Locking Down/Breaking Apart
Kai comes onto her like a cannon.
Misaki lays her traps carefully, locking him down. Limiting his options, making those grade 0s in his hand dead weight and taking away his intercepts; like a spider she spins him into defenselessness, determining her triggers and setting victory in stone before she's at Grade 2. Kai watches those traps be lain, nods his head, walks right into them.
Somewhere in this Amaterasu dissolves and there is only Tokura.
Vortex Dragon breaks free, her chains coming apart in a lick of flame and bitter-tasting ash. Kai blows her plans away full force, cleaning the field off, sweeping the dust over the table. He's a walking cannon battery that piles on damage and leaves nothing but cinders in its wake, he hits her hard and fast over and over and—
And smiles when she pins him back down. Kai's expression shakes her spine, like she's standing too close to electrical transformers or Shin's running chalk on mom's old blackboard. Misaki sees the pleasure dart along his mouth, dragons coiling anxiously.
Again she nails him back, stripping away the boy's options. Kai loves every moment of it; he loves breaking free even more, battering down each new lock the moment she's snapped the keys.
She loves it, too. Kai breaks her, snaps her strategies with one hand and forces her on the defensive. Vortex crawls out of his face, its teeth gnashing dangerously, coughing fire. They trade roles forcefully, with the waxing of the moon and the rise of the sun.
Vanguard is the equalizer. She could never win physically; he'd hate it if she couldn't win. Tokura reels in and out of their rapidly changing positions like a rubber band being snapped back, and Kai bends with her.
It makes losing a little easier.