Kazuki
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You Can't Take Me
The Creed
Posts: 883
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Himura Atsushi
OOC Username: Sleepy
Arena Points: 113
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Post by Kazuki on May 28, 2023 23:58:07 GMT 9
He opens his eyes and finds himself at his usual resting place. Precipice hums quietly, as if providing a lullaby, and he’d stick around a bit longer to relax, were it not for his obligations and the fact he had moved his respawn point away from the flowers. He finally noticed the wilted patches.
He gets up, back hurting where he had lain on cold, ancient stone. Combusken is already standing beside him, fixing her plumage and sharpening her claws. <Ready to go, Kazuki?> She asks.
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Kazuki
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You Can't Take Me
The Creed
Posts: 883
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Himura Atsushi
OOC Username: Sleepy
Arena Points: 113
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Post by Kazuki on May 28, 2023 23:46:10 GMT 9
To their surprise, the Duraludon doesn’t land the final hit on Kazuki. A burst of water catches its attention, and it screams, pivoting, and slamming itself into the other trainer. Saint doesn’t have enough speed to dodge. He’s sent falling back.
“I said don’t die!” Kazuki growls, though it seems the newbie had managed to break his fall—or the sheer amount of fabric he’s wearing acts as his own airbag. Combusken acts quick, trying to redirect the dragon’s attention by landing another kick.
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Kazuki
•
You Can't Take Me
The Creed
Posts: 883
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Himura Atsushi
OOC Username: Sleepy
Arena Points: 113
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Post by Kazuki on May 28, 2023 23:41:47 GMT 9
The Duraludon has only just begun slowing down, but there’s no doubt the final hit is coming. Kazuki’s thrown off the Duraludon’s back, Combusken tossing in a few last hits.
He can hear the other trainer continuing to yell from the sidelines, trying to get him to back down. Kazuki clicks his tongue, deciding he’ll have to explain what’s up after the fight.
The Duraludon turns to him and pulls its arm back for a swing.
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Kazuki
•
You Can't Take Me
The Creed
Posts: 883
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Himura Atsushi
OOC Username: Sleepy
Arena Points: 113
|
Post by Kazuki on May 28, 2023 22:07:54 GMT 9
There’s a considerable dent in his health now. Kazuki spits on the ground, red pattering the grass. Combusken beside him is still standing, her arms still poised to attack, but she’s breathing hard. They’ll probably get in at best, one or two more hits before the beast does them in.
“Relax,” Kazuki says to Combusken’s surprise. “Fighting this shit always ends in at least one death. We're wearing it down.”
A spritz of water hits the Duraludon’s back. Kazuki spots the weirdo in the big coat standing by with his popplio, the guy’s eyes widening with alarm as he narrowly dodges the Duraludon’s next swing.
“Let’s keep going.” <Alright!>
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Kazuki
•
You Can't Take Me
The Creed
Posts: 883
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Himura Atsushi
OOC Username: Sleepy
Arena Points: 113
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Post by Kazuki on May 28, 2023 21:31:48 GMT 9
The Duraludon sweeps its arm, metal claws glowing. They’ve landed their hits, but it’s doing barely anything to its armor.
“Always the chip damage,” Kazuki growls. He hears behind him the voice of that unfamiliar trainer—telling him to flee.
“Shut up!” He retorts, before getting slammed by one of the dragon’s hits. He only barely manages to brace himself in time, digging his feet into the ground and putting up his arms in a block. The steel claws scrape painfully over his skin.
Combusken hisses, launching herself in the air and trying to kick its head.
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Kazuki
•
You Can't Take Me
The Creed
Posts: 883
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Himura Atsushi
OOC Username: Sleepy
Arena Points: 113
|
Post by Kazuki on May 28, 2023 21:22:17 GMT 9
“What… the fuck is that guy doing?” Kazuki murmurs. Combusken by his side slowly turns her head as she watches what unfolds.
A Duraludon has appeared, its roar shaking the earth. Hunger flashes in its metal eyes before it turns to the nearest living being: which in this case would be the weirdo in the giant coat, chasing after a popplio. The weirdo freezes in his tracks, meets eyes with the Duraludon, and then bolts.
Yeah, so, he’s definitely a newbie.
Combusken turns to him questioningly, and he snorts. It would be fun to watch what the guy would do, but they did need the metal. “Guess that’s our cue.”
They both charge after the Duraludon, readying fire attacks.
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Kazuki
•
You Can't Take Me
The Creed
Posts: 883
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Himura Atsushi
OOC Username: Sleepy
Arena Points: 113
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Post by Kazuki on May 28, 2023 7:47:08 GMT 9
<Has the rest of the team began showing side effects too?>
Kazuki has resumed walking, taking a careful detour away from a tree housing a Rufflet nest. Combusken follows, albeit still with that careful distance between them, as if even his shadow could be a possible contamination. It irritates him, but he doesn’t know enough about the PARASITE to refute her.
“None that I’ve observed. Or at least, no one’s told me to my face. Have they told you anything during the breaks?”
Combusken looks down at her scampering feet in concentration. <Let me think…> spawn reset
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Kazuki
•
You Can't Take Me
The Creed
Posts: 883
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Himura Atsushi
OOC Username: Sleepy
Arena Points: 113
|
Post by Kazuki on May 28, 2023 7:43:08 GMT 9
The feeling in her stomach drops as she imagines Sprigatito, with his naivete and lack of experience, having to handle whatever this ailment is. She actually hasn’t seen much of the kitten since the fight with the glaceon, so—<Is that why I haven’t been able to see him?>
Kazuki scoffs. “He’s not on the deathbed if that’s what you’re asking. He’s just… more tired than usual. I have to give him longer breaks in his Pokeball.”
<But he hates staying in there.>
“I know.”
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Kazuki
•
You Can't Take Me
The Creed
Posts: 883
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Himura Atsushi
OOC Username: Sleepy
Arena Points: 113
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Post by Kazuki on May 28, 2023 7:18:43 GMT 9
Verai doesn’t need to call for him. Kazuki’s already squinting at the hall of identical portraits, rubbing his chin as if constructing a Punnett square in his head, except it’s less of a square and more like pea. “Those are some strong as fuck genes,” he chuckles.
Lady Toddigan’s rambling is thankfully cut by Verai, but he makes the fatal mistake of admitting what every rich person dreads to know: that they are essentially nobody to the general populace.
“Excuse him,” Kazuki says, patting Verai in the chest, right over his pastel pink egg harness. “It’s just that this is one very expensive and pretty egg. We figured it was for you.”
Her expression switches in an instant, flushing, though with her Elizabethan makeup it’s hard to tell what’s blood and what’s crushed wurmple. “Oh, you flatterer!” She waves her other hand, her laugh flute-like, causing Kazuki’s smile to crack for a second, but she’s thankfully too busy preening to notice.
“Sooo… where is the little br—thday boy?” Kazuki asks, looking around and seeing only the unblinking gazes of a thousand Todds frozen in time.
“My little babykins has been so excited for his gift, he hasn’t been able to sit still! He could be anywhere.” Lady Toddigan pouts, looking around as if missing a pet Furfrou instead of her literal child. “But I’m so busy with preparations for his party. The renovations for the courtyard haven’t even been completed—we’re making it four times bigger!”
Kazuki’s smile drops then, straight into a glower. “You’re going to make us find him, aren’t you?”
Lady Toddigan is already at the end of the hall. “Consider it a feature! You’ll get to finish your little errand and meet my precious little babykins! Ta-ta!”
There’s a bump on Kazuki’s foot. Looking down reveals it to be Sprigatito, who has made the odyssey from the entrance to his trainer in his new fancy booties. He collapses, screaming.
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Kazuki
•
You Can't Take Me
The Creed
Posts: 883
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Himura Atsushi
OOC Username: Sleepy
Arena Points: 113
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Post by Kazuki on May 28, 2023 6:30:48 GMT 9
Being ignored by Verai is one thing—and it’s a thing he’s gotten accustomed to and will not be deterred by—but what comes out of the man’s mouth is another.
“Kumagai?” Kazuki’s brows shoot to the ceiling. “Kumagai? Are you fucking kidding me, Ver?”
Oh, now he’s done it.
Kazuki puts to a screeching halt literally everything and begins listing on each of his tattooed fingers. “First of all, Kumagai couldn’t land a proper kick even if it shoved itself up his ass. Have you actually watched his fights? His match with Tarasova was over instantly all because he was so wrapped up in getting fancy that he didn’t notice how much stamina he was using; that, and his choke game was weak, and then there was his rematch with—”
It goes on. Forever.
“Plus, he is so goddamn full of himself,” Kazuki scoffs. “His PR. We get it, shitnugget, you donate to every charity to exist, you don’t need to hog the AdSense!”
In the middle of his trainer’s impassioned rant, Sprigatito pokes his fluffy head out from where he’s been locked in some sort of pretzel standoff with Kitten in Verai’s arms. <What’s a shitnugget!>
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Kazuki
•
You Can't Take Me
The Creed
Posts: 883
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Himura Atsushi
OOC Username: Sleepy
Arena Points: 113
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Post by Kazuki on May 28, 2023 5:29:46 GMT 9
The grip on his leg is gone. Combusken holds her claws to her chest, and it reminds him of how she was as a Torchic. Profoundly unsure of herself, but ready to peck the eyes out of whatever tries to harm her.
<Am I the only one who has it?> She hasn’t been that involved outside of her pokeball, so it makes no sense that something contagious would land on her.
“No. The cat has it too.” spawn reset
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Kazuki
•
You Can't Take Me
The Creed
Posts: 883
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Himura Atsushi
OOC Username: Sleepy
Arena Points: 113
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Post by Kazuki on May 28, 2023 5:27:22 GMT 9
He could lie. He could very, very easily lie and pin it on something else—maybe her evolution, or even the humming energy of the steppes.
“No. It isn’t, but there isn’t anything we can do about it right now.” He resumes walking, even as Combusken sputters behind him, her claws scraping the dirt as she hurries. He’s stopped by a tug on his pant leg.
<That’s not an answer! What do you mean?> Combusken hadn’t been bothered by it at first, had chalked it up as just nerves, but the confirmation that there’s something wrong with her, and not only that, that Kazuki knows what it is and is refusing to divulge answers, is going to send her into a frenzy. <Am I sick? Am I going to die?>
“You can’t die,” Kazuki hisses, because as far as he knows, pokemon can only faint and be revived at the shrines. “What’s happening right now is—I guess you could call it a symptom. I don’t fully get it, but I know how to fix it. But you need to get stronger first.”
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Kazuki
•
You Can't Take Me
The Creed
Posts: 883
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Himura Atsushi
OOC Username: Sleepy
Arena Points: 113
|
Post by Kazuki on May 28, 2023 5:17:57 GMT 9
He doesn’t reply immediately, and the silence that stretches between them is awkward. A nidoran comes to scurry past them, but neither of them take notice.
“No. I’m the same as always. Why?”
Combusken’s expression scrunches. <There is something. Not just with you. I’ve been feeling odd.>
At this, Kazuki fully turns to her. “You sick?” The way he says it seems almost alarmed, or perhaps full of dread. Regardless, it isn’t comforting. “Are you feeling sleepy?”
Combusken shakes her head. <No. No, quite the opposite.> She looks at her claws. <I feel like I have too much energy, so much that I have to hold myself back while I fight.> She’s been taught by Pansear to act intelligently in battle; to conserve energy when she can and land strong hits in the right places, but it doesn’t feel like it’s working.
<Is this normal?> she asks, unable to decipher the look on Kazuki’s face. spawn reset
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Kazuki
•
You Can't Take Me
The Creed
Posts: 883
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Himura Atsushi
OOC Username: Sleepy
Arena Points: 113
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Post by Kazuki on May 28, 2023 5:12:19 GMT 9
A brief drawback, but the Blitzle hadn’t dealt much damage. They flee its territory, pivoting down a different path of the steppe.
<Trainer.>
"Just Kazuki," he flaps his hand, walking in front.
Combusken hesitates. <Kazuki. I’ve been meaning to ask you something.>
At this, the man pauses, looking over his shoulder as his pokemon comes to a stop behind him. “What?”
<I know I have missed many developments with this team.> He’s unsure when she began talking like this—maybe when she evolved? Had she picked it up from someone? But no one on the team talked like this… The monkey?
<Kazuki?>
“Uh, yeah, I’m paying attention. What about it?”
<Did something change?> She looks at him, and it’s only now he’s realized she’s made a concentrated effort to stop a couple of feet away. That in fact, she’s been avoiding being too close. When he tilts his head, she shifts as well, to move her leg from his shadow. <Ever since the arena, there has been something… different.> Something wrong is what she wants to say, but can’t.
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Kazuki
•
You Can't Take Me
The Creed
Posts: 883
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Himura Atsushi
OOC Username: Sleepy
Arena Points: 113
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Post by Kazuki on May 28, 2023 5:02:46 GMT 9
But fleeing isn’t as smooth as expected. Her hit lands, enough to ward the Blitzle off temporarily, but when she moves to sprint out of its radius, it rears back and charges again, cutting off her path. She brandishes her claws. Taking this as a challenge, the Blitzle moves for another charge, its body wrapped in lightning.
Combusken’s eyes glow. A brief flash of the future, only seconds from the present. She uses DETECT to evade. spawn reset
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