Live to Die (Aroon, open)

[Nobu]

[Continuation from this thread.]

A warm breeze rolled into the barren hallways of the Paragon Institute -- home to the Paragon Panthers -- from a large, broken window, and wafted the fresh, gentle scent of pine needles and summer air passed the Japanese-American that stood there in solitude, temporarily rescuing him from the stagnant air of Paragon's hallways as he waited for his opponent to follow him through the window.

Getting a bit impatient, Nobu snapped both of his arms out and rolled his shoulders, cracking and loosening up the stiff joints in his shoulders and elbows. His knuckles followed shortly after, the Japanese youth curling each set of fingers individually and slowly, the audible popping of his joints sounding like a cap gun firing off rapidly in the empty hallways.

The modern samurai would not forget that the Thai had questioned his motives for coming here; if he wanted an answer, he would get it once he stepped into building.

[Aroon Kamsing]

OOC: Not much, but it's a start.

IC:
Shrugging his shoulder with a somewhat nonchalant expression on his face, he nodded in silence as Nobu made his proposal, then watched the young man hop up and through the window.

'Strong legs. Likely got some good kicks in his style....'

Noting that fact and filing it away for now, he strode to the wall quickly, bracing his foot against it and pushing himself up with ease, hopping through the broken window with ease and landing in turn on the same broken shards of glass underfoot. His eyes set on the other boy, he paced a little away from the window, slightly to one side, before stopping a little ways away from his inevitable opponent.

"Do I get an answer to my question, then?"

He made no conscious effort to stretch out his limbs or, in particular, crack them. He knew the risk of arthritis present in doing such a thing and had made efforts to prevent doing it where possible, though he did loosely roll his shoulders a couple of times to shift his shirt back into place, having bunched up a little from the half-crouch he'd made on his way through the window. Watching the Asian boy in front of him, he waited for his response, were he to give one, and kept his eyes sharply set on him in expectation for whatever followed, be it words or an attack.

[Nobu]

The Thai soon followed the Japanese-American through the window, circling around him a bit. Nobu's left foot stepped forward and slid along the ground, trailing the Thai until he halted his movement. After stopping, he rolled his shoulders and straightened out his shirt, requesting an answer to his previous question, which Nobu was more than glad to answer.

"Revenge would be a good excuse. A few of your fellow schoolmates decided to come over to my school and deface it. At the time I was filled with rage, and for good reason; they injured a few of my friends pretty badly. Shouldn't it be natural for me to want to take vengeance?" he sighed, "But I've realized something now that my anger has dissipated, as well as a few words spoken amongst my fellow Hircinians. Taking revenge would only be justified if I took it from the culprits; I wasn't looking for the students responsible. I was looking for any Paragon student. I guess you could say," Nobu raised his hands in loose fists to about collarbone-level, his low, brawler-like guard becoming apparent, but not before he reached over his shoulder and pulled off his jacket, leaving the Japanese-American clad in a tank top and pair of cotton gi pants. "I was just looking for a reason to fight."

Nobu shifted his left foot forward but an inch, cautiously closing the distance between the two fighters. "What's your name?" he asked, and as if on cue, the loud, piercing shrill of the fire alarm being pulled rang throughout Paragon's hallways, activating the water sprinklers used to douse flames in the event of an actual fire, which Nobu knew this was not. Allen? Him and Kyukaku must have found the graffiti artists. No matter.. I've found what I wanted. The two Asians, within moments, would be soaked by the sprinklers overhead. The Japanese-American's long, mahogany locks were soon plastered to head, which he ran a hand through in order to brush the wet bangs out of his face.

Nobu pushed off of his left foot, bringing his right leg forward as his lead, and closing whatever small distance was between the two fighters surprisingly fast with his explosively strong legs. At the same time his right arm shot straight out, his fist aiming to strike the Thai's chin from a slightly low angle.

[Aroon Kamsing]

"So, to condense it and simplify your reasoning, you were fighting blindly, looking for someone to take out your anger on, regardless of the involvement they had. How very....sad..."

The expression on the Thai youths face would be an odd one, a combination of complacency and, surprisingly, an unhappy twinge that betrayed itself from his eyes and in the slight frown his lips took on. Without pausing for more than a second or two, he kept speaking, "Yet even now, by your own admission that only the true culprit would be deserving of this, you still stand here so eager to fight me. I understand why our schools hold such distaste of one another, but I'll only say this once. Don't ever lump me in with the rest of them."

His last words were spoken with a much sharper tone, and when the fire alarm went off during the other boys slight approach (which Aroon had noticed thanks to the sound of glass shards scraping against the floor a moment before), he flinched at the sound as it cut through him. It took him a second to at least partly block out the grating sound, and he was annoyed that he would be forced to conduct himself in such a circumstance. Noting that his name had been asked, he shook his head to clear the momentary fog that had gone over him before answering it, albeit a moment later than he would have done before.

"I have no need to give it to you at this moment. Perhaps once this fight is over I will give it to you."

The water that came down was but a mild pain, ignored after the first couple of seconds. Glad that his clothing was light enough already, he wouldn't have them to hinder his movements by clinging to his skin. Furthermore, his already short hair would not get into his eyes, a convenient thing that might prove a tiny advantage at some point.

Of course, his observations were left at that. He couldn't spend all his time looking over little things, and indeed, his opponent would drive that point home for him by making the first lunge.

His opponents speed, as he'd noted before, was impressive. He'd had no reservations on that whatsoever before, and now seeing it in front of him he could gauge it a little more fully. As such, Aroon would not toy with his own response and set about the most energy-efficient and productive counterattack he saw. Unlike the Asian, he wouldn't advance. Quite the opposite, in fact. With a very simple and slight movement, the Thai shifted his body a quarter-turn clockwise as his foe neared, weaving out from the punch a moment before it would connect, using his keen reflexes to time this opening effort as well as possible. Moving too soon would make it easier for his opponent to counteract him, and in contrast, reacting too late would leave him vulnerable to the strike. His window of time was small, but the payout was exponential. His left palm, regardless, played its role in assistance by guiding the punching arm past his head without any hinderance, letting it take its path as normal, if perhaps detoured a little.

On the other hand, with no pun intended, his right arm would thread through the inside of Nobus punch, effectively coiling under it without making any effort to stop it until they were almost shoulder-to-shoulder. At any point during this effort, however, his actual counterattack would be executable. The further he would be able to travel would only add to the blows force, and as such, aimed for the deepest trap he could catch the other youth in.

Grabbing firmly to Nobus arm, coiling around it when the moment presented itself barely an instant after parrying his punch, the young man who was referred to in the Thai boxing world as the 'Muay Tempest' would explode with his attack, torquing his body through with a huge and heavy knee strike into the other boys stomach and lower ribcage. At the close range they would share, and with Nobu having put so much forward momentum into his opening attack, he'd almost thrown himself into the counter. On top of that, the snake-like grasp that Aroon aimed to take of his arm would make it impossible for his opponent to simply leap away from harm.

Were he successful, it stood with high likelihood that the Japanese boy would have, at the very least, the wind knocked out of him. Most likely, and much more plausible, was the prospect of Nobu getting a couple of cracked ribs by the blow.

[Nobu]

Nobu found his strike parried and his arm grabbed following his attempted punch. His right arm, now in the clutches of his Thai opponent, curled up so that his fist was hovering around his temple. Along with the movement of his shoulders, Nobu`s right arm would move side to side in order to cause his opponent to sway, comprimising his solid base. Even if his opponent were to resist, there would still be a little movement. Since his body was so close to the Thai`s, Nobu felt the Thai`s body torque in order to throw a heavy knee strike to his midsection. With his left arm partially extended under his body, palm facing down, a loud smacking noise could be heard as the Thai`s thigh collided with the palm of Nobu`s left hand, dispersing some of the momentum generated from the torquing of his body.

The knee strike, however, would continue through, albeit dampened, by sliding passed Nobu`s hand and up along his forearm. The deflecting arm, coupled with Nobu moving his opponent around, even if slightly, would throw off the accuracy of the strike, and the Thai`s knee would strike Nobu to the right of his stomach, causing the Japanese youth to grunt.

Nobu wasn`t done there. With his left arm already positioned, all he had to do was bend it immediately after getting hit with the knee to hook it under the Thai`s leg and hold it tightly against his body. The Japanese-American`s hips and shoulders would then torque to the right powerfully, his right arm swinging out and pushing on his opponent`s chest while his left swung his opponent`s body to the side via his trapped right leg. His opponent would have to hop on his left leg in order to keep his balance, but Nobu wouldn`t allow any opportunity for that. The throwing motion would be combined fluidly with the sole of Nobu`s right shoe sweeping the Thai`s remaining leg out from under him.

With his upper body and lower body going in opposite directions, and the only thing keeping him rooted to the ground being swept out from under him, the Thai would soon find himself slammed into the wet tiles on his back, an audible splash being heard as his body connected with the floor. Nobu went to the ground along with his opponent, pushing his opponent`s right leg between his legs with his left arm so he could sit back comfortably on his midsection, his body squeezed between the Japanese-American`s knees. Posturing up so that there was a sizeable distance between their heads, Nobu sent his right hand, aided by his body weight and gravity, descending toward the Thai`s face in a nose-crunching blow.

[Aroon Kamsing]

The dull smack of the knee landing was without surprise to the Thai, as was the intercepting palm that made a weak effort to slow it down. What was a slightly unexpected occurrence was the trap made to his leg, that the other boy would go to the trouble of keeping the limb locked in after such a hit. It quickly became obvious what was intended, however, as Nobu began to pivot sharply, wrenching his arm against the grasp that the Thai had on him.

Rather than struggle against it, which would put him off-balance further, he leaned in with the pull back, but relaxed his hold on the arm immediately, instead using his right arm to hook around the back of Nobus neck, grasping the opposite shoulder and pushing down against it to force heavily on his opponents neck and collarbone to lean forward. Had he been an inch or two taller, he would have instead simply reached fully around and headlocked, but being of only average height as he was, this concession was a commonly used one.

The coming arm that had been wrenched free was too close for evasion, that much was obviously clear, but his left arm was still held up from the initial parry. Snapping out against the push, he used the heel of his hand to strike against it, aiming to nullify the effect it was intended to have. The twist was inevitable, though, and he was prepared to be taken to the ground. His shift across Nobus back, however, would make the landing a little more awkward for him as he used the displacement of his weight to pull harder against the Asian youth, bringing him down into the concrete under them head-first in the process. It was likely that he could defend against it if he relinquished hold of the Thais leg, but otherwise it would be an uncomfortable landing for Nobu as well.