, she steered his momentum and stuck to him,
Extreme close-quarter. That was always her specialty. Pressed against his guard, a sharp pain flowed through him as she pulled down on his neck.
"My people?" she seethed. "Under the World Government do you think our borders are still sovereign?"
Using [b]Seisui Tensho[/b] he could feel her shift forward, the subtle knotting of their limbs collapsing his arms to her control. Gasping for air, he fought not to drown, swimming through the Clinch.
"Would an invader recognize their right to exist or just plow over it? Build on top of them like the Crane did?"
The words were held at the back of his throat, but under the strain of his breath, tensed to guard, they would not come.
[i]They're still here.[/i] The knees chipped away at his breath, forcing him to brace his stance to take it. Silent between ragged breaths, his focus was on the tactile sensation, the flow of subtle momentum and the shifts in their frames. [i]I'm still with you[/i] His Kru, she was the smaller of the two but at this range meant she had the advantage on the offensive. Through the point of contact in that firmly affixed arm, he felt the weight sink down one side and shifted in. Suddenly it was as if the weight leaning into him suddenly disappeared, until her crown smashed into his brow. He squeezed his eyes shut in vain to keep the violent flash stabbing the sockets at bay, and could feel the heat of her snarling breath upon him in the darkness.
"Uprooted, displaced, where do they go from there? Do you think they had a choice but to abandon their way of life? To sell their souls and take what peace Grinthorn offered them and swallow it whole? "
Balance was the key in this morbid dance. That was what she'd taught him. Even this close he could barely read her as the leverage in Kenshiko's frame disappeared, then the sting fell into the muscles around his hip where she crashed her knee into it.
"Nothing remains from seven years ago, and it's like they don't even want to remember what it was like."
Each blow that landed sharply lingered and sapped his strength. They'd steal more of his breath if he did not brace to take them.
"But you remember don't you? You were by her side the night they took her from us."
So braced, it left his flank and everything below the chest level open to strike. His legs froze as another knee pierced right through him. As Ochazuke fought through the pain, a heaviness welled in the pit of his stomach, cold tremors quaking as the bruises swelled. Tugging on the side of his neck, Kenshiko wrest control of his foundation; His hands sunk inward in the follow through.
"You don't know, do you?" Spittle fell on his neck. He could hear the click of her pressed teeth. "What your Grandmaster did after Kaibyo died?"
[i]What?[/i]
"Cut out a nation's soul, it's history, and what's left? Our heritage was worth no more than a piece of paper. It's all gone. They stole the land she was buried in!"
Sinking in, the razor elbow came from below this time, but this time he was ready. Slipping deeper inward, at last he managed to break off and frame a clear shot. He hit her with a left straight and struck her full-on across the jaw. It sent her back quite a ways, and yet she stood firm, the impact falling beyond her and scattering the last columns of the royal chamber to the winds.
Not wasting the opening, he lift his leaden leg, and threw a sidekick. Suddenly shocking pain twist through from socket to knee, and tore through his side. It froze the extension at its apex, delaying the delivery and left his recovery stalled; no doubt she saw this as she countered with a roundhouse to the side. Two of his ribs cracked. As he found his footing, he stopped her movement as he seized on to her leg.
Even in his grasp, she was entirely at ease. All he could do was delay her, but as she shook her head in disdain, he already felt any control slipping from his fingers.
"Look around you, Ochazuke. These were once our initiation grounds, remember?" She sighed and clicked her tongue. She'd do that when she was sussing out deficiencies in technique. "Or haven't you noticed?"
"It was a symbol of hope, if not for us, then for the people." He spoke slowly, the sharp pains in his side rising and falling with the tempo of his breathing. "They couldn't fight, that doesn't mean they don't remember. Would you take that away from them as well-"
A sharp gasp left him as words were cut off by a heel clipping deep into his chest from below. Kenshiko flipped backward with a kick that slashed a wave of ki through him, and when it pushed off his left arm fell where his collarbone split. . As she landed on her feet, he fell to his knees, stunned as his gi tore open, hot blood and cold sweat pressing the remainder to his body. Yet it was something else that beggared belief, for the arcing slash passed through and under him, and in the narrows of his bleary, good eye he could see light floating from the slash in the stone.
What they stood upon this entire time had only been a hollow facade.