Chapter Text
Back into the heat of the thousands upon thousands of Japan's faithful fans – Asuka was feeling particularly spirited now more than usual, potentially in due part to her heated 'family reunion' backstage, as she made her way back into the wide-stretching octagon cage.
All the while, the ring announcer firmly established just how far she had come this time around.
"Asuka Kazama of Osaka is entering her fourth match tonight as part of Block B of the Asian Preliminaries – an unexpected candidate for a 'savior' of the country during these troubling times!"
Savior, eh? Asuka thought. That's putting it on a bit thick for someone like me...
She took the announcer's proclamation to heart for the most part, yet she knew there was possibly a bit of over-hype on her considering she wasn't exactly anywhere close to this spot in previous King of Iron Fist Tournaments.
Then again, things were WAY different this time around – not just because of the 'countries at risk of getting destroyed' hook, but also because of the continental split in tournament brackets, which, as she had pondered before, may have done a number on the talent that would be available for this continent, let alone within Block B.
"But even more unexpected was the rise of her next opponent...!"
As she looked towards the ramp leading up to the stage, Asuka noticed that her opponent was seemingly on their way down to the ring already – but come to think of it, she couldn't help but recognize them as someone she bumped into fairly recently.
Not just recently – merely minutes ago.
The ring announcer continued to bring on the hype as a familiar-to-her individual – purple streaks in her hair no less prominent – made her way down,
"In her tournament debut tonight, our 'unknown rookie' of the block, Reina, has already dispatched several hopefuls in the quest to prove herself in this, the most prestigious fighting tournament of our generation!"
Asuka realized she should've kept even more of an eye on the brackets beyond her relative Jin's placement, because she had just met Reina in the back – and suddenly, they were meeting again, this time in the context of a tournament fight. She would've thought this would be disclosed before hand so she knew what she was dealing with next – then again, maybe that was all as her opponent may have strategized.
Asuka shook out of the center of her brain the pile of questions she wanted answers to, and regained a firm gaze on Reina as she joined her in the ring. Now wasn't the time to be asking questions, but rather to be kicking butt, even if it was the butt of someone she was uncertain on whether or not to consider a friend in the near future.
"It's nice to meet someone with experience in this tournament~"
With a most polite bow, Reina greeted Asuka with the highest respect she could give.
"I promise not to let you down, Asuka-chan~"
Despite pondering trying to question her opponent's oblivious professionalism, Asuka rolled along with her 'dojo instincts' and bowed in return.
Still, though... 'Someone with experience'? This fighting industry is ALL sorts of screwed up sometimes...
Regardless, she responded. "Man, I'm looking at you and I in this ring, and I keep thinking – I don't think I'm fully convinced there wasn't a fluke or two on the way here for either of us to reach this far."
"Mishima Polytech picked only the best to represent, deciding on talent rather than grade or age," Reina replied. "I can say I've earned my right – and besides, they feel like it might be the last if that 'big mean devil in charge' wills it."
Asuka had to remind herself that Reina was referring to someone other than Jin. The last thing she'd want is to think about putting her palm to his face again, especially after their earlier altercation.
As for the girl across from her, well... Asuka almost felt sorry for having to do battle, especially as someone so willing to bring peace by any means necessary.
"Well, I better hope they taught you as much of the fundamentals as my family did with me. Just know I'm not gonna hold back, so don't cry if I end up hittin' you hard, 'kay?"
Reina nodded, fists clenched in anticipation, with a determined smile on her face. "Trust me – I don't plan on holding back either."
She extended an arm, offering one of her fists for a moment of respect.
The good spirits of the purple and black-clad prospect was at least making it a little less tough for Asuka to respond in kind, gently bumping her knuckles to Reina's before forming a little bit of distance between them.
Despite her moment of uncertainty, she was more than willing to see what this 'new kid on the block' had in store.
One arm by the side, another extended out in the direction of their opponent – both Reina and Asuka managed two different styles of the same kind of 'fighting posture', their respective outstretched arms just narrowly meeting hands again, wrist to wrist, as they stood planted in the center of the octagon's circle.
Neither budged, barely blinking upon expressions of relative politeness turning into focus as the competitors – along with the almost seemingly blood-hungry audience – waited on the figurative bell to ring and get the bout underway.
"Readyyyy... FIGHT!"
Once the flames of pyrotechnics hit the stage, it kick-started the fighting spirit in both of the fighting prospects – and Asuka was the first to twitch first.
Asuka swung her outstretched arm backwards to shove Reina's guard – but the first swing was for naught, as Reina caught it with her other hand, pulled Asuka in by the clutched fist and swung in one of hers in response.
Asuka weaved backwards and quickly clinched into Reina's swinging arm with both of her own. The grapple that ensued resulted in Reina being sent into a front-flip, of which she quickly recovered into a roll-through, maintaining her distance.
Two fists thrown, both missing – either girl had yet to outpace the other in these opening moments, and Asuka in particular was no less smug about her odds in tackling and achieving the first claim of momentum of the fight.
She followed suit with the methodical pace, just for a short while, before rotating into a kick that swung ankle-low.
Reina lifted a leg to efficiently avoid the sweep, then rotated her body a rough 180 before planting a sliding foot towards Asuka's direction to force her to adapt and adjust with barely more than milliseconds to react to the purple-clad fighter's sudden approach.
Asuka wasn't as keen on letting Reina slip out of reach this time – she reached a hand out and caught the open zipper on one of the sleeves of Reina's jacket to stifle her distance-game.
In due part because of this simple tactic, Asuka was able to open her up for a kick that swung around and clicked the heel straight into the back of Reina's head.
First genuine contact, and it was one that sent Reina stumbling to a stop.
"Getting handsy already, aren't we?" She chuckled. "Fine by me..."
Reina rushed in with a deeply low crouching-cartwheel, coming into contact with a mule kick targeting straight for the chest – one that Asuka caught with both hands.
"Don't make it weird, alright?" Asuka retorted. "The last thing I want in a fight like this, is someone trying to make it weird."
Reina nudged her away with a little bit of lower-body strength focused into her outstretched leg, and immediately went back into the prowl, twirling and rolling across the floor until she came within kicking distance.
Asuka tanked the next kick ahead against her stomach, hoping to cling onto the leg and level Reina out into another joint-lock attempt – but Reina's legs proved surprisingly overpowering, as she ultimately took her down to the floor, both legs firmly wrapped across the front and back of Asuka's body.
Within her short moment of control, Reina chuckled. "What are you trying to insinuate about me, Asuka-chan? We only just met~"
Asuka shook her head, a little frustrated with the seeming teasing nature that Reina was working with.
Why do I always attract the freaks? she thought...
Fighting the leggy stranglehold Reina had on her, Asuka forced herself into a back-roll to flip the scales on the body-scissors – but as Reina broke away, she swiftly swung back into contact with another high-lifting kick that planted her heel into Asuka's face, rattling her for long enough so that the debutant could roll over sideways onto Asuka's body and start drilling into her with knees to the side of the gut.
Asuka made an attempt to counter by clutching Reina's left leg in the midst of her right driving her knee in, buying just enough hesitation from the opponent for Asuka to sweep the leg and bring Reina back down onto ground-control as the sweat beneath them slowly began to accumulate on the ring mat they rustled across.
It didn't take long for them to break off, as Asuka was kept at bay with some kicks, prematurely ending the grounded offense before she could even get it started. Before she could try to jump back in on her opponent, she was caught for a loop when Reina rolled underneath her straight line of defense and struck her in the gut with two stabbing hands.
Asuka felt herself nearly lose her footing from the impact of that little maneuver – the sensation newly formed in the pit of her stomach was such an odd jolt of pain, that it almost felt like she got tagged with a taser. Quickly she knew, however, that there was a little more than meets the eye with the energy her opponent was holding within.
Meanwhile, Reina was rising back to her feet, a smug giggle just barely escaping her lips.
"Seems like you already know how to handle my bare essentials, but I don't quite know if you're prepared to take this to the next level."
Stretching her arms to her sides, sparks of yellow coursed through her whole body.
"There's a reason I got so far in this tournament, you know~"
"I think I know the reason – previous rounds were full of pussies... am I right?"
Managing to get over the initial jolts of energy that caught her offguard, Asuka readied back up.
"Unlike them, I can handle a little zap or two. I fight gangs for a living; do you really think I'd be any kind of pushover?"
"Honestly? No." Reina returned to her fighting stance as well. "This is the type of action I crave sometimes."
Asuka shook her head, bemused but intrigued. "You really are an odd lil' thing. I shudder to think of the stuff they teach you over there at Mishima's school...!"
Just as she finished speaking, she dashed into Reina's close-quarters, taking a short leap as she swung in with her left leg...
...but her momentum was quickly halted when Reina threw a left-side roundhouse going right, clashing into Asuka's leg in mid-air and making a particularly direct kick into her kneecap.
Nothing shattered off the impact, but as Asuka dropped back down to Earth, it still hurt like a female dog when she spiraled onto the mat, and she only had such a short time for recovery before she saw Reina taking her opportunity to break all sorts of personal-space regulations to really try to lay in on the slightly limping Kansai girl.
Asuka had to juggle having to deflect the elbows and palms of her opponent from dealing any damage, while having to shake off the dull pain left on her leg from the stunted kick attempt.
As she kept up on her blocking, she couldn't help but feel like Reina had actually amped up the offense after that little double-zap strike to the stomach – the 'purple menace' already had an aura of uncertainty from the moment Asuka first met and got to know her (as much as she could before bell time, at least), but now Asuka was starting to wonder what of her opponent she didn't get to find out about prior to the violent ritual of throwing hands.
Unfortunately for her, it was this habit of overthinking that caused Asuka to slip up on both the mental and physical fronts, failing to catch a stray kick to the side from Reina which knocked open her defense long enough for Reina to capitalize.
Hooking one of her arms over one of Asuka's in a half-clinch, Reina caught a fist when Asuka tried to retaliate, before flipping her over with a surprising level of ease.
Before she could even adjust her fighting mindset to her current position, Asuka was met with the uncomfortably-close sight of Reina as she assumed a mounted position on top and started pounding her fists into whatever vulnerable spots of Asuka's body she had the closest contact to.
Still a little disoriented from the flip-over, Asuka couldn't do much other than defend against the incoming storm of fists as her brain desperately fought through the internal panic bouncing throughout to try and come up with a counter-measure.
Naturally, the first thing that came to mind was to try and catch one of the fists coming down – and she did, with both arms briefly catching Reina's right hand in between just before making contact. However, almost immediately, Asuka was met with another literal shock as Reina's arm crackled with electricity again and greeted Asuka's forearms with enough discomfort to make her defense completely open back up.
Asuka's whole body eventually started rolling through in another panic maneuver, with Reina managing a couple more blows to the shoulders and side of the head before Asuka managed to fully flip herself over whilst still grounded underneath the mount.
"What kind of fundamentals were you taught?"
Reina clutched onto a handful of hair, pulling Asuka up by her ashy-brown hair, as their faces met almost side-to-side, and Reina's breathing and panting met Asuka's ears perhaps semi-intentionally.
"Because whatever it is... your ground game is lacking."
Asuka gritted her teeth, perpetually discomforted within the hands of Reina. "Urgh... jujutsu, mostly... a-among other things..."
As Reina only partially committed to some sort of hair-based stranglehold, the two brawlers slowly climbed back to their feet in a collective effort to bring the fight back off the ground.
"And that's as far as I'm gonna say – you got no right... *grrr...!* learnin' any more!"
Raising a leg as high and as far out as she could, Asuka then swung said leg the opposite direction, with all the might of the heaviest pendulum, and ultimately, the wide-swinging kick found its target of impact.
Right in between Reina's legs.
"Grrhk!"
Reina's grasp fell apart instantly as the kick proved to carry such an emphasis on damage that it lifted her feet a couple inches off the ground – and before she could even crumple back down to tend to her newfound nether-region discomfort...
"Eyes up, bonehead!"
Asuka slammed an elbow down on top of Reina's head with so much force that she bounced off the ground and into the air.
But even that wasn't high enough a distance for the Osakan's taste, as Asuka drove her foot straight into Reina's stomach right as she was coming back down from the bounce, punting her almost yards up into the sky.
Clenching her left fist close to her heart, Asuka reeled it back, locked and loaded for her next strike.
"Game..."
Again, Reina was falling back down to Earth, in time for Asuka to swing in with a punch that quickly evolved into a full-on grab, managing to handle the 'rookie' with just one hand...!
"...set..."
Then she used the momentum to reel back one more time, the firmest grasp imaginable upon the front of Reina's jacket as she looked to take the relative unknown for a ride bound for a painful crash...
"...and ma-aaaAAAH~!?"
Somehow, it was Asuka who found herself getting sent flying into the ground with excessive force.
At the moment she least expected it, the Gang Mediator was flipped over and onto the ground mid-grab, her entire flourish-filled takedown completely turned upside-down when Reina clutched onto the arm that bore Asuka's (wo)manhandling hand and forced the momentum to bring her into a backflip, ultimately resulting in Asuka flat on her back looking up to the ceiling lights, and Reina kneeling almost on top of her, with an undying grip onto her foe's left arm.
The sudden turn of events against her favor left Asuka stunned in almost every aspect, as her jaw dropped in shock and her body was borderline frozen in confusion.
You can't be serious... she thought, all the while. NO ONE's reversed the Peacemaker Knuckle like that before! Are you frickin' kidding me—THUMP—!
Just as quickly as her panicked thoughts started coursing through, they were suddenly halted by the sensation of blunt force trauma hitting her like a truck.
Or, in specifics, more like a boot to the side of the head.
Multiple boots.
Stomping straight down.
Asuka was almost immediately rendered half-conscious as she felt her head bouncing against the ground, being planted again and again against the ring mat by Reina stomping straight down on the left side of her head, with not even the slightest sign of these stomps being held back in force.
Thankfully, for the sake of survivability, Reina didn't spend too much time with the violent trampling, scraping her boot off and across Asuka's face before the point where it would've become voluntary manslaughter.
This left the Kazama dojo girl crumpled on the ground, slowly rolling over to her front as she tried to shake her senses back into place – unfortunately for her, it was gonna take a lot more than just 'shaking it off' to get back into the game after being borderline curb-stomped, almost into submission. Her sight was rendered a little blurry, her ears hearing faint ringing beyond the almost muffled roars of the crowd, and a feeling of nausea that was just tangible enough for her to realize Reina had done a number on her.
Still, Asuka was able to recognize that her opponent had walked away from her for a moment – but it didn't take long for Reina to turn around and recognize Asuka trying her damned best to get back up and finish the fight.
"Oh wow... didn't think you'd still be moving after that~" Reina said, in an almost teasing tone as she squatted down, locking eyes with Asuka momentarily.
With the strength she still had close to her spirit, Asuka managed to strain out a smile. "I didn't hear no bell," she chuckled.
Reina stood back up. "You're about to hear something, alright..."
She lifted a leg up as high as she could.
"Night-night~"
Then she brought it down in an axe kick...
Right then and there, Asuka went lights out.
"And just like that, the match comes to a close – Reina will advance to the Top 8!"
The roar of the crowd over the ring announcer's confirmation of the uniquely-dressed underdog's victory further built the atmosphere of the anything-can-happen realm of the world's most beloved martial-arts tournament.
And in the middle of it all: Asuka, face-down, splayed against the canvas of the ring, as the one who ultimately paid the price.
"Hey... are you alright?"
Her celebrations out of the way, Reina crouched next to Asuka's prone body, looking no less friendly than she did before the ring of the bell, but in turn looking almost as weathered by their match as her opponent, what with the glistening sweat and faint scratches here and there on the parts of her body most visible beyond the hefty jacket she somehow managed to keep on throughout.
Asuka could barely lift her head to make even the slightest of eye contact with her opposition – on her face, the very faint outlining of a bootprint, or rather multiple bootprints layered over one another, was visible on her face, and the slightest drip of blood coming down from above her eye, leaving a couple of red droplets on the canvas.
The faint sense of red dotting the ring mat certainly didn't go unnoticed in Reina's eyes.
"I wasn't too rough for you, was I?" She giggled. "Aw, who am I kiddin' – I think you kinda deserved a little roughness, y'know?"
She almost seemed too polite considering the condition she left her opposition in.
Asuka was lost for words – mainly because those words were effectively beaten out of her system for the moment. She simply soaked in the defeat, pressing her face down on the canvas, as Reina simply stood back up and waved to the cheering crowd around her, as though all was 'right' in the world.
Little did the 'Gang Mediator' know – while Reina certainly put on the face of a cheerful and accomplished young lady despite the violence that ensued, there was something in that girl that found the idea of someone splattered against the mat as a battered and bleeding mess before her, that was much more stimulating for her than any 'innocent' person would let it be.
As she glanced down at Asuka one more time, her lips remained in the curve of a smile – but her inner thoughts didn't display the same kind of satisfaction.
So, she's part of the Kazama family, huh? Could've fooled me...