For His Sake, I’ll Destroy You

Tara and Gen both found it a little difficult to eat the food they’d brought in when every second not focusing on the match led to them missing some crazy technique or another.

Katie had committed to memory everything she’d seen in her previous quick defeat against Shori. It wasn’t much, but a quick web search on Frankie’s phone had shown her all the mistakes she’d made that had led to her loss. Sejun saw this tenacity. She had this fire inside her like she did when she began. In most situations, a champion defending her rank is nothing compared to a hungry newcomer willing to put everything on the line even if it means they fail and die. But when it came to Sejun Shori, master of the Flaming Sword Catch gym… one couldn’t be expected to beat such a fearsomely defensive foe unless they were the most determined in the world.

Thankfully, Katie was pretty close, if she did think so herself.

Shori had attacked first this time. She was impressed to see the American block the strike, taunting her as the two walked around with their blades crossed for at least a minute. Then the real fight began.

Shori was, frankly, a bit overwhelmed. It started to not look much like Kendo after awhile, even if the returning challenger was strangely set on (just barely) fitting her style into the rules. An overconfident rookie like this wouldn’t normally be a problem, but she also showed deafness in avoiding each of Shori’s own strikes. Something aggravating occurred to her then. 

The way she was making it look, the audience would think her and the tourist were evenly matched.

Katie was only more excited to see her suddenly start to fight far, far more aggressively. The sharp, abrupt swings of the girl made for exhilarating combat as she grew more eager to prove herself. Katie stayed the course. She wouldn’t fall for the same tricks again.

As they fought, more and more students came in to log their practice- but finding themselves enraptured by the bizarre match, they couldn’t help watching instead, standing still to examine the duel. But neither Shori nor Katie had the lack of focus to notice these onlookers. Facing eachother like a mirror, a smile showed on Katie’s face as it slowly spread to her partners’s- for the duration of this battle, their entire world lied inside their respective opponent.

I won’t let him down… not to a tourist… The champion centered herself even as she just cranked her agression up and up. The match seemed to go on for hours at this point, two unstoppable, immovable object-forces clashing over and over until one gave up.

Another clash of sticks.

I can’t let him down.

Circling each other, Sejun made the first move-

Not like this. It doesn’t happen like this-

But it only became another opening for Katie to strike her down.

The crowd cheered.

Sejun Shori realized she had been defeated.