JURI HAN
Level 5: 14/50
Location: Carnival Games
Word Count: 2,899
Points Gained: 4
New EXP Balance: Level 5: 19/50
Juri hit the breaks as her passenger flew out the back of her cab. Not that she needed to hit the breaks- the woman on her hood must have weighed a ton. She gripped the wheel and stared at Nadia, and there seemed to be no hint of recognition in her eyes.
”Am I supposed to know you, fatso?” She asked, innocently.
“Fatso!?” Nadia half-laughed, half-gasped in dismay.
Then Juri shot from her seat like a bat out of hell, sending a flying kick towards Nadia to knock her off the hood. Either way Juri would be jumping out of her seat.
”Oh, wait!” She said as she landed, slapping the side of her own head.
”You’re the little pussy cat that ran away!” Juri said, pointing at Nadia. She dropped her feigned ignorance, her expression going deadly serious, and eyed Nadia up and down.
Then she settled into her fighting position, lifting one knee.
”If you want some more, come and get it.” She grinned like the corners of her mouth were being peeled back to reveal venom-soaked fangs. The invitational was rhetorical- this was happening, now.
Nadia sprang to her feet. While she’d expected some sort of cheap shot, Juri’s speed had still taken her by surprise. Not many people out there could fight with the intensity people like Juri did, but that went for Nadia too. More to the point, she hadn't felt that kick at all. It knocked her back, but dealt ni damage. While Nadia’s numbness meant she felt a lot less pain than most, feeling nothing was new.
Wow, I'm so strong! she thought, forgetting that Balan disabled damage in this wonderworld. Very confident, she put her hands on her hips and leaned toward the martial artist with a smirk. “Damn straight I ran away–couldn’t get far enough from your smell! Or as I like to call it, the Jureek.”
”That’s probably just you smelling your own asshole, you literal mangy stray.” Juri spat back, raising her hands along with her knee.
That remark elicited a curled lip. Even if it had been a month or so since she last saw it, the cat burglar recognized her rival’s fighting stance. That worked just fine for her; from the moment she chose to remake Juri’s acquaintance, this encounter could only ever go one way. “Mew-sic to my ears. Oughta warn you though, I’ve gotten a couple upgrades.” She held up her firearm, revved it up like a drill, extended it upward, and then snapped it back down in a fist pump with a couple of yellow sparks. “I’m new and im-purr-oved!” Then with a glint she sharpened her claws and stepped back with her right leg, most of her weight on it as she
bounced back and forth on her scars. “Showtime!”
Nadia began by leaping into the air, then airdashed forward on jets of blood. Her momentum would have brought her into Juri’s airspace if she didn’t cancel it into
Cat Spike, launching her own detached head downward. “Heads up!” With her hair hardened as it span, however, it looked more like a buzzsaw than a volleyball. After a couple hits, either struck or blocked, it lost momentum, so after Nadia landed, she followed up with old reliable: her
Cat Scratch sequences. “Wreck-a yo face!” For its third hit she chose
El Gato, her flipping axe kick as strong as it was unsafe on block. This was a frame trap, however, and at her command her head
zoomed forward to strike Juri low if she tried to punish El Gato.
Juri wasn’t going to take any claims of ‘upgrades’ lightly. She had dipped and dodged to the sides, back pedaling as the cat unleashed her onslaught of strikes. Nadia sent her head towards Juri, and Juri promptly smacked her head onto the ground with her heel.
”Literally the dumbest move I’ve ever seen anyone come up with.” Juri said flatly to Miss Fortune, though she’d still taken a little damage from the trade.
She brought her leg up, and then around, sending a streak light along the floor in a wave towards Nadia’s head. Juri dashed forward and did a spinning roundhouse kick over the wave to catch Nadia if she moved forward to go pick up her own head.
Wise to Juri’s game, Nadia quickly made an executive decision. She squeezed her eyes shut and braced her head for impact Juri’s Saihasho wave. Her head soaked the low projectile, allowing the feral’s body to focus on the main event. “Lemme give you a hand!” Ducking way down, she low profiled the high kick and punished the whiffed kick with an
upward extension. From there her discombobulation meant that she couldn’t convert into anything too fancy, but a One-Two Pun-isher connected into
Limber Up that led to a pop-up and knockdown.
”Oof-” Juri hit the ground and started to roll back to her feet, annoyed.
As Nadia shook her head to clear her vision, her body snatched it, then served it underhand. It would fly in an arc over Juri as she recovered, then come down like a spinning sawblade on her other side to apply pressure on wakeup. Nadia herself charged forward, much too late for a meaty hit but still eager to mix Juri up.
The sawblade head was coming at her at a troubling but predictable timing. Fortune always tried to give Juri too much to think about, but that was just because Fortune had a peanut brain. She decided to punish her aggression by spending some energy for an OD-Senpusha kick, erupting from the ground like a sawblade of her own.
”Bwahaha!” It would catch Fortune and lift her up with Juri before she slammed her foot down to knock Fortune onto the ground. Juri dropped back down to the ground and looked around for Fortune’s head to give it a solid punt.
”C’mere, it’ll only hurt for a second!” When she hit the ground, Nadia tumbled for a moment, more disappointed than anything. Seemed like Juri was as cunning as ever when it came to reversals, but that was where her advantages ended. “You, hurt me? Puh-lease!” Nadia taunted, alerting Juri to the location of her head. When the martial artist kicked at it, though, Nadia sneezed to launch her head at Juri and start biting her all over. “Omnomnomnomnom!”
”You stupid little-” Juri said, swatting at Fortune’s uncannily mobile head. She managed to grab some of her hair and wrench her free. She started to maliciously smash her head against a nearby light fixture.
Though she dreaded the first impact, Nadia’s face became completely deadpan after one smack. The streetlight might have just as well been a cardboard box for how much it hurt. She made sure to mouth off between smacks. “This! Isn’t! Even! Light! Exer! Cise!”
Juri blinked, and stopped smashing Fortune’s head against the pole. She held it aloft and just stared at her. This close, and now ‘activated’, the Gleaming red could be seen underneath her purple and green eyes. Juri was having a hard time understanding her complete lack of ability to harm Fortune with her programmed command to destroy her.
By then, Nadia’s body was back in action. Using Fluffy Soft she transformed her legs into those of a white tiger, easily closing the distance in order to deliver a flying dropkick with heavy paws. A strike with them would have normally inflicted a defense debuff as well, but with all actual damage off the table it made no difference. By the time the feral recovered from her dropkick, her legs were back to normal, but her offense had only just begun.
Fortune’s head went flying out of Juri’s hand as she tumbled along the ground. Normally she would be so entirely frustrated with the lack of pain from Fortune, or even on her own end, that she would just give up and go do something else. At the very least she would stop taking this ‘battle’ so seriously. As Fortune approached she stood up and shifted her stance, moving slightly to the right. Then she sniped her approach with a long ranged kick, planting her back foot and twisting to shoot her front foot forward as far as possible. She began to chop, elbow, and kick at Fortune, trying to lock her and her mobility down and keep her grounded.
“Hmph!” Crazy good pokes Nadia could deal with, but if there was one thing she hated, it was being forced to sit there on defense. Fortunately, she didn’t need to for long. “Shove off!” While still in blockstun, the feral extended her guard into a
pushblock, harmlessly shunting Juri back a couple steps. Then she crouched down, building up energy. The two of them might have been decently well matched a month ago, but since then Ms Fortune had embarked on a globe-trotting adventure against ever-stronger foes alongside tried and true friends, while Juri simply stagnated, picking on the weak. It was time to show her what she’d been missing out on.
Going with one of her new favorite strategies, Nadia used Charge. She burst forward as a streak of yellow lightning, blitzing into and through her opponent. When she rematerialized behind Juri, she spun on a dime to use Battery, a pair of electric slashes that became crits thanks to Charge, prolonging either hitstun or blockstun. Her assault ended with a massive spurt of blood from her neck, its Hydro infusion reacting with Cat-5’s lightning moves to leave Juri Conductive.
Juri was caught off guard by the streak of yellow lightning. She was numbly battered around, before backpedaling and spitting as Fortune’s blood got on her.
”You were always disgusting, but what the hell was that? You finally stick a fork in a socket or something? ” Juri asked, trying to play it cool. Truthfully, the idea of being outclassed by Fortune of all people was an uncomfortable one.
“No, but I can still socket to ya!” As Nadia’s head ran over,
using her ears like little legs, her body pressed her advantage. Spraying blood from neck, biceps, and wrists, she created two copycats that took form beside her. “Me, myself, and I!” Finally, the blood welling up from her neck created a copied head, which winked at Juri before Nadia doubled over. “Get reddy, ‘cause this isn’t a drill!” She shot the fake head forward like a drill, followed by her clones running in from either side. One went low with
Cat Slide, and the next second the other came in with an overhead
Flying Screen Door. Finally, after scooping up her head, the real Nadia finished things off with
Ear Piercing for a mid, low, high, mid sequence.
”Huh?!” Juri took a step back. Then her face hardened.
”Tch.” She leaned down, widening her stance, and the Feng Shui engine flashed white. She crossed her arms to block the fake head, and on the first clone, activated her Kasatushi counter. Where Juri was, suddenly she wasn’t, in a burst of speed that met Nadia’s charge from earlier. Juri was a short distance Fortune, crouched low and skidding to a stop, leaving a trail of dust in front of her. She pumped her leg into the air, stocking a Fuhajin. Then she backflipped, keeping her range from Fortune. She was picking up a burst in power from Fortune: she clearly wasn’t the same cat girl from a month ago.
The sudden movement allowed Juri to evade Nadia’s onslaught, but her copycats didn’t disappear. Instead they stood by, awaiting new impulses, but for a brief moment the feral’s attention was elsewhere as she tried to remember what those special stocks of Juri’s could be used for.
Bah, whatever. She pointed at Juri, commanding her copycats to attack. They ran toward her on all fours in order to perform Cat Scratch, both ending in El Gato axe kicks one after another. Then from a distance Nadia used Charge again, its finite range placing her point-blank in front of her target. This time, though, the Conductive status on Juri caused an aftershock following Nadia’s electric attack, and so did another use of Battery with arms turned into tiger limbs by Fluffy Soft. This was starting to get out of hand; if Juri wanted to take her momentum back, she’d need to do now.
Juri retreated even further, zigging and zagging back down the street and towards a nearby alleyway. Fortune’s clone assault was relentless. She stumbled backward after Nadia’s aftershock, and then growled. She suddenly dashed forward and to the side, finding the positioning she wanted. She used a stock to enhance her special move. She swept her leg far and out, doing a wide-ranged spinning kick once, and then twice again. She was trying to knock the aggressive clones away while they were attacking, and then use the move to close the gap on Fortune herself. She spent some OD meter, and her drive gauge was low at this point, to send a slash at Fortune’s ankles. After that she did a shot hop kick to bring her foot down on Fortune’s head.
By this point, Nadia was acting rather carelessly. With all the mayhem, she took a solid couple hits from Juri’s kicks, the latter of which left her head spinning, and she did not manage to tech off the ground once knocked down. “Me-owch!” she cried, more for effect than anything. Her copycats would be on their way in a moment, but Juri had knocked them back far enough to give herself an opening.
Juri dashed forward and as Fortune rose, aimed to set a foot on her shoulder. Then she would step up and knee Fortune in the gut, before spinning and slamming her other heel into the side of her head like she was trying to knock it off entirely.
”Get lost!” She didn’t know how Fortune was controlling these puppets, but hoped to disorient her visually, at least, by throwing her or her head away.
With a mixture of quick thinking and luck, Nadia managed to mitigate the throw by taking the knee strike with her arms, then popping her own head off to avoid the follow-up. The maneuver still got her pushed back and disoriented, though, so she couldn’t launch a counterattack, and the two ended up at a stand-off. “Get her!” she yowled as she grabbed her head from the air, and her copycats approached in order to keep Juri busy with some rapid slashes while Nadia hopped back.
Juri tried to back dash but had to block. Something snapped in her posture and it almost looked like she lost a shade of saturation.
”Seriously pissing me off!” She ducked under a swipe and snapped her leg between both clones heads like a ping pong ball.
It had been an intense few moments, and even without any sign of injury, Nadia still felt fatigue starting to build. Neither of the two were getting anywhere, which meant Juri -under Galeem’s influence- would never relent. As exciting as this fight was, not being able to definitely beat the bully took the fun out of it. Once the wonderworld collapsed, though, things would be different.
Hurry the hell up and lose already, Falcon!She pulled her Bait Launcher from her belt and considered it for a moment. Was annoying Juri really worth spending the ammo…? The feral grinned. Of course it was! She took aim and fired, shooting a slab of raw meat that plopped down in the melee. The next moment a big, burly tiger poofed into existence, ready to try and make mincemeat of any martial artists in its way.
Needless to say, Juri did not expect that.
”Hey!” She yelled, between heavy breathes.
”What’s wrong with you? You know those things are endangered!” She protested.
That shout took Nadia aback. “Huh? It’s not even real! And why d’you care, anyway? There’s only one Ms Fortune, and look how you treat me!”
”What are you, whining, now?” Juri asked.
Her summoned tiger attacked, swinging its huge arms again and again, but it neither moved very much nor lasted very long, meaning Juri could get away before the tiger poofed back out of existence. Nadia took the chance to absorb her copycats, noting that they’d be more useful if called out for a quick assist than an extended brawl. In a burst of pressurized blood she superjumped up, then used Charge to slam back down onto Juri’s position and get one final aftershock on her before the Conductive status wore off. As the dust and sparks cleared, she stood up, grinning at her opponent. “You look tired. Worn out already? You oughta try picking on someone your own size more often~”
Juri stood back up, catching her breath.
”Shut up, loser. You couldn’t stop me then and you can’t stop me now. Even with all your annoying new tricks. Just stupid gimmicks. I’ve basically got them all figured out now.” Juri said, swallowing dryly.
“Buhbuhbuhbuhbuh,” Nadia stuttered, making a flapping-lips motion with her hand. “Blubber all ya want. I’ve just been messing around, and that’s all you ever do. If you think you’re hot shit, you’re in for some serious misfortune!” Sharpening her claws, the feral readied up for another round.
There was a flash of energy, and Juri stood up straighter.
”Am I supposed to be surprised you’re making stupid baby noises, like usual? You’re not funny.” Juri dashed forward, compelled to try and smack Fortune around as much as she could. But before the pointless battle could recommence the game would come to an end, and they would both end up back in the lobby.