A Different Kinda People

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Sora slipped down the wall with the understandable exhaustion of having taken down an entire arena full of...barrels. The narrow time limit didn't help. The fact that he'd been over-training with Phil again definitely didn't help. Maybe Phil somehow heard he didn't pass the Mastery Exam and was making things extra tough to challenge him more.

"Breeeeak's over!" Phil blared, clasping his hands as he crossed the gathering hall. "Get back in there and hack some barrels again."

"No! I - I mean no," Sora laughed weakly. "I was actually kinda hoping I'd go up against the Heartless again."

The three-foot man eyed him dubiously. "Heartless aren't your only training regiment, kid. You need endurance - you need stamina. It's only been a couple hours and already yer panting more than Cerberus. And that thing has three heads."

Sora looked at his entirety. Okay. Maybe he wasn't built like a tank, and compared to Riku, his strength was so-and so. But that was as far as competition went between him and his best friend. He wasn't entirely obsessed with getting stronger, and honestly the Heartless were a pretty good training regiment, since, y'know. He fights them a lot.

"You didn't have a problem with it before," Sora tried again. His eyes were pleading. Phil's eyes were rolling.

"Look, kid, y'wanna be a hero or not?"

"Yeah, but--"

"A hero doesn't specialize in a single regiment. A hero never underestimates the necessity of his training. A hero also never complains. Someday yer gonna meet someone more match than the Heartless, and that fancy key o'yours'll do you in for baloney. How're you gonna keep up if you keep panting?"

If there was such a person, Sora had a pretty good idea of who they might be. No, Phil wasn't informed of his failed Mastery Exam. Phil was informed of the kind of people Sora was about to begin fighting. There were some situations where he couldn't rely on his friends to rescue him all the time. Maybe that was what Phil wanted to challenge.

"Herc is always happy to train with ya," Phil said again. His voice was calmer, probably because of the dawning understanding on the brunet's face, "but that's not the kind of power you wanna look out for. The kinda people you wanna go up against are the ones you know you can challenge with your body and not just yer fancy key."

Phil's gaze caught a movement behind Sora. "...kinda like that."

Before Sora could even turn around, Phil addressed the hulking mass.

"Hey - lughead! Ya here to challenge the colosseum, by any chance? 'Cause I've got your opponent right here!"

TAG: @akuma

NOTES: N/A

♥ thanks tia!

"Pitiful."

Teeth clenched in a clear display of animosity toward everything within sight, the man who called himself evil incarnate stared out over the arena at large. His warrior's pride spoke to him on some deep level, calling to his very soul and telling him that this was a place of battle; a place where honor and strength were pitted against the other for a pure contest of might in battle.

But it was only a hollow mockery of real battle. Fought for entertainment and to test oneself only...no sense of improvement, or of risk. No impending sense of danger and death waiting if your opponent was without mercy.There was no risk, and no smell of spilled blood or lost life marring the sand and stone of the arena. Only the stink of pretenders and amateurs, still too reliant on their courage and weapons to wage their battles. Too reliant on their armor and the rules of the arena to protect them.

It made him sick.

In his frustration he struck out at one of the barrels that were apparently used for 'training' in this place. And he didn't so much send it flying, or even destroy it....as all but disintegrate it, reducing it to a cloud of splinters. Bare feet whispered across the dusty ground as the demon of a man stalked away, his features twisted into a livid mask of rage. He stormed out of the arena proper and into what seemed to serve as a gathering hall of sorts.

The sound of a conversation drew his attention, and his carmine gaze swept about to come to rest on someone that seemed entirely out of place. A child, here of all places?! Even in this mockery of a true field of battle, it was insulting to see a mere boy allowed to tread what should be hallowed ground.

All it took was being addressed by a strange goat-creature to draw the full attention of Akuma, and he slowly paced forth, striding up behind the spikey-haired youth. "Challenge this pitiful excuse for a colosseum?" he snarled, baring pointed teeth. "With this whelp as an opponent?!" Without warning his fist came up in a blur, wreathed in violet flames, and the boy only barely avoided it, lurching aside and landing sprawled out on his back.

Several brown hairs drifted in the vacuum of the punch's wake, purple embers dancing in the suddenly very tense air. And Akuma's sinister red-eyed stare weighed down on both the boy and the goat-man. "I do not fight fools and those who cannot rely on their own fists."

The moment Sora saw the guy, he felt like he just shrunk ten sizes. He was huge, and the only thing scarier than his size was the way he carried it...and toward Sora at that.

The brunet didn't even have time to form a proper sentence, let alone materialize his keyblade, before he was nearly cuffed across the face. The only thing that had him dodge those terrible flames was his own inane ability to survive.

Sora's shocked gaze went to Phil, who was no less equally surprised, but also not as life-fearing as he was, given their positions.

"Did you see that?!" Sora whipped his finger at the bully, "He nearly slugged me outside the ring! How can I fight this guy without expecting him to play dirty tricks!"

Phil shrugged.

"Sorry, kid. You don't ask for bad things to happen in real life - they just happen. An' this guy's qualified."

"Don't you mean overqualified?"

Phil could have been right, but this was wrong! Not even Xehanort had the gall to fight him or Riku outside of necessity until an actual time. And Xehanort nearly cost him his life. As he lifted himself up, Sora steeled his expression, his usual courage transcending his fear. The Keyblade was summoned in his grip.

"You're no fighter - you're just a bully! I can take you on any day, keyblade or without!"

At Sora's clear invitation, Phil said nothing. He just patiently side-glanced the burl of a man and waited for his side of a decision. Either way? This wasn't something you saw everyday.

TAG: @akuma

NOTES: N/A

♥ thanks tia!

my name is akuma

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Akuma's red eyes glared at Sora for what seemed to be an extraordinarily long time, his pointed teeth remaining bared in a silent snarl the entire time. But slowly, ever so slowly, his fist lowered back to his side, and his lips curled upward in something that might generously be called a smile. 


"Just a bully, am I...?" he rumbled, taking a step back from the boy and his strange-looking weapon. "Ever is a child mistaken in their first assumptions...and ever must be they taught the truth of the world by the hard-trod path of pain." He lifted his eyes toward the sky, blocked out as it was by being indoors. Torchlight reflected off his gleaming demonic teeth and the kanji engraved on the central prayer bead around his neck.


"But you are correct in one assumption, boy," he continued after a moment. "I am no mere fighter, who parades about showing their strength for personal gain and enjoyment of others, like the refuse who flock to this colosseum." He swept his arm out and clenched it into a fist, the motion so swift and forceful the air seemed to grow thin in the wake of the movement. "No, I am one who walks the path of the warrior. I do not seek glory or fame, only strength, to push my limits beyond themselves and find a worthy foe to one day match the heights of strength I reach."


He brought his clenched fist before his eyes, staring over it at Sora. "I threw away my humanity and my ties to life long ago. I am always prepared to die in a battle and fight without hesitation or lack of conviction. I do not fear death or defeat, for they both mean I simply was not as strong as my foe."


"If you have strength of heart and conviction enough to face a demon such as I, then consider your challenge accepted, boy." His voice dropped several octaves as he continued, a deep, gravelly tone rumbling behind his words. "But if you are not prepared to stake your life on your boasting and confidence, then rescind your words and revoke such a foolhardy challenge."

Sora

poor little spikey haired boy dIE TONIGHT
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i will teach you pain

♥ thanks tia!

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The guy kept talking, but all Sora heard was BLAH BLAH BLAH, FIGHT.

“You’re on!” he shot back, and that was that.

Phil didn’t think they had agreed on the right grounds here, but he certainly wasn’t going to stand in their way.

Sora never really cared for strength, mostly because he had a lot of it. Strength came in many forms, like the keyblade, hope, and even forged bonds. Neither virtue had failed Sora in his battles against the darkness, and seeing the smiles in his friends’ eyes was all the more worth it. Where Riku still considered himself a disciple of the keyblade, Sora was best at just rolling with the punches. Of course, there was no chance the latter wouldn’t be too literal here.

The arena was in its usual beginning tension when Sora called the Keyblade. “My name is Sora,” he said, not without his earlier vitriol. “And I’m gonna show you – and Phil – that I have what it takes to fight the darkness by just being me!”

Sora took the first action by sprinting forward and then leaping, the keyblade gripped over his head ready to be brought down on the burly man. He may have been rushing recklessly, but there was no other way to see what he really was up against without acting, right? He could do this. He could handle anything. He was a hero.

TAG: @akuma

NOTES: N/A

♥ thanks tia!

my name is akuma

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[attr="class","kumabox"]

With a malicious snarl lighting up his features, Akuma could only just barely hold back the contempt in his voice as he simply rumbled, "Very well, boy!" He was not above teaching a whelp their place in the world and crushing their foolish bravado with a demonstration of true strength.

As the youth introduced himself, the harsh tone in his voice from previously more pronounced than ever, Akuma only bared his demonically-pointed teeth in a ferocious grin. "And I am Akuma! The Unequaled Master of the Fist!" He clenched one hand into a fist with such force the air around it seemed to ripple, before he shifted his stance into one much wider, bringing both hands up before him.

It was a neutral stance, one equally well-suited to offense or defense but not specialized in either. A slight bounce to his posture, shifting from one foot to the other, kept him ready to spring into action. He was more than ready for whatever may come.

And at the sound of a gong to start the rather unofficial 'match', the youth was off. He broke into a dash straight forward, his odd weapon raised high. It wasn't a bad stance; it offered plenty of power and a strike delivered from such a pose would have great force behind it, even from one of such a....lacking physical constitution.

But it was also sloppy and wildly telegraphed in its intent.

Just as the subtle twitch that preceded the actual strike flickered through Sora's arms, Akuma launched into motion. Belying his burly physique, he stepped forward into a low crouch, looking as if he were about to shoulder check the keyblader, but then simply stepped aside, pirouetting on one heel out of the way of the strike.

With an exclamation of surprise, the youth stumbled half a step, only to be met with a scything kick from behind as the man of evil incarnate stole his footing, swiping his legs out from under him. Another yelp went up from the boy as he momentarily hung in the air. And then...

"Goshoryuken!"

His fist alight with purple flames, he struck out with a fierce uppercut, launching into one of the signature techniques of his unnamed martial arts, fully intending to introduce Sora's chin to the Great Rising Dragon Fist.

Sora

sora you dum, dum child you
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i will teach you pain

♥ thanks tia!

i.imgur.com/axmRsWa.png

Sora was fast, but Akuma was faster. In just half a blink, the man had moved from his designated place and Sora soon couldn't control anything, let alone his own body. In the time that he was left floating in space, practically open season for another one of Akuma's darkness-imbued fists, his mind had somehow registered a narrow window of opportunity.

It was the keyblade that clashed with that upper-cutting fist, saving Sora from what could have been a horrible experience - but not saving him from the force that sent him crashing on the other side of the Arena. Effectively dazed but kept alert enough with adrenaline, the boy managed to get back on his feet, grip on his keyblade tight as ever.

This guy wasn't joking at all. Even Xemnas had a weapon. Akuma's body was his own weapon, and the weaknesses? None! Even with Sora's Keyblade, this seemed hardly fair. Then again, he wasn't expecting anything fair out of this guy anyway.

Sora wasn't done yet - far from, in fact. When he charged again, he kept his Keyblade low and then -- "Take that!" --cleaved it in a vertical arch with the intent of breaching the man's defenses, and then followed up with a chain of turbo-slashes that would keep the bigger man engaged. The rhythm was pretty much Sora maintaining an advantageous speed while actively trying to not die (heck, even the blows he blocked with the keyblade warranted a risk)  - both of which were already hard enough when he had to also queue in some hits here and there. And worst of all? Like those hours and hours of box-smashing, he was getting tired.

TAG: Akuma

NOTES: SORA IS NOT DUM no he is immensely dum

♥ thanks tia!