32ND FINALS: WOLVERINE VS. SILVER SAMURAI
High above the city streets of Tokyo, Japan, where the spectators crowd the sidewalks, two flashes of light soon appeared on one particular rooftop. As it turned out, the flashes were that of both Wolverine and Samurai arrived for their battle, and with a stationed Ref Bot coming in between them. Their arrival also sparked cheers from the people, whether from those in the streets below watching from the holo-screen floating above them, as well as from the people who watched the two mutants from the windows inside the taller buildings around the rooftop which they were standing on.
Usually, time in Japan would be relaxing for Wolverine, namely that in all of his adventures, he always considered the Land of the Rising Sun to be his home away from home. But with one of his most hated enemies standing right across from him, that was not the case.
Nevertheless, the Ref-Bot remained in between the two warriors, with the announcer's face on the screen to explain the rules. "Now then, gentlemen, please keep in mind that while you are allowed to use your bladed weapons, I must emphasize that you use them to take out opponent's belt buckle, NOT kill on another. Understood?" After receiving no answers from either man, the announcer finally sent out a mental command to the Ref Bot to fly straight up in the air and say the words that got all spectators into a frenzy. "Well then, LET THE MATCH BEGIN!"
With that said, the Silver Samurai does not hesitate to pull out his katana, concentrated and charged his blade with energy, causing it to burn with fire. "I have waited a long time for this moment, Logan-san!" he said, getting into a readied sword fighting stance.
As the growling Wolverine gave Silver Samurai a death glare...
...he flashed back to when he was standing in front of a Yasida clan headquarters building and was not dressed as the X-Man Wolverine, but instead was dressed in a traditional Japanese hakama as the lone warrior Logan, with katana by his side and ready to duel. The Silver Samurai was also present that day, but out of his armor and also dressed in a traditional hakama as the Yakuza member, Kenuichio Harada, and ready to take on Logan. As both men stood across from one another, as well as four Japanese men in business suits, two from the Yakuza and the other two being Yashida Clan members, watching the duel, both Logan and Harada pulled out their katanas and charged towards one another...
...back in the present, the now uniformed Wolverine only has this to say to his armored foe. "Bub, that makes two of us!" With that grim reply, Wolverine held up both of his fists and popped out his adamantium claws.
Once he saw the feral mutant prepare himself, the Samurai soon charged forward with his burning blade, letting out a battle cry in the process. Once he got close enough, the Samurai made the first move by bringing his katana to the left side and go for a downward slash, aiming for his belt buckle.
Fortunately for Wolverine, however, he spotted this attack coming and threw his claws in both hands down in an 'X' fashion to block the Samurai's blade, as well as side-step to the right side.
But even after his attack was deflected, the Samurai continued his assault by spinning around swinging his katana around a horizontal motion, once again aiming for Wolverine's belt buckle.
Luckily, the feral mutant anticipated this a stepped backward to save his buckle from getting slash, unfortunately, though, the burning blade still managed to hit his abdomen, which cut his shirt as well as cut the flesh from underneath. Wolverine naturally grunted in pain and held his cut while backing away, but as he pulled his hand to look at it, he could see that his mutant healing factor has already done its job and closed up the wound.
This moment did not go unseen by the Ref Bot, who then flew right in between the two combatants, and more importantly, the screen showing the announcer's face directly at the Samurai himself. "Whoa! That was too close, Samurai!" said the concerned announcer. "Remember, concentrate on slicing your opponent's belt buckle, not your opponent himself! Got it?"
The Samurai let out an annoyed grunt at the announcer, but for the sake of keeping his 'bargain' with Osborn, he gave him an understanding bow. "A mistake on my part, I admit. And for that, I apologize and will have better control of my attacks."
The announcer accepted this as an honest answer from the Samurai, and thus commanded the Ref Bot to fly back up into the air and allow the match to continue.
As Wolverine got back into his fighting stance, he couldn't help but be curious about the Samurai humble 'performance.' "What gives Harada? What turned you into Osborn's lackey?"
Feeling insulted by how Wolverine words, the Samurai raised his katana over his head, charged towards him and went for an overhead slash to cut the X-Man's belt-buckle in half. Unfortunately for him, Wolverine utilized his claws once more by holding up high in an 'X' fashion once more and blocked the slash. However, the Samurai continued to press down on his katana, engaging in somewhat of a power struggle with his old enemy, but this did not stop him by slowly leaning in and whispering this into his ear. "Do not misunderstand me, Gajin," he hissed bitterly. "I could care less about Osborn, much less his little game. However, he informed me that if I merely defeated you according to the rules of this match, he will give me a chance to finish you personally and reclaim my honor once the tournament is over!"
While trying to keep the Samurai's blade away from his person, Wolverine only let out a snort. "Honor?!" he asked defiantly. "I fought you long enough to know that that word doesn't suit you, bub!"
With a rage-filled cry, the Samurai pushed Wolverine backward, and as he watched the mutant stagger back, he threw a right low rising slash at his belt buckle, only for Wolverine to see it and use the claws in his right hand to block the blade once more with expert timing and push it upward to the left side. However, determined not to give up, the Samurai continued his assault by bring his sword up and going for a left downward slash.
Luckily for Wolverine, however, he used the claws in his left hand to block the blade and push it outward, then made his move by taking his clawed right hand and throws a middle punch, with the intent of darting the tip of his claws into his armored foe's belt buckle to win the match.
However, the Samurai anticipated this and thus held his blade upside down in a vertical angle, successfully blowing his enemy's claw slash. Afterward, he pulled his blade back, charged it with energy, then held his sword up high and went for yet another downward slash, only for Wolverine to spot it and side-step to the right, avoiding it and allowing the Samurai to hit nothing but air. Now frustrated, the Samurai turned to feral mutant and went for a rising left upward slash.
Ever alert, Wolverine quickly stepped back to avoid the slash but saw the persistent Samurai coming towards him with a right downward slash, thus forcing the X-Man to throw up his right arm and use his claws to the block the attack.
This did not stop the now angry Samurai, however, and thus pulled his burning blade back and threw an overhead slash from the left side.
Fortunately, Wolverine quickly held up his left claws to successfully block the slash, and with his right leg, threw a front kick, hoping to shatter the Samurai's belt buckle and end this match.
The Samurai, on the other hand, proved to be just as quick on his feet and stepped to the left side to dodge the kick. Moments later, he spotted Wolverine throwing a left backhanded claw slash, and not only did he hold up his blade to bock the X-Man's attack, but also responded by throwing a right legged sidekick into his left side, causing the clawed mutant to stagger backward.
Wolverine barely managed to stop himself but ended up near the edge of the roof. To make matters worse, he saw the Samurai now running towards him, and acting fast, he hopped up onto the ledge, and once he saw the Samurai throwing a horizontal left sided slash, he jumped and flipped over his armored foe's blade, saving his belt buckle if not his entire torso.
Meanwhile, back in New York, the audience inside the Garden all cheered for the action taking place in Japan, but one spectator, namely that of the Japanese woman watching the fight from the skybox, watched the match with a mixture of worry and sadness.
One other person in the box, a Japanese man in a business suit, honorably bowed to the woman before addressing her. "Mariko-san, would you like some refreshments?" he asked her in their native Japanese?"
"No, thank you," replied Mariko, still focused on the screen. As she watched the fight, she focused more on Wolverine, who at this point in the match leaned back to avoid another sword slash. And seeing him in much peril took her back...
...To her native Japan, where she, in a traditional Japanese kimono, was at the same Yashida headquarters building and was talking to Logan on the left side of the room before his match against Harada," Logan-San, please don't do this!" Mariko pleaded her hands on his chest.
"Sorry, Darlin, but it's too late to turn back now," Logan replied, then gently grabbed her hands and looked into her eyes. "I will win this, Mariko, and I'll finally free you from that damn coward Harada! I promise!" With that said, Logan slowly backed away from the new teary-eyed Mariko then walked over to engage Harara in a duel that would decide which man will take Mariko's hand in marriage...
...and the most painful part of that memory for Mariko was that the result was Harada beating Logan, the man she truly loved, and thus was forced to by his side in marriage. And as she watched the match, she worried even more for Logan and hoped that he wouldn't let his hatred for her now-husband, the Silver Samurai, to make him do something that he would regret.
Back in Japan, the match between Wolverine and the Silver Samurai continued to heat up, as energized steel clashed with adamantium claws. Finally, it is Wolverine who gained the upper hand by using the claws in both of his hands to block an incoming overhead slash from the Samurai then pushed him up against the ledge. Now in control, the feral X-Man took the claws in his left hand and thrust them forward in a middle punch fashion, aiming for his enemy's belt buckle.
It was an attack that the Samurai spotted and thus threw a left downward slash, blocking and pushing the claws down to the right side, allowing the armored yakuza member to move past Wolverine's left side, and causing the feral X-Man himself to tumble forward and nearly go over the edge. As Wolverine just barely managed to stop himself from going over the roof and keep his balance, the Samurai stopped, spun around and waited for the mutant to turn and face him. Once he and Wolverine were face to face, the Samurai pulled out another surprise attack by throwing a right legged sidekick, nailing the X-Man in the mouth and sending him falling over the ledge.
As he fell, Wolverine looked down and saw that he was falling towards and about to land on top of a moving train. Seeing this as a way to save himself, the X-Man managed to point his toes up and placed his arms on his sides, getting into a 'controlled free fall' position, and once he got close enough to the roof of the train, he pointed both of his fists downward and plunged his claws into roof and managed to stand on top of the train. After shaking off the effects of such a rough landing, Wolverine is soon surprised when he felt a large thud behind on the roof, as if something, or someone, had fallen onto it. This prompted him to look over his shoulder and saw that it was the Silver Samurai, who by this time had landed on the roof in a kneeling position, with his sword plunged into the roof. After pulling his claws out of the roof, Wolverine spun around and faced his silver-plated opponent while getting in a readied stance. "You just don't give up, do ya?"
The Samurai did not reply right away, as he stood up, pulled the blade out, got into a readied fighting stance himself, all the while, charging his blade with energy once more. "Not when it comes to beating you, Gajin!"
Though he knew that the Samurai meant business, Wolverine refused to be intimidated and merely scoffed at him. "Not today, you won't!"
At that moment, the two mutant combatants charged towards each other, both of whom let out battle cries. Upon reaching one another, both Wolverine's claws and the Samurai's energy charged katana made contact, and the two resumed their battle, with the Ref Bot flying high above them to capture their every move for the audiences, while in Japan as well as the rest of the world to see.
Finally, after using the claws in his right hand to block the Samurai's overhead slash and pushing his blade away from him, Wolverine went on the offensive by darting the claws in his other hand at his opponent's belt buckle.
The Samurai, on the other hand, quickly swung his sword down to the left to deflect the claws and pushed them outward, and once again being overtaken by the heat of battle pulled his blade back and went for a shoulder high horizontal left sided slash, hoping to take Wolverine's head off.
Luckily though, Wolverine saw this and quickly underneath the blade to save himself from getting decapitated, and the process moved underneath the Samurai's right side and ended up right behind him. As he waited for his armored opponent to turn, however, the X-Man looked ahead and noticed something that made his eyes grow wide. It was that of a metal railing with a sign' written in Japanese, of course, telling the train turn to the right. As such, he took this moment to quickly falls back on the train's roof chest first and with his hands over his head.
As the Samurai turned around, he looked down and saw Wolverine lying face down and was naturally confused. But as he turned around, he was shocked to see that the train was about to go underneath the metal railing, and to avoid it knocking him off the top of the trail, he took his energy charged katana, raised it over his head and threw an overhead downward slash, slicing the entire railing in two.
Wolverine, hearing what sounded of steel cutting through steel, looked straight up and was somewhat shocked to see the Samurai still standing in a slashing pose, indicating that the Samurai did indeed slash through the railing and causing him to grunt in disappointment.
After successfully dealing with railing, the Samurai quickly spun and around, looked down at Wolverine and said this to him as he pointed the tip of his blade at the feral mutant. "It will more than mere distractions to defeat me, Gajin!"
Though frustrated, Wolverine nevertheless stood straight up and ready to fight. "Figured as much."
With the feral X-Man back in his sights, the Samurai attacked once more by running in and throwing a left rising upward slash, only to have it blocked when Wolverine threw his left fist downward and used his claws to deflect the blade to the right side. Not wanting to wait for his opponent to counter-attack, as well as feel his frustration overtake him, the Samurai pulled his katana back, then raised it over his head and tried to slice Wolverine in half right down the center.
Fortunately for Wolverine though, he threw all six of his claws upward and successfully blocked the slash and pushed it away from his person. Moments later, he looked past the Samurai's right shoulder and with a worried expression, saw the yellow energy ropes just ahead, indicating that they were both about to out of bounds. Normally, like the Samurai, Wolverine could care less about this tournament that Osborn and his controlled cronies in S.H.I.E.L.D. cooked up, but in his my, if anybody could take Osborn and his Thunderbolts down before they could become too big of a threat for he and his fellow X-Men could handle, the Avengers might as well must have ' the best there is at what he does' win this sick game! With that mindset, Wolverine quickly looked around and spotted an upcoming rooftop on the right side, and once the timing was right, the feral X-Man popped his claws back into his hands, then wrapped both of his arms around the Samurai's upper body and keeping a good firm grip, jumped off of the train with his opponent in tow and landed hard on the rooftop before they reached the laser ropes.
After taking such a rough landing, the disoriented Samurai pushed Wolverine off of him and got back on his feet, all the while holding his aching head, despite that he was wearing a helmet. Once recovered, the silver-plated Yakuza member saw his katana was also on the roof, but just a few feet away. A fact that surprisingly did not bother him, for he had a trick up his sleeve, namely that of an of a piece of wire tied to his right wrist and with the other end tied to the bottom of his sword. With a quick jerk, he pulled his katana towards him and used his left hand to catch it by its handle. With his weapon now back in his possession, the Samurai grabbed the handle with both hands and charged his blade with energy once again, and now fuming with how he as just thrown by his old enemy, sprinted towards Wolverine, who by this time was dazed and in a kneeling position and threw a right-sided overhead slash, attempting to take his head off.
As before, Wolverine spotted this and held up his claws in an 'X' over his head to block the burning blade. Incidentally, it was being in this position that somehow brought back another one of the clawed mutant's dark memories...
...that being when Logan had just lost his duel with Harada, who at that time had plunged the tip of his katana just below the mutant's collarbone and forced him to kneel. Harada then pulled out his blade and was just about to throw another slash to take Logan's head clean off of his shoulders, until a crying Mariko ran in, got in between the two and knelt before Harada himself. "Stay out of this, woman!" barked Harada. "I'm ending this!"
"No...I must," replied a saddened Mariko with a quivering voice.
Naturally, this response left Harada, as well as the people watching, completely dumbfounded. "What do you mean?"
With tears running down her cheeks, a heartbroken Mariko explained. "All of this was caused...because I refused to honor an obligation forged by both of our families. And so...I plead to you, Harada-san, spare Logan's life...and I will take your hand in marriage."
Mariko's declaration came as a total shock to everyone present, especially the wide-eyed and wounded Logan. For though he knew that she was doing this to save his life, hearing her say that she will marry his enemy was more painful than the wound he now has, as well as any other injury he sustained in the past.
Nevertheless, Harada remembered that marrying Mariko was for the sake of the Yakuza and Yashinda clan merging, and thus placed his katana back into his sheath. "Very well, as a token for you finally coming to your senses, I shall honor your request and spare this Gajin's life." Afterward, he leaned down and viciously grabbed the back of Mariko's hair, forcing her to look up to him. "But you will do best NEVER to forget your place!" The victorious, as well as callous Harada thew Mariko, face down to the floor, then walked over to his fellow Yakuza.
Logan, with his stab, wound still trying to close up, crawled over to Mariko, who can be heard sobbing with her face down in the floor. "Mariko...don't do this...!"
Hearing her lover's voice, Mariko sat up, her eyes now red from crying, then turned to face the wounded Logan and gently placed her hands on both of his cheeks so she can pour her heart out to him while she still had the chance. "There is no other way. I am willing to endure any pain Harada may inflict on me...but never the pain of seeing you suffer because of me. But please know that whatever happens, Logan-san...I will always love you..."
...Back in the present, the struggling Wolverine found himself struggling to keep the energy charged blade of the Samurai from reaching his neck. But with the sword's added strength thanks to the Samurai's mutant power, as well as the armored Yakuza starting to give in to his blood lust, it made it harder to do so.
That is until the Ref Bot stepped in, with the announcer's face on the monitor. "Silver Samurai, I highly advice you pull your sword back," he said somewhat sternly. "You're inches away from being disqualified."
The Ref Bot's interference annoyed the Samurai enough to momentarily stop pressing down on his blade and turn to address the announcer with an evil look in his eye. "Back away!" he yelled. "I know what I'm doing, and furthermore, I don't care about...!"
Suddenly, as the Samurai was distracted by the Ref-Bot, Wolverine took this opportunity to position his claws in a way that would trap the blade, then pulled the katana itself out of the armored Yakuza's hands, all the while turning to the left slightly and throwing a right legged side kick into the abdomen. As the Samurai held his gut in pain and staggered backward, Wolverine got right back on his feet, where he then noticed the thin wire and after pulling his right hand away and leaving the sword in between the claws of his left hand, he retracted two claws back into his right hand to use the one remaining to cut the wire, thus separating the weapon from the still winded Samurai. Moments later, the feral X-Man retracted all of his claws back into his hands, only to use his left hand to grab the handle of the katana, while at the same time, running in and delivering a hard right knee strike to the bent down Samurai's face, which not only knocked off his helmet, but also sent him down hard onto the floor, revealing the nose bleeding face of Kenuichio Harada. Now in control, Wolverine took the katana, and with pure hatred in his eyes, raised the weapon over his head.
This was a shocking and horrifying scene watching, from the Japanese audience...
...as well as the audience watching back in the Garden, whereas the Avengers looked very worried at what Wolverine was planning to do. But no more than that of Cap, who while he tried to keep a cool and calm demeanor, he was tightly clinching his fist with anxiety, for he knew that look in his old comrade's eyes and also knew what usually came next. "Logan...don't you dare do what I think you're about to do!"
In her sky box, a scared and worried Mariko watched what was happening with her hands cupped over her mouth with fear. "Logan-san, no!"
Back in Tokyo, Wolverine let out a loud, anger filled yell for the entire city to hear, took the katana and made one downward slash!
For a minute, the city to go into complete silence, until it was broken by the sound of a whimpering Harada, who by this time had his eyes tightly closed until he realized that he didn't feel the pain of sharp steel entering his skull, and more importantly, he was still alive! This prompted him to open only his left eye and is surprised to see that he was completely unharmed, but as he looked down, he saw that Wolverine's actual target was that of his belt buckle, which was now wholly sliced in half, all of which caused yellow energy to start pouring out and completely freeze Harada in place.
It wasn't long that the Ref Bot to float over and point it's screen down and show everyone on television the now victorious Wolverine standing over his fallen opponent, which caused the people to cheer, as well as make the announcer let out a sigh of relief that no one was murdered on global television. However, knowing that he still had a job to do, the announcer mentally commanded the Ref Bot to hover down next to the feral mutant. "Well, folks," he said enthusiastically. "Here is your winner...Wolverine!" This announcement caused the Japanese audience to cheer and applaud the X-Man, not just with how he found, but how he chose to finish the match.
As for Wolverine himself, he tossed the sword away and looked down at the frozen Harada with a bitter expression. "Don't get it twisted, Harada," he told him. "Normally, I would've been more than happy to slice your head in two, but I chose to let ya live for two reasons! One, I'm in no mood to hear any of Rogers' 'killin' my enemies makes me no better than them' speeches," As he continued, the X-Man took a moment to let out a sigh as what he said next made reference to the woman that he still loved, and that Harada was still married to. "And two, I'm doin' it out of respect for the who man has more honor that you and I will ever have."
WINNER: WOLVERINE