Chapter 2 - Qiao Ran vs. Shiro Asakura

Author's Note: And we have our first fight scene! Please be warned, I like to view a fight from multiple angles and thus there will be quite alot of linebreaks as I change viewpoints constantly. Hopefully that adds to the scene instead of destracting from it. Feel free to leave a comment in review form either way if you feel strongly enough about it to say something.

Qiao Ran raised her hands into a ready position as her sensei called a start to the match, but she made no moves just yet. She didn't know enough about her opponent to commit to an attack just yet. So she studied him while sliding into a defensive stance to ready herself for his attack instead.

Of course, she noted with a very slight frown, Shiro was doing the same. Still, even how he readied himself to defend told her something. He was doing his best to take his already small frame and make an even smaller target of it, knees slightly bent, back slightly hunched forward, with his arms held in front to guard both his center of mass and his face. It reminded her of a some boxing stances, which confirmed her suspicion that he would favor his fists over his feet for attacking.

What confused her though, is that he did not remove his glasses prior to the match. Was his vision truly so bad that he needed to wear those even during combat? It seemed a fairly obvious weakness, if so. But was it one she wanted to strike at? While certainly allowable under the freestyle rules they were operating under, it wasn't exactly sporting. And sportsmanship was important to her, just as it was important to her adoptive mother. Ran just imagined Chun Li hearing that her first match was won because she went for a questionable strategy like that and almost shuddered. She wouldn't be angry of course. Just disappointed...which was honestly worse.

Somehow, Ran's reflexes kicked in at the last second, ducking and quickly hopping to the side to avoid Shiro's rushing punch that she hadn't even seen coming because she had allowed herself to get distracted.

Snapping herself back into the fight, Ran felt a rising disgust with herself for letting her mind wander. She could see it in Shiro's eyes as well, he knew she'd let her concentration lapse and his face held nothing but contempt for her inattention.

Forsaking defense, Qiao Ran chided herself as she hastily launched into a counterattack to try and regain some footing, Focus, Ran!

Shiro fell back a bit, easily blocking or dodging his opponents rapid kicks. It wasn't a bad move, all things considered, since it was clearly just designed to force him into the defensive instead of being a real attempt at landing a scoring blow. The girl recovered fast, he'll give her that. But she needed to if spacing out during a fight was a regular thing for her.

With a half grunt, Shiro blocked another kick, then yet another, taking a step back to avoid being knocked off balance by the blows. Which he knew was exactly what she wanted. Her pressure was good, he wasn't being given any room to do anything besides block and retreat unless he wanted to get knocked for a loop. And he would too, her kicks had a hell of a lot of force behind them. Which made her little lapse there all the more confusing. How the fuck does a girl with this kind of skill make stupid mistakes like that?

He didn't dwell on it, though. That was something to think about after the fight. Right now, he needed to do something about the pressure she was piling on. He could retreat, just jump back and give her the space she wanted. Wouldn't really be a bad move on his part either, but it just wasn't Shiro's style. He wanted to break her attacks, not just avoid them.

A moment later he saw his chance. Qiao Ran snapped her foot out again, one more blow in a series of rapid fire kicks, but this time Shiro did not step back as he blocked. Instead, he focused himself and pressed forward even as he pushed her foot to the side. Amazingly, Ran kept her balance and quickly brought her hands up to intercept the attack she thought was coming...but her head wasn't what Shiro was aiming for.

Quickly, before she could manage to retreat or counter, Shiro pushed in further until he was practically right up against her and dug his open hands into the upper part of her gut, just beneath her ribs...and then he shoved as hard as he could. It was a crude move, belonging to no formalized 'style' Shiro had ever practiced, but an effective one all the same. Nobody who thought they were facing a well trained martial artist ever expected such a base maneuver, and it caught Ran off guard just as he expected it to. With the strength he had put into the push, the small girl went flying backwards.

Ran hit the ground hard, but ignored the pain and quickly sprang back to her feet to try and defend herself against Shiro's follow up...which never came. Rather then charge in to press his advantage, her opponent chose to hang back and catch his breath. She inwardly winced a bit. Creating space is what she had been going for with her attacks, but she was intending to get it by his retreating, not by getting flung across the room herself.

Shiro's unorthodox throw had hardly been a decisive strike, but it still put him at an advantage that Ran didn't want him to be at. It also meant she lost the first real exchange of the fight, which wasn't exactly the competence she was hoping to show her sensei and peers.

As she had that thought, Ran almost instinctively tried to steal a glance at Kasugano-sensei to see her expression, but locked down the impulse and kept her attention on her opponent. It was allowing herself to be distracted that put her in this disadvantageous position in the first place, after all.

Considering Shiro's style thus far, Ran had an idea of how to surprise him and get the upper hand. Though she felt a bit guilty about holding it back, Ran hadn't shown her sensei everything she could do during that earlier practice. She had kept one trick up her sleeve for later, and this seemed the time for it. Don't hold back, she remembered Kasugano-sensei's instructions before the match, fight with everything I have. Here it goes then.

Sakura cast a critical eye on her two students as they fought, carefully observing every movement and maneuver for weaknesses in their styles. Of course she was paying more attention to Qiao Ran then to Shiro this time. It wasn't that she already knew his moves or that he couldn't surprise her, like all her students he was altering and refining his technique all the time, but she had gotten the feeling that little Ran hadn't quite shown her everything she had before. When someone's been fighting as many years as Sakura has, they get fairly good at telling when someone's holding back.

Sparing a quick glance to her side, Sakura noted with satisfaction that Julian and Paulette were focused on the fight as well. Or at least on half of it, she suppressed a sigh as she noted that Julian seemed to be ignoring Shiro entirely. He could just be trying to get a feel for her moves since he's already familiar with Shiro. I'll just keep telling myself that.

Her attention shifted back to the fight as Ran began to move forward, and she narrowed her focus towards her newest student's movements, waiting to see what she would do to try and take the advantage from Shiro.

As Ran lunged in, she saw Shiro draw his right arm back, preparing to meet her attack with one of his own. Ever so slightly, she smiled. He was taller then her, true. In fact, she was the only person in the room he was taller then. But that didn't mean he had a longer reach then she did.

Quickly pausing her momentum just outside of his range, Qiao Ran concentrated on her spiritual energies as she put her weight on her right foot and torqued her body. As she spun, she leaned in heavily on her right leg, extending the range of her spinning back heel kick further then it would seem she should be able to manage. But the length of her kick wasn't what would make this strike count.

She could feel the burning heat in her leg as her chi gathered and released, then the sudden flare of heat in the air as her left foot burst into flame just before slamming into Asakura's face.

Completing her spin, Ran drew her leg back and fell back into a ready stance, quite pleased with the effect of her strike. Shiro had hit the ground hard, visibly injured by her attack even though he was already starting to get up.

Sonnova FUCK. Shiro bit back the cursing that rang through his mind as he tried to recover his equilibrium after Ran's attack. If he had any doubts left about her placement straight into Advanced, they were gone now. Bitch can channel chi, huh? Alright, if that's how it's gonna go down...

"Whew." Shiro heard Julian's whistle from the sideline as he pulled himself up, "You know, I was just thinking about how hot she is."

"...Jules? Shut it." Shiro groaned at his roommate even as his attention was on his opponent. She was moving in on him, likely trying to press the attack now that she had landed a heavy hit. We'll see about that.

Instead of standing all the way up, Shiro suddenly dropped back down the mat, spun his legs towards the approaching Ran and snapped them together in a scissor kick sweep intended to bring her down to the mat with him where he could use his unusual advantage in size against her.

But as his legs crossed, he didn't feel them connect with anything.

...crap.

Sakura raised an eyebrow as Ran gracefully hopped over Shiro's sweep and kicked him in the face again. Though this time without the fire.

Beside her, Julian winced, "Ooh, he's gonna feel that one in the morning."

Unable to resist chiming in with a jibe, Paulette added, "I think he's feeling it quite thoroughly right now."

"That's enough from the peanut gallery," Sakura quietly reprimanded them for their heckling, though she knew it wouldn't stick longer then a few moments.

"Ah, sorry." Paulette apologized quietly, "But...you know, that move looked a bit familiar."

"There is a reason for that," Sakura confirmed, quietly pleased that someone had started to pick up on Ran's techniques, "I'll explain it later." That fire kick wasn't hers, though. Ran developed that on her own. No wonder Chun Li sent her to me.

Now, Sakura let her attention shift from Qiao Ran to her oldest student. Shiro was quite solidly getting beaten here, which she knew meant he was about to reach his most dangerous. That boy's like a caged animal. The worst thing you can do is back him into a corner. Hmm, a small smile came to her lips as she considered Shiro's options, I wonder...no, there's no need to wonder. He'll use it. She's not the only one who needs to use everything she has here.

Shiro's vision swam. Two hits to the head in rapid succession was a little more then he was used to taking, and it didn't exactly help that Ran kicked HARD.

Without waiting for his spatial awareness to fully recover, Shiro simply rolled back away from Ran as fast as he could. He needed space. He needed it badly.

He hated retreating.

His glasses had fallen off as he rolled, shaken loose by the blows to the head, but he let them go. It didn't matter. Not now that he knew she used chi.

As he pulled himself to his feet, Ran moved towards him again. He felt her approach more then saw it, the entire room was a blur to him now and it wasn't just from the kicks to the head. Shiro really was legally blind without his glasses on. But he didn't need them to know where Ran was. When he focused on it, he could feel the chi moving through her body, and when she tried for that fire kick again, he would feel it gathering in her foot before she struck. He would be ready.

But she didn't rush in like he expected. Instead, she stopped close to where he had been a moment ago and kicked something towards him. A familiar blurry outline came into view as it slid across the mat even as her voice called out calmly.

"Your glasses. You can put them back on."

Pity. She was pitying him. Shiro's lip began to curl in anger at the thought. She hadn't won yet. She had no reason, no right, to go easy on him like this.

"Fuck 'em." he grunted out in reply even as he kicked his own glasses off to the side of the mat.

He couldn't see her face, but he hoped her reaction to that was shocked. He hoped she had no idea what to think or say about that. Headgames were his best weapon right now. Keep her mentally off balance long enough for him to get his second wind. It wouldn't take him long.

He didn't feel her moving closer. She was hesitating. Good, that's what he wanted. She spoke again, asking the obvious question, "If you don't need them, why didn't you take them off before the match?"

Shiro didn't let the smile he was feeling show outwardly. She was the honorable type, she'd give him time to answer. He stood up straight, taking a second to get his breathing completely back under control before he responded, putting all the contempt he could into his voice, "Just to fuck with your head."

Now he really wished he could see her face. But he could feel her reaction, the flow of chi through her body increased, and it started to gather in her leg. This time he did smile, even as he focused his own power into his hands, forming his chi into a barrier around his fists.

She moved in towards him, and he kept his attention on the feeling of chi in her foot. He knew where it was, he could feel it's motion. As she kicked he met her attack head on with a fierce punch, "Kekkaiken!"

Pain lanced through Ran's leg as Shiro's fist connected with her foot. It must have had something to do with that white aura she saw flash around his fist, but his hand didn't give at all to the force of her attack. In fact, he was grinning like it didn't hurt him in the slightest. But for her, that felt like kicking a steel wall.

As quickly as she could manage, Ran jumped backwards. She didn't know how that had happened, or what that white energy around his hand was, but it was quite clear that he met attack with his and his won. Whatever that was, she needed to avoid it.

But Shiro wasn't letting her retreat. Even as she jumped back, he lunged towards her with a powerful right that she avoided by mere fractions of an inch, then followed up with a left that she managed to block...for all the good that did. Taking the blow on the arm was better then taking it in the gut, but was still like trying to block a sledgehammer.

Ran ducked back again, still trying to get away. Somehow the tables had been completely turned, she went from being on the attack to completely on the defensive, while Shiro had completely abandoned his earlier caution to turn hyper aggressive and throw wild punch after wild punch. She had to keep evading, she didn't have the strength to try and block those hits nor the time to attempt a counter. All she could do was keep dodging and hope he made some mistake she could use.

Kekkaiken, the Barrier Punch. The strongest technique any of my students have managed to perform so far...and he developed it completely on his own. Sakura moved her focus back to Ran now that Shiro had drawn on that technique. She knew what he would be doing now, the question was how would Qiao Ran try to counter it?

The Kekkaiken had it's weaknesses, but Ran wouldn't know of them yet. Shiro couldn't keep it active for long, hence the wild attacking while he could hold on to it. And once it wore off, most of his energy went with it. He hadn't gotten to the point where he could maintain his normal abilities after the Kekkaiken wore off. That was one of her goals for Shiro, but unless he had somehow developed that ability between yesterday and today she knew it wouldn't be the case here.

She noted with satisfaction that Ran was doing the right thing, though possibly completely by accident. If she could just draw this out long enough, she would have a massive advantage over him the moment he lost his energy.

Of course, that was assuming he didn't just knock her clear into next week first. Smiling a bit, Sakura stopped trying to predict what would happen and just watched the remainder of the match.

DAMMIT she's fast! Shiro's breathing was ragged and heavy as he swung in one punch after another, trying to connect solid blow on the his nimble opponent. Hell, he'd even take a glancing blow, they'd rock her hard enough with the force he was putting into these swings. But she was just too much faster then him, he hadn't managed to land anything at all after that one she tried to block. She was smart enough not to try that again, too.

Gah...I can't keep this up much longer...

Aah! He's too fast! Qiao Ran was nearly panicking as she ducked, dodged and weaved to avoid Asakura's attacks. She had managed to stay a touch ahead of him, but every dodge was too close for her comfort, and she had no idea how much longer she could keep up this pace.

I have to do something, this isn't working! She furiously thought of something, anything, as she avoided yet another lunging right hook. ...that's it! He's moving forward with every swing, so if I can flip over him, he'll keep going a bit and I'll get some room to maneuver.

Hopping back from another swing, Ran crouched down and sprang up in an arc, sailing right over Shiro's head and landing neatly behind him. Spinning back towards him, she saw that his attack had indeed carried him forward just a couple steps, but that was some space she hadn't had before. I did it! Now to take him down.

Shiro was confused for a moment as he felt Ran's chi move...up? Then it hit him, she had alot of leg power and was fast, of course she was acrobatic enough to jump over his head. Shoulda seen that coming.

He spun to face where he knew she was, though he could hardly see even her outline at this point. His vision had gone past blurry and into near-completely obscured thanks to the strain of keeping the kekkaiken active. On top of that, even the simple act of turning around was making him dizzy. He knew he didn't have much left. One shot...I've got one shot left. This had better work.

Crouching low, he put a final burst of energy into his charge, rushing towards Ran with his right fist held down and back, ready to throw his last strike. As he moved, he braced himself for impact. She was going to counter, and it was going to connect. He couldn't spare the time or energy to dodge. He just had to hope his momentum didn't get broken, and that he hit her back harder.

Shiro cringed as the expected kick hit him. Right in the side of the head, the third blow he'd taken there in one match. It hurt like hell, but it didn't knock him down, or even enough to the side to stop him. Bringing his fist forward, he rose from his crouching charge into a variation on a very famous spinning uppercut, and as he felt his punch connect he accompanied it with a kiai shout...

"SHOU'OKEN!"

Sakura's jaw nearly hit the ground as she saw Shiro slam into his opponent with her own signature technique. His form wasn't perfect, but it was good enough to carry poor Ran into the air and drop her unceremoniously on the mat. When did he learn THAT!

While Ran landed flat on her back, Shiro landed on his feet...and immediately collapsed down onto his hands and knees, the white aura of the kekkaiken flickering out of existence. He wasn't breathing so much as heaving and gasping for air, and she knew he couldn't fight a stiff breeze in this state. Standing up, she looked at Ran's face and saw that her eyes were still open, so she made a decision.

"This fight is over." Sakura announced, then addressed her newest student, "Ran, if you can stand up in the next six seconds, you win. If not, Shiro does. One...two..."

Qiao Ran was still conscious. Just...not by much. She heard her sensei's voice but it took her a moment to puzzle out what she said through the fog of pain and exhaustion clouding her mind.

"Three..."

Oh no... Ran tried to push down on the mat to pry herself up, but the strength had left her arms.

"...four..."

She pushed regardless, unwilling...or perhaps unable, to give up. She knew she could stand. She had to. She couldn't lose her first match, especially not to someone as crude as him! She just couldn't!

"...five..."

Ran managed to push herself a couple of inches up...but her hand slipped out from under her and she hit the mat again, her consciousness slipping away even as she realized she had lost. ...no...

"Six." Sakura sighed as she finished counting, "Shiro Asakura wins this match. Good fight, both of you."

Shiro managed to force out something resembling a laugh and mumbled, "...damn right I did..."

Sakura frowned, "Shiro, we'll talk later. For now, Julian, help him to the shower before he throws up on the mat again. And Paulette, carry Ran to her bed, carefully. I'll meet you in your room with the first aid kit."

Her other two students nodded in response and proceeded to follow her instructions.

"Ah, back to the land of the living are we?"

Paulette's voice greeted Ran as her eyes flickered open, but she wasn't really comforted by that. She didn't want to face her roommate right now. She didn't really want to face anyone after getting beaten that badly.

When she didn't respond, Paulette sighed, "Well, at least somewhat. Miss Kasugano told me to go get her when you woke up, so are you alive enough to talk?"

Ran winced. She wanted to face her sensei right now even less, but refusing would be impossibly rude. So, she nodded a bit weakly at Paulette's question and tried to mentally prepare herself for the worst as her roommate slipped out to fetch her teacher.

A few minutes later, they returned. Ran tried to push herself up to greet her sensei, but Sakura very gently and firmly pushed her right back down. "Oh no you don't. I've already got two students who push themselves far past what they should for pride's sake, I don't need a third."

Not having much choice in the matter, Ran allowed herself to be pushed back down. She felt like she should say something about her poor performance, but she couldn't think of anything that didn't sound like excuses. So she nodded meekly and waited for her sensei to scold her.

Sakura pulled the chair over from the desk and sat down next to the bed, nodding to Paulette still hovering at the doorway before addressing Ran further, "Paulette, go get her a glass of water please."

Feeling more then guilty about having to be taken care of as much as she already had, Ran tried to protest, "It's...okay, I'm not thirsty..."

But Paulette chuckled, "That was her polite way of telling me to get lost so she could talk to you in private. I'll just go get myself a glass then."

Sakura cast a long suffering half-glare at the doorway and the large girl's retreating form before turning back towards Ran, "Ignore her, please. Anyway, that was an impressive showing, Ran. You're better then I suspected, even knowing your background."

Ran blinked, not quite sure what she was hearing, "But...I lost..."

As soon as she said it, she knew it was the wrong thing to say. The look that her teacher gave her only confirmed it, "I really hope you weren't coming in here expecting to beat my best student in a no-holds-barred match right from the beginning."

Unfortunately, Ran realized that's effectively what she had been expecting of herself, without any thought to how insulting that mindset was to Kasugano-sensei or the other students.

"Well, my most advanced student at least," Sakura continued, giving Ran the time to recover from her embarrassment. "Shiro could stand to do considerably more listening before I'd call him a good 'student', but he's an incredible fighter. But enough of that, how are you feeling? Head a little fuzzy?"

Ran thought about it, realized thinking was hard, and bobbed her head yes.

Sakura smiled, "That means the pain medicine is working. You'll get familiar with that feeling pretty quickly I'd bet." Then getting more serious, she leaned forward in her chair to make eye contact with her student. Ran didn't really want to meet her eyes, she was still too embarrassed about multiple things, but she couldn't just look away either.

"We don't normally go all out like that here," her teacher continued, "that's usually just for when I want to test you. But even our normal lessons here involve a lot of pain. That's how I do things. You won't be learning forms and doing specific exercises here, we do things more...trial and error, really. You won't succeed at everything you try, and you won't win every fight you have. If you think you're somehow supposed to, then you need to get over that mindset quickly. Do you understand that?"

Taking a deep breath, Ran nodded once sharply and decided to answer honestly, "I...I'll try, Kasugano-senei."

That made Sakura chuckle, "You're a perfectionist, I can tell. Alright, I'm going to let you get some rest then. If you need anything, ask Paulette for it. And don't be shy about it either, it'll be your turn to help her when she gets hurt. And since I'm sure you're curious," she added as she stood up to leave, "you can ask her about Shiro's kekkaiken when you're feeling up to it, she's been on the wrong side of it more then once herself."

Ran quietly nodded again, not saying anything as her sensei left the room. She had a lot to think about, starting with going over that fight in her mind from beginning to end, looking for anything she should have done differently.

As Sakura walked out of the room, she smirked to catch Paulette waiting just a bit off to the side in the hall, but since she had a glass of water in hand to prove she hadn't just been eavesdropping the whole time, Sakura let it slide and simply nodded to her that it was alright to go back in.

As Paulette moved past her into the room, Sakura paused a bit herself. A moment later her smirk broke into a full smile as she heard Paulette's voice start describing Shiro's technique. I figured as much. Not wasting any time at all, is she?

She chuckled a bit at the thought as she left the girls to their talk and went to go make herself a pot of tea. Well, I won't even try to pretend I was any better at that age.

Author's Footnote: Well, I hope the fact that I rushed this out in four days wasn't too apparent. I was intending to do a Sword and Shadow chapter this month, but suddenly it was the 27th and I hadn't done a thing yet, and that story takes me a bit longer to write then simple fight scenes.