1568/Grin and Bear It

Grin and Bear It
Date of Scene:	08 June 2016
Location:	Uminari City - Verone Academy
Synopsis:	Akashimaru and The Bear
Cast of Characters:	Hokuto Minase, Seishi Tamashige

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Hokuto Minase has posed:
Classes have finally let out for the day at Verone Academy, and it's a gorgeous June afternoon. Students are milling here and there, some on their way to clubs, some heading home, and a few simply taking advantage of the day to hang out, chat, or wander on to the mall or some other venue.

The Kyudo club has set up some targets behind the sports field, making sure their aim will be well away from the lacrosse players - wouldn't want to accidentally injure one of themm, after all. Hokuto is quite busy there, coaching a few new members in the proper way to care for their equipment.

And that's why she misses the running and screaming crowd that erupts from behind one of the small outbuildings, a dozen students struggling eagerly to get away from something. And shouting about a monster!

Just as they're reaching the main crowd headed for the dorms - and hopefully safety - there's a high-pitched screech, as something black and shadowy and unpleasantly tentacular has grabbed hold of Akiko Tenkawa's ankle and started to drag her back towards - whatever they were running from!

Seishi Tamashige has posed:
Seishi has been dragging. She's slept little over the past several nights, and the few hours she's gotten were ordeals of ceaseless running from the pursuing shadow that she can't escape and cannot yet confront. Caffeine can only do so much; she heard next to nothing of any of today's class lectures, too focused on the herculean effort of keeping herself awake.

Kendo club at least offered a chance to get her blood moving, but her performance suffered enough from fatigue that before long the club captain ordered her to the bench.

She's wandered off in search of some water when the screaming starts.

"--the hell?" Squinting through the glare of the afternoon sunlight, she looks toward the commotion. Seeing the girl being dragged back by - whatever that is - is enough to get Seishi running, feet thudding heavily against the ground.

Most people run away from monsters. Some people run towards.

Hokuto Minase has posed:
The dark tendril of whatever drags poor Akiko, kicking and screaming, around the corner of the maintenance shed and out of sight. It's well-known as the place where some of the 'tough kid' students hang out to smoke (out of sight of the teachers, who would not appreciate it), talk smack, and even share the occasional ill-gotten booze. Today, it seems, something has decided to show that it's tougher than they are. Poor Akiko is probably wishing she'd gotten on her motorcycle and headed home.

Fortunately for her, Seishi is in rather better shape than most of the delinquents. It doesn't take long to get there - indeed, she's almost in reach when Akiko disappears around the corner.

Passing the building, the scene comes into view. A pair of students are slumped on the ground, trussed up in more shadowy bonds. Standing over them is the source of it all: Tall, massively-built, and covered in thick brown fur, it looks for all the world like a giant, upright bear. Except for the spikes on its joints, the intelligence in its eyes - indeed, the quite human face, aside from all the teeth - and the shadowy whip it's dragging poor Akiko up with. A quick tug, and it loops over a protrusion on the building, leaving the girl dangling... and the whip slides free, leaving a shadow of itself behind to hold the girl while the weapon itself is ready for the bear-man to use again.

"At last!" he calls, as he beholds Seishi. "Someone willing to fight me!"

Seishi Tamashige has posed:
Seishi stumbles to a hasty stop just around the corner, pulling up short to stare up at the massive bear with widening eyes. Words slip out without thought, Akashimaru's bad influence showing through in sudden atypically rough speech: "Are you fucking kidding me?"

A fight is the last, absolutely the last thing that she needs right now - but there are three people here in need of help and she can't just walk away from them. Gritting her teeth, she reaches up to yank the ribbon from her hair.

"Twist the cord of fate."

In a swirl of red ribbon, the schoolgirl is gone and the samurai stands in her place, frowning up at the bear-creature, hand falling to the tessen at her belt. "You'd terrorize these people just for someone to fight?"

Hokuto Minase has posed:
"What do they matter? The fight, now, that's worth it." The bear-man grins, showing off way too many not-so-white teeth. Way too sharp teeth, too. "And once I've beaten you, maybe I'll show you my other favorite kind of fun."

His grin just widens as he takes in the transformation. The whip cracks, lashing through the air to strike the wall and knock a dozen bricks loose. "Come on, then, onna. Show me what you've got. Show me you're worth the effort to beat you down."

Seishi Tamashige has posed:
There may be no avoiding this fight, but that doesn't mean that Akashimaru has to accept it gracefully. "Do you seriously not have anything better to do?" she demands as she slides the Shinken from her belt. "You never heard of just asking instead of wrecking everybody's day?"

As she's talking, she's circling to the side, an effort to shift the direction the bear is facing enough that Akiko and the other two aren't at so much risk of getting caught in the broad lashing of that whip. A flick of her wrist at her side snaps the fan open, and she brandishes it before her. Her eyes dart past the bear to Akiko for a moment - but no. A fall from that height could mean injury. Better not to risk it.

As she focuses on the bear again, she makes a snap decision and draws back her tessen. "Hiraisen!" In one quick sweep of motion, she sends the shinken spinning through the air--

--on an arcing path aimed for the whip, to slice and tangle.

Hokuto Minase has posed:
"Oh, but this is far, far more fun," it growls, and lashes the whip out once more. Again, bricks go flying, some of them landing near one of the fallen youths. "Your anger is so lovely..."

And then that whip is lashing out again, just at the moment the fan leaves Seishi's hand. The tip hisses past her ear, even as the bear charges towards her. It wants a fight. And it's going to get one, one way or another.

Powerful legs leave deep divots in the ground as it hurls itself towards Seishi. The whip lashes out once again, this time aiming to wrap her up like it has the others - and if she manages to avoid that, the bear-man's claws are ready to strike as well. It roars again, spittle flying from its gaping maw, and the stench of its breath is like old blood....

Seishi Tamashige has posed:
That did not go as well as she'd hoped.

Akashimaru has an instant to just barely begin to hiss out a curse as the whip snakes through the air and completely clear of her flying tessen. Then everything is happening nearly at once.

She dives just barely clear of the whip before it can entangle her, throwing out a hand as she does to grab at the air and the scarlet cord that shivers into being to cut the Shinken's arc short - the motion carries her right into the charging bear's path and the dive turns into a full-fledged tumble even as the tessen recoils back toward her from behind him.

Under the claws, between those heavy trampling feet in a mad scramble. He catches a few scraps of red fabric, but in the next instant Akashimaru leaps back up behind him and, seizing the red cord between both hands, she gathers all her strength to spring for his shoulders and try to wrap the cord around his throat.

Hokuto Minase has posed:
To judge from the roar, bear-boy isn't too happy either. He had really expected to at least draw blood, with that surprise rush, while Akashimaru was dodging the whip. Discovering that she's a good bit faster than the average mortal is just going to make his day.

He skids to a halt as he catches sight of the crimson rope forming, leaving even bigger divots in the ground this time - but he isn't quite quick enough to avoid being caught by it. The cord goes taut as fan and girl reunite, and the loop settles neatly around the bear's neck.

The tightening loop around his throat seems to have upset him. It's a pose right out of a shonen anime, his shoulders back, head bent to look up, hands outstretched to cup the air as power starts to crackle around him... his form becoming even more bestial, his face twisting into a bear's snout, hands twisting into lethal claws...

He twists about to try to face Akashimaru, the motion jerking hard on the red cord, his claws swiping through the air to try to find the girl...

Seishi Tamashige has posed:
There's a saying about grabbing a tiger by the tail, and it applies just as well to angry bears. Akashimaru's feet scrape for purchase against the bear's back as she clings for all she's worth, hanging by her grip on that cord where she's wrapped it around his neck. Every powerful movement slings her wildly about - if she lets go, if she's flung free, she knows for sure that those claws and teeth are waiting for her.

"Come on," she grits between her teeth, hauling the cord tighter around the thick furry neck. "Give it up already!"

Hokuto Minase has posed:
The bear whirls around to try to get at the tick stuck to its back. It isn't stupid enough to keep turning as if it can 'catch up' to her - there's at least human intelligence behind those bestial features. "Face me!" it snarls, "Little trash!"

It knows Akashimaru isn't going to just let go, though. So it keeps twisting back and forth, trying to shake her off, even as it reaches back with its claws to swipe at her. Unfortunately, it can't see her, and the angle is ... rather awkward.

Eventually it gets a smart idea, and twists to hurl its back up against the building's wall! Will our lovely samurai-ko be crushed between the immovable object and the irredeemable force?

Seishi Tamashige has posed:
'Face me,' he demands. Akashimaru's immediate response - still clinging to his shoulders trying fruitlessly to throttle him into submission - is pretty much a litany of, "Nope nope nope nope nope--"

If it weren't for the building, maybe it could've worked. But with the wall right there to serve as a convenient anvil, it was only a matter of time. Before she can be crushed by the bear's mass and the wall, she has no choice but to let go of the red cord and drop to the ground, immediately pushing into another hasty roll off to the side to gain a little space.
When she scrambles back onto her feet, she's yanked the Shinken back to her hand. Another sharp motion snaps it closed as Akashimaru grits her teeth.

"Didn't want to do this, but--" The tessen glints red as she brings it up in a preparatory grip. "Come, the strength that shatters iron - Sankonsen!"

With that last shouted word, she launches herself head-on at the bear, hammering at him with a flurry of battering blows of the closed fan, a foot-long metal bludgeon with all the strengh of her determination behind it.

Hokuto Minase has posed:
The bear-man takes a deep breath as the cord is released, finally free of the (admittedly small) chance of outright strangulation. He turns, facing Akashimaru, and roars once more.

Nice volume. Decent extension. Quite eloquent gutterals.

And then she's on him with the iron bar that was a fan. "Ha!" he cries as he lifts meaty arms to block the blows - and even succeeds in catching most of them that way. "NOW you fight for real!"

He has to stay on the defensive at first, against the onslaught, as much trying to see how strong Akashimaru is as actually pressed by the attack. Eventually he starts trying to regain the initiative, though. A few swipes of his claws, a bash by an elbow almost the size of the human girl's head. He's ridiculously strong but isn't terribly good at using it to best advantage.

Still, he has size and reach and strength on his side. And that giant clawed fist is coming straight at Akashimaru's head when -

Thock.

Suddenly, there's a flaming arrow embedded in the elbow in question. The arm's swing is halted as the bear looks down at it, then back up at something behind the samurai-girl.

"Pick on somebody your own size!" shouts a familiar voice.

Seishi Tamashige has posed:
He's bigger, stronger; she's tiny by comparison, but quick and accurate for that. It's not quite enough. Not enough to keep her from getting scored by a glancing swipe of claws, and then another; not enough to keep her head from ringing like a bell when that massive elbow clocks her. She can see the fist come down and there's no chance to avoid it, all she can do is raise the Shinken with some futile idea of holding it off--

--but the blow does not land.
Ears still ringing a little, Akashimaru blinks stupidly at the flaming arrow that's sticking out of the back of the bear's arm. It takes a second for her tired brain to connect the dots.

"--oh thank heaven," she says, looking toward the sound of that familiar voice.

And while the bear is thus distracted, she draws back a half-step and drives the bludgeon of the still-closed Shinken full-force into the bear's gut.

Hokuto Minase has posed:
The bear-man folds around the blow, definitely feeling it. When he looks back up at you, the transformation has partly faded, the muzzle receding towards a more human look. And he's grinning like a maniac.

One arm is still pinned by the burning arrow embedded in the elbow, so he lashes out with the other, claws sweeping towards Akashimaru's gut to return the favor. "That's it!" he calls out. "Strength to strength, claw to blade! Fight!"

"No," answers a calm voice, and another arrow thocks into the free arm's elbow, matching the first. "This is not your hunting ground to claim, Olvikan. Go back to your cave and your forest and leave these people be."

Three more arrows form a triangle around him, and lines of light connect them as she starts to chant a banishing...

Seishi Tamashige has posed:
Perhaps she had that coming, Akashimaru things as she staggers back from those tearing claws, reflexively clamping her forearm down against the shredded fabric over her abdomen. She shied back just in time to escape serious injury, but for a moment the sensation of her stomach being torn open is all too real.

Her legs give out underneath her and she lands jarringly on her tailbone, panting as she watches the light of Hokuto's power flare to life in the shape of the triangle.

The part of her that is Akashimaru and not Seishi briefly toys with the idea of making a rude gesture. Fortunately her hands are occupied. She just waits for the banashing to be completed, before offering Hokuto a wry and weary smile.

"Nice timing," she says.

Hokuto Minase has posed:
The chant takes a few moments more, while the bear roars and kicks out, trying to break free of it before Hokuto can complete her work. Even kicking dirt over the lines doesn't seem to break them, though they do flicker a bit. Seeing this, Hokuto knuckles down and redoubles her efforts.

In short order, the roaring bear fades from view, forced back through the ether to the Yokai-world he came from. "Hopefully his mate will be around. Bear-youkai women take a dim view of, ah, adventurous husbands."

Hokuto slings her bow back over her shoulder, where its cloth wrappings enfold it once more, and walks over to Seishi's side. "Good fight, Sempai. Sorry I missed the first part. You handled him pretty well." She smiles softly and reaches out to offer her a hand up. "What say we get you a shower and head for burgers, hm?"

Seishi Tamashige has posed:
The breath rushes out of Akashimaru in a whuff; gently she uncurls her arm from around herself, glancing down to check the damage before she reaches up and pulls free the scarlet cord that ties back her hair. The rest of her transformation unravels with it, and it's Seishi - scraped, scuffed, and dirty - who reaches gratefully to accept the hand up.

"That," she says with feeling, once she's back on her feet, "sounds great."