Starring:
Date: October 23, 2012
Summary:
Goh and Ariya meet in the ring for round 2.
Poster's note: Foul language filtered in obvious places.
"Flexing Muscles"
Jump Headquarters
After several adventures in the Land of Fire and surrounding countries, the blonde pickle known as Goh is returning back home. It's been a good couple of weeks since he's been at Jump. Not that it hasn't been unproductive. On the contrary! It's actually been worthwhile, having spread the name and getting Jump out there.
With a duffle bag slung over his shoulder, the tired looking male drifts in along the main road. Mid-morningish, and getting plenty of attention from the locals who are happy to see him. He gives a small wave, stopping to chat with some of the shop-owners to see how people are doing. Ruffling the hair of some young kids running about playing games, before continuing his walk up toward Jump.
Ariya has been going out to the Land of Rivers, barely staying when she finally arrived at South Beach. Except for the past few days she stayed firmly rooted in the Jump Headquarters waiting. Not fighting, not talking, just eating everything in sight. She's probably tried everything on the island. It's a wonder that she's not fat yet. Wandering helps to burn off calories probably. However, of late she's been brooding a little, not even gorging herself like she usually does. Sitting at the headquarters so ominously people around her give her a fair berth.
However, her mood brightens considerably when she hears Goh is back. It's certainly easy to hear when he returns. And before he even got settled down Ariya would come towards him looking uncommonly pleased to see him. "Goh-san, I've been waiting around for you," she says cheerfully. "You remember, you promised me a match." Ariya is right to the point.
Laughing at a few different villagers, Goh turns his attention to the doorway of Jump, where Ariya comes out to meet him. "Ho! Ari. I don't suppose this is a social meet-up?" With her declaring herself so quickly, the blonde smirks. "Yeah, you're right on." Despite being clearly tired and a bit worse for ware, it seems that the pickler is keen on at least keeping his word. "Give me… five minutes? I'll head up to my room, dump my bag, get refreshed and I'll meet you down on the grounds behind Jump."
And with this, he will dissapear into the guild, heading up the stairs and into the dorm areas. It does seem entirely likely that he will meet the female behind the building, where open fields provide plenty of room to go at it.
Ariya would call to him, "Take all the time you want, even a few hours." She doesn't want to catch him with his pants down after all. Then she'd go to her room to change. She has the time, why not? Her metal armor and and wool clothes would be replaced by white enameled armor, and flowing silk the color of sand. Some thought that Ariya was being pretentious, changing clothes in the middle of the day. But every one of her garments seems to have a purpose, and she's never been seen without wearing some type of armor.
They know she's into combat, and she's challenged almost every Jump member. Though accep any refusal, except for one. Goh. Almost every time she sees him she's pressing him for the next match, and as she sits there with that realization Ariya laughs lightly. Maybe she should ease up on their leader. Might be one day he actually gets serious. He'd find her seated on a bench, waiting patiently.
Goh eventually comes walking out the back exit, wearing the exact same attire that he usually does. Plus one addition — a tattered rag that acts like a cloak, hanging from his neck. He rotates his arm around, gripping his shoulder as he stretches his neck. Just getting the kinks out. "Go easy on me, Ari." He muses. "I'm not cut out for the high pressures of combat like some."
Reaching a point in the field that is a suitable distance away, Goh begins to dance lightly on his toes, jumping up and down just slightly, moving back and forth. His arms sway, trying to get some sort of rythym going. In the mean time, he's already focussing chakra. Just paving the way. "I'm not going to go easy on you this time, Ari. I won't go all out, but I'm certainly not going to hold back as much as I was. Since I expect you to have a better handle on everything around here now. Including some new armors."
"I think you're more than cut out for combat," Ariya says. "Ability-wise. But just not mentally. You're not as harsh a person as I am." Despite the humor in her tone, there's a note of sincerity there too. It's a fairly honest observation. She smirks as Goh starts hopping around. But she doesn't laugh, particularly since she's bending over to touch her toes which are encased in white boots. She straightens up, and pushes her hair back over her shoulder, before gripping her weapon which is a tall, silver staff. As she does she's gathering chakra to her, and taking a lightfooted stance. Then, she's ready as she faces Goh. Well, to a degree Ariya is always ready. "This is some of my new armor," she says.
"Looks nice." Goh admits, admiring the new set. Already he can make some assumptions based off the armor. It doesn't seem to be as restrictive as her standard metal armor, which likely means her movements will be a little more sharp and crisp. More difficult to track. "Here I go!" With a dramatic pose, Goh spins about on his foot, his hand trailing along the ground, before he launches himself for Ariya! At a near sprint he zooms, arms moving quickly beside him.
As he does run however, Ariya may notice the ground underneath her suddenly crack. It's the only giveaway that something from beneath is about to erupt, and she'll only have moments, not even a second, to get out of the way. For what will erupt from the ground is a series of salamander! Dubbed 'The Panthers' in the salamander community, this specialist group will launch themselves over Ari if she doesn't move—draping over her and biting into her skin in order to inject some poison. Enough to paralyze immediately, that's for sure.
Can she get away in time?!
"Thanks," Ariya says with a smile. "I thought you might like it." Ariya's eyes flick to the ground and then she darts easily to the side. No not easily, just faster but she makes it look easy almost flowingly to the untrained eye. Seems her armor does enhance her speed. She maneuvers around the attack, though she can't help but stare at the bizarreness of it. "You're too weird," she has to note. Then she flickers from view. A moment later she appears behind him, staff held close so she can use her entire body to crash into him. Then Ariya lets out a 'hee-yah' as she gathers herself for her next attack. She whips the staff around, extending the reach slightly to make it harder to dodge outside of its reach.
Goh keeps a steady eye on Ariya as she moves, her speed definitely up from what it usually is. Though not quite out of reach that he cannot keep up with it. Goh swiftly ducks and leaps off to the side, flipping as he does so in order to avoid not only the initial attack, but the follow-up! Cart wheeling loosely across the ground in order to stop his momentum, he performs a quick series of seals. Once he's come to a stop, his momentum coming to a hault, his lungs have already swelled.
Standing up straight, he spits out a series of fire bullets. They come streaking for Ari, several zipping through the air in order to hopefully hit her and catch her off guard. Performing one last seal, the remaining chakra is then expelled out through the mouth — an epic FIREBALL erupting from Goh. It skims along the ground, charring the grass as it goes.
Ariya winces as the air is suddenly full of fire. This armor isn't exactly flame retardant now that she thinks on it. She dodges out of the way. But the last attack hits her with such force she is knocked aside. And her silk is now on fire. Ugh, that'll take a bit to replace. She swats the fire out. But before it's even stopped smoking she is summoning new armor. Unlike the light colors of her sand silk, this is dark black crafted to look like feathers. Her hair is tied back into a long, swishy ponytail. "I'd really like to show you some more," she says, "but I just can't take you too lightly."
As she speaks earth is gathering around her staff which is widening and sharpening into a sword. Then fire swirls around the blade as she swings it up and around with all her force, slashing at Goh. The earth would at once make the blow a little blunter but with far more impact.
Goh watches as the sword forms, his jaw loosening and opening a little. "…holy moley…" He gets out, blinking as the huge thing comes down at him! He's quick to move again, jumping off to the side in order to evade the epic swing. Despite the size, it seems that Ariya has very little trouble controlling it.
Landing on the ground, he flies through another set of seals, before… slamming his hand onto the ground! Both palms this time, where what follows is… nothing. For the immediate moment, nothing happens. The only thing is that Goh is crouching on the ground. However, Ari will then notice that a very, VERY large shadow has started to form around her. When she looks up, assuming she does, she will spot the colossal form of Wanryo about to fall directly onto her. Quite literally, aimed to crush her into the earth with its gigantic weight.
Let's hope that this new suit continues to give Ari that speed, huh? Otherwise this could be a very… squishy outcome.
Regardless of whether Wanryo hits the target, he will not stay there for long. In a normal situation he would probably keep Wanryo out, and battle alongside him. But since he's not trying to really kill her, the large salamander returns to the Cave from where he came.
This is beyond bizarre. Ariya senses the descending shadow and looks up in time to dodge away. Well, almost. She doesn't get crushed but she is slammed away, along with her weapon. "Ugh," Ariya grunts as she's hit. Some people are coolly silent when they're hit, but not Ariya. She makes a seal and a new weapon is appearing in her hand, another sword, more ornate. She sighs and says, "Still nowhere near you, huh?"
But she's nothing if not persistent. This time rather than the earth and fire to take a few moments to surround her blade it flies up in an instant, and once again she's attacking him with a far more lethally aimed blow. Really, aiming easy on him just won't cut it. Literally.
Goh watches as Wanryo dissapears in a poof of white smoke, before Ariya is already on the counter-attack! He takes a step back, surprised at the speed of her recovery. Normally that blow would at least bring his opponent down, but Ari was showing true tenacity. "Tch." Bringing hands in order to form the seal of a shadow clone, Goh executes the technique. The clone poofs into life in front of him just in time, taking the full brunt of the attack and cushioning the impact the real Goh sustains. It's still quite damaging though, the blonde tumbling back along the ground over and over. Despite not being keen on battle, he certainly has good instincts! If he had tried to dodge, it's extremely likely he would have been cleaved in two. He had somehow managed to come out alive, in a situation that would kill most. And further, given the limited damage he sustained and the decent condition he's in, ready to 'play on'.
"I'm afraid not. You still haven't forced me to really dig deep, or use Wanryo in actual combat." Goh says, rotating his wrists about. "But that's alright." He smiles. "Everyone progresses at their own rate. I'm older than you, too. So the difference shouldn't be that unexpected." The blonde lifts a hand up, as if signalling the end. "I think that's enough, anyway. You dodge well. I was impressed by the speed of your initial armor. You got away from the Panthers so easily. They'll be tendoned."
"And to borrow from Wanpo, that armor you're wearing now really is a good set. Increases your sexiness factor a hundred fold."
Ariya frowns as her attack gets through, her eyes flicking up and down Goh to make sure she didn't do anything serious. And grinning when she sees it's acceptably substantial. Now she's ready to—huh? He's stopping?? Stopping!?! Ariya's eyes blaze with fury when he calls such a calm halt to it. Her hand tightens around her sword. Her eyes narrow despite his compliment about her armor and herself.
"Hey don't say that!" she says. "What is it with you and stopping things right in the middle of everything? Are you underestimating me because you're that much stronger than me? Or is it because I'm a girl? Against you of course I'll never catch up, if beating you is the only way to be S-rank it'll take years…if ever!" She pauses, realizing how petty that sounds, before she says, "Don't leave, see this to the end."
Goh frowns at what Ariya says, before sighing. "No." He says simply. "I'm not that much stronger than you, and I'm not stopping because you're a girl. Honestly, the person who dealt the most damage to me ever was a girl." He rubs his arm, as if remembering the incident.
"I'm not going to keep beating you up, Ari. You take much more damage and you're going to be seriously hurt. This is enough. I mean, look at you. You're already starting to get short on breath." He points to her, wondering if she has even realized how fatigued she is.
"That, plus I'm tired myself remember. I haven't exactly got the chakra and stamina to go the whole nine rounds. Keep training though."
Ariya squints at Goh as he speaks, and when he gives his explanation she visibly relaxes and calms down. She gives a small sigh and says, "Yeah, I wouldn't want you to feel guilty over beating me up. Or hold back because I'm too weak." Nope, it doesn't seem to register to her that she's in bad shape and out of breath. But at this point she does mind they can't have a fair fight.
With a flourish her weapon would disappear in a cloud of steam. Her armor flattens into normal plate and turns from silver to black. "It's not new sets of armor," she says. "Rather this armor is like a base for fusing different materials I summon with it. I made my sand silk armor simply by fusing it with a rubbery material. If you ever find a chakra enhanced object bring it to me, I can break it down into wearable accessories and make new armor." Then her stomach would growl. "I'm hungry," she says abruptly. "Don't worry, I'll get strong enough to kick the biceps out of ya." But she says it in a good natured way.
"Oh, true? Man, that's one nifty ability!" Goh chimes with a big grin. "Seriously. Awesome stuff." Lifting a hand to rub his eyes, the pickler yawns loudly. "I hear ya. I just got back from a big adventure, got smashed with an epic sword, and still haven't even had any of my vegies!" He grumps, then patting his stomach. "And… uh, thanks. I look forward to it, I guess." He does laugh a little bit. "How have you been faring on the missions, lately?" He queries. "Word is that you haven't been around the guild much. Enjoying the road and such?"
Rubbing his nose, Goh sniffs in through his nose to take a gigantic sniff of the busy common rooms. The smell of business! People running back and forth, passing through and prepping for the day.
"Hmm yes I'm not around here too much," Ariya says ruefully. "It's not like I'm a hermit, but Jump is so rowdy and crowded. You'd think wanderers would be a bit…quieter?" How do people who are used to going on solitary adventures now talking non-stop? It was as if they were making up for all the time they hadn't talked. Of course, by now most people knew how to get along with Ariya was through her stomach.
She does raise an eyebrow when he asks about enjoying the road. "Hmm…I do enjoy it. I'm still a wanderer, I haven't 'settled down' like some of our Jump members." She goes over to him and asks curiously, "So a female beat you up more than anyone. Who was she? Must be a real monster."
"Na." Goh replies casually. "Not a monster. Just… mad, I guess. Love of my life, turned up in Sunagakure and thrashed me. You may have heard of her, actually. She's the head of the medical centre, Mushi." He scratches his head. "She's not a bad person, really. I just sort of… I dunno. Well, to cut a long story short, I was stuck in the Salamander Caves for a long while. She thought I was dead. When I came back, she had moved on. Left it in a sort of difficult situation." His nose wrinkles.
"Anyway, that's probably enough of my personal life. Ironic though, huh? She's the best healer in the whole world. But she also one of the strongest ninja going around. One hit from her is enough to take out experienced Jounin."
Leaning on the bar, he stretches out a bit.
Ariya listens intently, and her eyebrows raise when she hears who beat him up. "Yeah, I heard you fell off the map for awhile," she says. Of course, his entire life had been one of the greatest sources of gossip within this building. Everyone seemed to want to know more about Goh. She does say, "I heard about Mushi. Aburei-kun is one of the medics in her organization. And she didn't want to join Jump. I even heard a bit about her before, healers are great. But maybe not so, if she just…nevermind." Like he'd said, enough of his personal life. Ariya sits there then, searching for some change of topic. But she'd never been much of a conversationalist. Instead, she asks for a bottle of sake and a rice ball from the bartender.
"Yeah, that's right." Goh confirms. "Mushi runs the neutral medical centre. I guess you could call her Aburei's boss. I sent a message there asking if she wanted to work with us. All I got was an envoy that declined." He frowns. "Aburei being here is the only assistance we have from the medical centre, and that's not even because they want to help. Aburei does. Which is nice. Very nice." He makes a face at that, as if he's confused about it.
"Heh, fell off the map is right I guess. When I was gunning for Sage Mode, I… may have taken a wrong turn. I knew the risks of course, but it still sucks being stuck deep under the earth. Eventually I managed to get loose, which is how I met Wanryo. Weird set of events." Chewing on his lips, he tabs the bar with his hands, before throwing a loose punch into Ariya's arm.
"I'm gonna head up and crash, Ari. Take care." And with this, he'll proceed to make his leave.
