"Finally, I have you…"
Saya raises her blade at the defeated Tangie, her eyes shining with beady eyes. This was it. The moment she was waiting for in this entire fight. Below her laid a bloody and bruised Tangie that had given her all throughout this battle, but the mismatch of fighting without a weapon was proving to be too much for the martial artist.
"Perhaps I should start by first destroying that disgusting face of yours. Cousin Ao won't won't love you if your face looks hideous…"- she smirks as the tip of her blade finds Tangie's cheeks, and slowly begins to pierce the orange maiden's skin, enjoying the thick droplets of fresh blood that escapes. Saya took pride in ruining the beauty of the girl who stole her idol's heart, creating a scar that'd surely horrify Cobalt and ruin Tangie's pride.
The words Saya said echo in Tangie's mind as she laid on the ground lifelessly accepting her punishment for defeat. All that talk she said earlier about beating her, and now this. In her mind, she only saw her reflection in a silver edged mirror that stood in the middle of a dark watery room with the only light coming from the silver trims of the mirror. As Tangie looked at her reflection, slowly she began to see the deterioration of her reflection. From blackened and blued swellings on her arms and legs, to the cuts and scratches all over her tanned face. All the while, she could hear Saya's voice in the background spewing the same garbage over and over as she continued to carve in her face. She could feel the pain of her reflection, but she didn't receive the same scars that she saw in her reflection.
"Are you going to let her keep doing this?" her reflection said while having the scar under her left eye deepen as it went further across horizontally
Tangie didn't answer for a moment as she watched her reflection look at her with disappointment. Listening to Saya's hateful words, it seemed as if she'd already given up; Saya began to laugh sadistically as she sunk her sword into Tangie's face, enjoying the wound she inflicted upon her defenseless opponent. As this occurred, Tangie's flashback vanished and turned into a portal that resembled a screen for a tv.
"If you won't get up, then I'll make you…" her reflection said, starting the reel.
It was a recollection of her life from her first memory of her parents to her last image of the ground below her with spots of blood in her shadow. From her youth with her family, to her early training in the Citra dojo, to her first encounter with Cobalt, to her many days of youth spent with Cobalt, to the countless days during the war when she lived at the orphanage, to the times when she lived on the streets with an illness, remembering the bubbly and heart aching feeling she had whenever she was around Cobalt-feeling the need to cling to his arm and always reassure him of her love. Seeing the many friends made along the way that were willing to risk everything all for her to smile next to the one she loved, she knew that being on her back and defeated by her opponent is not what her friends came here for-not her either.
"Stop..." Tangie said while Saya continued her rambling.
"...!"
Saya's blade was stopped.
Tangie's hand wrapped around the sharp blade that was digging itself into her face, her hands bleeding as she tightened her grip around the sword. Her eyes opening, "That's enough!" Tangie yelled as she pulled the blade out of her face, pushing the blade away; Saya struggled to apply pressure, her confidence fading as Tangie gained strength. This was unspeakable. Never had she encountered anybody this persistent. Never had she crossed paths with a maniac like Tangie. Saya realized this as soon as Tangie gained enough strength to sit up that she had messed with the wrong girl.
"So...it seems you are a girl worthy of Cousin Ao. You've earned my respect for refusing to give up."
Tangie sat up, her eyes and heart filled with fire. Her cheeks were stained with a line of blood that trickled from her cut by her forehead and under her eye, the rest of her face covered with scratches, bruises, dirt, and sweat. Every ounce of water and blood in her body surged like the roaring waters of a storm as she clenched her first and gritted her teeth. She rose to her feet, staring at Saya, who in turn was staring back at her with the same intensity. After all of this, Saya had suffered a broken wrist, while Tangie's face now had a scar along with bloodied hands. But this still wasn't enough. Saya's body language told as much that Tangie wouldn't escape from this battle without suffering an injury worse than the ones she already had.
"Are you prepared to make a sacrifice?" Saya said with a ferocious stare, hungry to destroy.
Around the same time as the crucial battles between Cobalt-Azule and Tangie-Saya was the fight between Simone and Teitsu in the stands. Simone had tried to land a sneak attack that backfired, and now she was engaging in a frontal onslaught of attacks from the Tokugawa leader. More and more, Teitsu Tokugawa demonstrated his power through his countless targeted strikes on on Simone. Every single one of his attacks drove Simone back an inch further down the row of bleacher seats. Hopping from one seat to the other, Teitsu raised hell against his sister-in-law, cutting off all routes to escape. Simone doesn't look concerned as she stops in her tracks and readies her blade for a head on battle. Taking a hard stomp forward, Simone readies her swing as if about to hit a homerun; Teitsu leaps in the air and looks ready to stab Simone from above. Like a bowling ball dropping from the air, Teitsu's force is stopped by Simone, who went into a swinging motion and stopped the falling stab attempt. They lock eyes, exchanging burning glares of fury.
"Seeing you up close is disgusting." Simone said.
"Are you sure you haven't looked in the mirror? Or do they break everytime they use one?" He responded.
Simone overpowers Teitsu and completes the swing, sending him a fair distance away. A cruciform of veins bulge from the back of her head as she scoffs at his response a moment earlier. "I never broke any mirrors!" she said to herself as steam puff from her ears, her sword in hand while her free hand was clenched in a fist.
Teitsu gets up from the pile of rubble created by Simone. Rubbing his head, he knew this fight wasn't going to be an easy one. "For a ghost, she hits pretty hard."
"I'm not a ghost." Simone said, appearing before him with glowing eyes and hair. Her sword glistening in the light with Teitsu's name written.
Teitsu got up to his feet before Simone could attack again, in which she did. Bringing her blade down yet again, she did a trio of chain attacks to immobilize Teitsu, but his Tokugawa blood reigned supreme as he blocks her first two attacks with finesse and slipped out of her range for the third, laughing as he created distance. Running along the rows of chair he jumps on one and does a spiral release of a dozen attacks, sending them at Simone-following up with a direct attack; Simone easily cuts through the first diversion with ease and power strikes Teitsu's sword, creating a crack in his blade from her power. Simone wasn't a terrifying opponent for nothing, in fact, she was on par with Arosuke for being the strongest in the world. The only real differences were that Arosuke took her hand in marriage and had her cede from holding a sword, instead giving her the loving job of holding their child. For Simone, wielding a sword was as easy as breathing, her technique, power, and pace all exceeding everyone by a mile. If she wanted to, she could cut down the entire arena with one strike.
Teitsu sidesteps to the right and hops down onto the arena, looking to create separation. Simone doesn't buy it and instead, she throws her sword far behind him-looking to hit him in one throw; he dodges, but notices that she's now without her weapon as the sword sticks into the clay ground. Halting his retreat, he quickly grins devilishly and makes a beeline for the sword while Simone stands on the ledge of the stands, watching him run desperately, she knew that although he was the head of the family, he was significantly weaker than Arosuke, and his children weren't anything special either based on how he was acting. Teitsu finally reaches the sword, but once he wraps his left hand around the hilt-it doesn't move. The sword wouldn't budge!? Simone's eyes sharpened-narrowing fiercely as though she caught her prey in a trap.A snap of her fingers saw the sword in the ground and Teitsu-who's still holding onto it-fly straight towards her at lightning speed, ending with Simone throwing a powerful right hook to Teitsu's jaw, sending a couple of teeth flying out his mouth. The sword flips in the air before landing comfortably in its owner's hands. Simone's face showed no signs of forgiveness as she watched Teitsu roll away from her, spitting out blood.
"Well then…"-he wipes blood and spit from his mouth- "Getting serious, yeah?"
Simone scoffs, making up her face in disgust-gripping the hilt of her blade until veins protrude, "You run your mouth too damn much!" She yelled, rushing at him afterwards leaving a massive cloud of dust as she broke the sound barrier, destroying her surruoundings.
A massive mixture of blue fire and sparks fly to the heavens as the two inklings clash repeatedly, with Teitsu picking up his pace to match the ferocious Simone. With each connection of their blades, it felt as though the sound in the arena was sucked in at once and then released a gigantic explosion repeatedly. The air turned burning hot and heated up the ground as their fight intensified; the temperature in the arena was no different from the nearby volcano at the heart of the island. Simone's glare sharpens as she dissects Teitsu's fighting style, predicting his movements at every turn. No way could she see herself losing this battle at this rate. Teitsu leaps backwards to catch his breath, his openings for attacks completely shut off. He could feel the walls closing in on his reign as the leader of the Tokugawa. He wasn't the only one who felt the change of an era approaching as the Kotari alliance gained new allies in the Zukuri-halting meaningless battles and focusing efforts toward evacuating anybody still left in the arena while others secured the area. Miyamoto and his squad wrapped up their jobs with most of the squad splitting up to assist on the battlefield, Lori, Yasuo, and Moriko took care of any issues still left, and everyone playing a part in the ambush were fulfilling their duties. The only battles left were the battles of Simone and Tangie against Teitsu and Saya after Isabella handled Kenji. Elsewhere nearby the entrance where Saya and Tangie's fight took place was a nervous Norh hiding behind a wall watching the wallop of a fight between the two girls. She was originally evacuating when she heard Saya mention Cobalt and yelling at her opponent that she was wasn't worthy of him. Curious about who she talking to, Norh came closer to see what was going on and ended up watching their fight-studying the features of the mysterious opponent of Saya.
