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[IamanElfCollaborator]

Watch yourself, Akihiko. You can't beat Honda blow for blow. But then you already knew that, didn't you?
No shit.

Akihiko takes a moment to concentrate. To ground himself.

His inner demon was right. He needed to take his mind back to the moment. To the fight. To the pulse of the battle.

His fists were a tool of justice.

And if he let Mildred beat him here, in a spar, how could he be strong enough to use them to protect anyone?
...
Ten feet away.

Her momentum was fast enough to bowl him over. True, Ibaraki-Douji was physically larger and more muscular than Proioxis, but that meant diddly squat. She had the advantage, the momentum, and she was just stronger than him.

Seven feet away.

But Kasuga was used to fighting at a disadvantage. He wasn't a weakling, but he was built more like a track athlete than a brawler. This was nothing new. What was was that Ibaraki-Douji had the strength to fight on par with others. He quenched the feeling of fear welling within; Mad Dog of Mishima or not, Akihiko knew this wasn't a fight he could back down from.

He did have a few things over her. Firstly, he knew how to fight. Secondly, she had momentum.

Five feet.

He had to time this perfectly.

Three feet.

At the last possible second, Akihiko projects a burst of flames, right in Mildred's path. She charges right through, of course. But then, that was the plan.

Her shoulder lands nothing, as she is suddenly very aware of Akihiko being to her right, braking his sidewards dive with his back heel.

Now you get it. Don't think. Feel.

[SeriousConcentrate]

There was the sound of the very air tearing as Mildred forcibly slowed her charge with powerful counter winds, her missed attack leaving a furrow in the dirt. By the time she was reoriented, Akihiko had caught up and was already attacking back, hitting her with a kick that she couldn't fully block in time. Her forearm and shoulder took the majority of the blow and she let herself roll with it, cartwheeling wildly through the air and letting the momentum play itself out while rising up out of reach before stopping herself. She floated upside down in space for a moment, considering her plan, then corkscrewed around and moved in again.

As she dived down toward Akihiko, her body became alight with bluish-white fire, which she channeled into her fist for a powerful Superman-style punch.

[IamanElfCollaborator]

Don't think. Feel.

Those words echoed through Akihiko's head.

He was trained to fight. It's part of what made him and Mildred such an effective team. She brought brute force and savagery; he was the thinker, the agile one, the one who could improvise on his feet. He relied on acrobatics, athleticism and agility to beat his enemies; he was more of a one-inch punch man than a megaton punch man.

He could dodge Mildred forever, but then he'd never beat her. But he wasn't going to be able to beat her blow for blow.

Don't think. Feel.

Clear the mind. Empty the soul. Tokiwa-sensei had taught him to do that.

The thoughts cleared from his head. Nothing about Kitakawa. Nothing about Mori. Nothing about the case. Only one thing left.

For Saya.

As Mildred dives towards Akihiko, she notices motes of darkness and wisps of shadow beginning to form around Akihiko's legs. The flames Akihiko channeled, normally red-hot, began to turn a bluish-black. However, they felt somehow different from the shadows Mori channeled, or the shadows wielded by Andras. They were warmer, more solid, and felt like they belonged within the flames Akihiko generated.

Like they were supposed to be there, and had only just now arisen.

With a roar, Akihiko intercepts her punch with a upwards kick, his foot enshrouded in those bluish-black flames.

A shockwave erupts from the point of impact, visibly moving Mildred's motorcycle and shaking the nearby trees, and Mildred finds herself held in place, her fist trying to push against Akihiko's leg.

The stalemate can only hold so long, however, and it ends with Akihiko pushing away - Mildred had the superior momentum, after all - and skidding away, his weight leaving furrows in the soil as Mildred's fist smashes into the ground, leaving a crack and cinders where it landed.  The flames, however, do not go away, and Akihiko is already on his feet, rushing to close the distance between him and Mildred - to take away her momentum advantage and force her to fight at a range where his technique could match her strength.

[Smoke Mirrors]

"On to more pleasant topics, yes, Kaijin training. When can we start?" Mori stated, ”Sorry to be rushing, but I’d like to get some under my belt before I come face to face with that demented toad again.”

[SeriousConcentrate]

Mildred stood quickly, shaking her hand from where she had left a crater in the dirt.

"I didn't expect you to try to meet me head on. You're learning."

Akihiko could probably hear the grin in her voice as he sprinted back in. She was enjoying this all-out, full-contact spar. It was likely she'd thought about pitting her strength against his skill for some time now and was glad for this excuse to finally do so... and because of that, perhaps foolishly, she made no attempt to gain distance and zone him out, instead squaring up. Her windy aura flared up and her muscles tensed visibly as her kaijin energy strengthened her - an obvious use of the Parmala technique.

As he neared, she leaped at him and twisted in the air, throwing a sidekick toward his chest.

[IamanElfCollaborator]

"Learned from the best!"
Akihiko's fists are enshrouded in that same bluish-black flame, as he unleashes a fearsome roar. Mildred feels the extra strength she had generated sap away, Haze Chant having played its role, as Akihiko's leg swings up, catching Mildred's in midair for a brief moment, like two swords clashing against one another.

Unlike the last few clashes, however, Akihiko doesn't wait for the clash to end. He immediately rotates around, swinging his other leg and rotating the attack into a dropkick into Mildred's chest, knocking her backwards, and shoving himself to the ground, where he rolls back up, Mildred fully aware of his unseen eyes following her every movement.
"We could start now, if you like. I'm not in the....best of physical conditions, but the training I'll be putting you through is mental."

[Smoke Mirrors]

"I'm in favor, though admittedly I'd rather find somewhere more private.”

He paused, considering what he said, and turned to glare at Kanade.


"Don't you dare make any sort of joke about my choice of words again."

[IamanElfCollaborator]

Kanade lifts an eyebrow.
"Or what, Sawatari? I'm not just taking the opportunity to tease you for the sake of it, Sawatari. Though I suppose I might call this my fee for teaching you, there is a purpose to this."

[Smoke Mirrors]

"Care you elaborate?"

[IamanElfCollaborator]

"Your Kaijin is....unusual. Firstly, Scathach can normally tell the name of a Kaijin just by looking at it, but I can't tell yours."
"Secondly, the reason I'm teasing you has to do with Scathach's own ability. She can pierce and cut things. Metaphorically and literally. Now, this extends to understanding the weaknesses of something so I can figure out how to cut it; whether it's an illusion or the body of an Onibi."
"She tells me you should be resistant to mental assault....but your Kaijin's vulnerable to illusions. The teasing is to see if that aspect of your Kaijin comes from your personality rather from its natural state, but clearly not. So there's something blocking your natural resistance."

[Smoke Mirrors]

"Mother fucker probably shut it off because he thought it would be funny." Mori replied, "If there is anything my kaijin seems to enjoy, it's being as uncooperative as possible." He could swear he heard a voice laughing in the back of his head after he said that.


"As for the name... I don't know, maybe it's because there are two of them... maybe three? There's Fantomas and Reynart and there could be a third, but that could also just be Fantomas using the toad's voice to fuck with me... though the hellfire eyes would be new."

[IamanElfCollaborator]

"A Kaijin is an extension of the self, Sawatari. You wouldn't be the first person who's thought their Kaijin wants to fight them."
Kanade taps her chin thoughtfully at Mori's comment.
"...not possible. A Kaijin can...evolve and change essential form, but only once. Shapeshifting is a different thing entirely. But...well, you've been obsessed with masks, all your life. It's not that those are three different Kaijin in you; it's the same one, with the same masks you're wearing."

[Smoke Mirrors]

"I have heard them arguing amongst themselves on multiple occasions, and one time I saw Reynart physically manifest to combat the smokey-hellfire toad, so unless my kaijin is really dedicated to putting on a one-man play for the purposes of fucking with me..."


"...which is not completely something I can put past a being spawned from my head."

[IamanElfCollaborator]

"Well, if nothing else, you're certainly determined enough to do something like that."

[Smoke Mirrors]

"Yeah, the determination to make myself miserable... Mori muttered "So my Kaijin is more fucked up than I thought, in a way that, apparently, denies analysis and refutes its own nature. Can we get to the training before I learn any more about how uniquely fucked up I am?