The new guy is a death god? (Yoko/Itou|R|DE)

Like Yoko, Itou was in his history class. He was listening to the teacher lecture about the first captain commander and how the gotei was established. History class was boring but helpful. Unlike some students who just put their heads down through the class Itou actually –tried- to pay attention The majority of the class was simply lectures but Itou paid at least some attention. As the teacher spoke and spoke Itou was deep in his own type of thought.The academy life is kind boring these days. I guess I’ll spend some time in the human world, provided I wear a gigai of course. Itou had then decided that he would go to the human world, however since he wasn’t officially a Shinigami he needed to go in a gigai.

The next day
So the next day Itou had gone to the squad 12. One of the unseated officers attended to him. Itou didn’t step inside unannounced “I wish to have a gigai to go into the human world.” Itou said respectfully as he bowed. The barracks was surprisingly big. It was full of research equipment inside and on top of it there was a huge kanji sign for the number 12 on it. Itou was mesmerized by the appearance but kept it to himself, he kept the same stoic and bored looking expression as the unseated officer went back inside.

After a few hours of drilling and other things his gigai was made. It looked like Itou was a corpse, Itou poked it’s skin and it was pretty cold. How had they gotten the details so perfect. They probably had his physical description from when he was in the academy. Itou examined the body, the cold and flawless skin, besides the scars on his torso and back area. They had gotten everything right down to the skin. They even got pretty decent clothing, squad 12 really did keep up with the times!

After telling him the specifics of how the gigai worked and the power limitations the gigai would impose on him and that he couldn’t take his zanpakuto they finally put him in it. He felt weird in it. It definitely limited his mobility, usually he could run quick, really quick. But now he felt slower, he felt barely faster than a human. Also he felt surprisingly... weak. It was as if someone had drugged him, also while in the gigai he felt rigid and slow, like he was in armour. “Wow now I see what they meant by power limiters...” Itou said to himself as he stepped in the senkimon.

He ran through the senkimon and landed on the ground, he landed in a surprisingly deserted place so no one saw him basically emerge from nowhere. Judging by Itou’s analysis he was limited quite a lot, he also had a limit on how much time he could stay there before he had to go back. His gigai would only last a little bit since it wasn’t build for long term so it would start going weird and start convulsing or having random spasms as time went on. He would have to make the most of his time here before going back home. Itou then turned his neck and a loud audible crack would be heard, that loosened him up a little bit!

Itou was wearing surprisingly modern clothes. A shirt and tie, with grey trousers. This made it seem like he was coming back from work or something. He did look twenty five so he it was believable he would be working. As he walked down the street he could her slamming and audible grunting coming from a dojo. He then looked at it, this would be the perfect time to see what it would be like to fight in a gigai. He then stuffed his hands in his pockets and walked in casually, giving the same stoic and slightly bored expression as always. In his human life he practiced karate and kung fu, now he combined the two for his own fighting style. He walked in and realized a few others had walked in. He knew that dojos allowed sparring sessions for the last hour and anyone could join in.



Itou walked in the door, he was calm and controlled, if he wasn’t in a gigai he would be able to end everyone on this class in an instant. Why shouldn’t he? He was a Shinigami trainee and they were all humans. He had long surpassed the limits of a normal human and become a different entity entirely, he was just bound by... restrictions. He bowed to the sensei and the sensei gave him robes to change into. He went into a big boys changing room, throw off his clothes and threw on the robe. It felt good to be in fighting robes again, it made him feel human again.

Itou sighed as he hung up his stuff and walked out of the changing room and into the main fighting part of the dojo again. He went up to the sensei and gave a bow of respect to him. “Hello, I wish to have a friendly spar with one of your students, sensei” Itou addressed him. Although he technically wasn’t his sensei, -Itou’s real sensei’s were the instructors in the academy- he still called him that as a sign of respect. Itou didn’t challenge him directly because it would be strange to come, beat up their sensei and simply walk out and never be seen from again. Chances were they wouldn’t see him for a LONG time, if not at all.

The sensei bowed to him and showed him to a girl. She had blonde hair that was tied back. He didn’t know if she was experienced or not. Itou didn’t smile or even blink at her. He simply walked onto the mat and bowed his head down to her. It was a sign of respect and that they were going to fight. “My name is Itou.” Itou simply said. He kept his same stoic and seemingly bored expression throughout this whole thing. “It would also be good if you didn’t hold back on me.” Itou said in his bored and cold voice once again. It was obvious he seemed he wasn’t interested or paying attention much. He got into his stance. She would do well to heed his warning and try her absolute hardest or she would get hurt.

This song

She would realize Itou’s stance was strange, yes it was very strange, not the usual one you would expect to see in the human world. This was because he wasn’t even from the human world. He was a Shinigami trainee, he had shinigami powers technically but he wasn’t qualified to join the gotei yet. His stances, fighting styles, the way he was even trained was different. He could do this with his abilities that normal people simply couldn’t, if he was still alive he would basically be a super human, however that wasn’t true, he was a spiritual being in a spiritual body. That was besides the point however, he could see that she was tensing up to attack him, with his battle analysis he could tell she was getting ready to attack.

His muscles tensed and get ready, it seemed she was going to attack first, he was more of a tactical fighter so attacking first really wasn’t his forte. He wasn’t going to fight aggressively, he was going to fight defensively, they were both close-ranged fighters but he still had an edge but he knew nothing about her abilities. He immediately tried to seize up her powers in his head. What would he do? What would be the best plan of action to take against her? Would he use speed? Speed was usually the best choice.

However that wasn’t the only option. He was staring at her, up and down, getting ready to counter. He looked like he had a physical advantage, his muscles tensed and he clenched his fists, revealing some veins and muscle running down his chest. He said nothing, he thought of nothing but the battle. That was his mentality, to let nothing distract, focus on only the battle and nothing but the battle. To not give up, to fight through whatever was in his way, his opponent was his only focused.

He licked his lips once and then she attacked, she sprung up at him. Itou with his instincts and senses of an athlete and her slug like speed (compared to his speed of a wild animal) knew what to so instantly. She swept her feet at him, this was a pretty simple kick, with a two in battle analysis he did some quick deduction in his head of what she was doing. She was shorter so she had to close the range, he was more developed and battle ready so he had a longer reach. He sighed as he took a few quick steps back. This put him out of her kick’s reach since she was so short and he had been given the perfect opportunity to counter attack.

There was advantages to doing kicks like that, namely you could easily do a follow up attack and they had a longer reach than usual punches. However since she was so short compared to him, like a garden gnome it made it harder for her to utilize a kick like that to its fullest potential. Also with her slow speed compared to his it made dodging and following her attacks easier. In fact what she would notice was that he had reacted with instantly and with good speed, it was as if he was trained for this (which he was).

Now her kick would shoot right past him, this gave Itou the opening he needed. He grabbed her by the ankle, this would immediately halt her momentum and jolt her off balance since she had come to such a sudden stop, it was like going in a car, when you moved fast and hit the brakes suddenly you were thrown forward, it was only your seatbelt that saved you, except this time she wasn’t sitting down, her momentum was her own and she had no seatbelt to save her. This naturally made her almost fall, Itou still kept a tight grip on her ankle however.

Itou’s grip was iron. With the stupid limiter he was just about missing the strength for a wild animal but was really close. She would feel his grip tightening, it would actually hurt. Since she had neither the flexibility nor the body positioning to actually reach forward and hit him with her arms she couldn’t escape. She lacked the strength to break out from his grip as well. If she used her other leg she would injure herself more because she would fall to the ground and hurt her back or head, she was literally trapped.

Itou’s eyes met hers for a second. She would see nothing, emptiness, emotionless, completely focused on the battle and nothing else. Itou then jerked her forward, making her fall forwards even more, this was so he could make his attack more effective however. She had anticipated him to attack her body but she had left her leg completely vulnerable, big mistake. However she never could have anticipated that he was like this. How could she have? For all she knew he was just some guy who had waltzed in here from work looking to blow off some steam, no one in the world without energy sensory would be able to tell what he was.

He then sighed as he attempted to strike her on her knee with his elbow, it wasn’t so hard that he’d break it but hard enough to cause a bad bruise, it would limit her mobility for the remainder of the fight and it would simply hurt for her to try anymore kicks. After the elbow to her leg he pushed it to the side and she would spin. To the side, this would make her dizzy, Itou with then use the palm of his hand to strike her and knock her to the floor. Itou then sighed and still looked with his indifferent expression. He didn’t say anything, he didn’t speak, he simply did his attacks.

The question was how would she dodge? She had attempted the kick and Itou had moved back so he was at the ankle and caught the kick. Since she wouldn’t be able to reach how would she break out? She lacked the strength, body positioning and the speed to counter or get out of the kick. He had gotten her off balance and floored her with simply a counter. How would she be able to react and how would she be able to face this new guy? Itou simply cracked his neck and knuckles, still glaring at her as he settled back into a stance, the same awkward stance that no one seemed to be familiar with. He was a shinigami trainee and he was ready for any and all types of combat.

(OOC: I dodged)

Stolen from Shiki

Everything was going smoothly, according to plan. He had grabbed her leg, pulled her forward, he was ready to deliver the crippling blow. He was already beginning to think that maybe he had made a mistake coming here, the humans here really had no way of reacting to his attacks accordingly and he was easily dodging her blows. He could tell she was shocked, the shocked look in her eyes when he had caught her leg, she was too confident, she expected this to be easy, she expected him to take the hit and go to the floor down and simply do nothing. She expected this to be easy, she was wrong.

However as Itou went to deal the crippling blow he saw that she was doing something. She had gotten her hands on the ground, he was pretty much holder her leg up, it looked like a wheelbarrow. What exactly was she thinking now? Itou did some quick thinking with his battle analysis as he halted his elbow strike. He couldn’t risk it, he could see her leg moving and tensing, she was obviously going to kick him in the face! Itou didn’t say anything, he simple moved back and pushed her legs forwards, this put her on a hand stand for a split-second and she went back into a standing position.

Itou shot her a threatening glare. She had tried to kick him in the face. He remember when he was alive and he had been training in martial arts. He hadn’t been allowed to kick people in the face because he was so inexperienced and he might hurt someone by accident. Judging by her belt she wasn’t at the level to be kicking people in the face. This is what irritated Itou slightly, if this was a street fight sure then everyone wouldn’t mind. It would’ve been a smart move on her part but this wasn’t a street fight. This was a martial arts dojo. She could get into trouble with her sensei for doing that but Itou didn’t say anything. He simply shot her a glare that said ’You’re going to pay for that dearly...'

If this was class and he got kicked in the face then everyone would simply laugh at his limp body but this wasn’t. This was a dojo in the human world. Although seeing someone get kicked in the face was something amusing to other it wasn’t amusing to Itou. Especially if he was the one being kicked in the face. He simply grit his teeth and scowled at her, she got back into her stance and he got back into his stance. Itou decided to let it slide for now, after all it was only a spar. Her sensei would reprimand her on it anyway so it wouldn’t mind. He simply sighed and got into his stance.

Itou did a basic analysis. It seemed that she was obviously inferior physically in everywhere, speed wise and pure strength wise. This could be used to his advantage since blocking would cause damage and she simply couldn’t react quick enough. Those last two exchanges had proven that beyond any doubt. A two in battle analysis helped a lot. She seemed to be analysing him, trying to find out the best approach against him, what could she do? What would she do? More importantly however what could Itou do. He had only done a very basic analysis, if he went into analysis in detail then he would’ve analysed her stance, her fighting style etc. He had only analysed her physical traits.

He then clicked his knuckles, he was still feeling a little stiff. Itou finally noticed that she was inching towards him, slowly but surely. Was she already shaken? He could tell by the way she was moving and poised that she was cautious now. She would’ve probably figured out something was up with him by now but not exactly figured it out. He simply stared at her as she inched towards him, she was in kicking range but he wasn’t expecting a kick. Unless she was really stupid and thick then she would’ve try the same move twice, the results would be disastrous for her and downright humiliating.

She then spun, as soon as he realized the blow was aimed for his upper body he crouched down, he put his head down low and simply crouched. Although he was significantly taller the fist would still go right above him and that is when he would strike. She could try to kick him but she must’ve known by now he could easily catch her feet and block it. More importantly as soon as the fist went above him and he was safe he would react with tenacity and ruthlessness. His fist shot up, all his potential energy that had been building up in his bent legs was being released into one powerful attack. He clenched his fists tight and attempted punch her hard in the stomach.

If this attack connected she would be winded and she might actually throw up whatever she had for lunch, that is how hard and fast his attack was. She would simply have no time to react because he was simply that fast, she had been in the middle of an attack. The timing of his attack was simply on point. It was flawless, it was simply quick. He had built up all his energy in his legs and attacked with his fist. It would wind her, she would definitely double over and clench her gut in pain. It would be a punch that she had never felt before, after all she had never fought anyone with the monstrous strength he possessed.

If this attack connected and she had doubled over she would feel more pain. Since she would be doubled over she would be hurt, her face would be pointing towards him, she would feel the irresistible urge to throw up. He then clenched his fists and went to slam it into her nose, it was sort of a retaliation for trying to kick him in the face, an eye for an eye. Because Yoko had done a thing like that it had obviously provoked a vicious and painful counter. It was simply how fighting worked; don’t give out what you can’t take in.

After the uppercut her nose would probably break, at the very least be bloody, the blood would fly out like a pez dispenser and she would fall to the floor most likely. In all fairness what could she have done? She had committed herself to that hammer fist. Due to her low instincts she would be focused on trying to hit him with a hammer fist, by the time she realized that he was attacking she would be hit, with an instinct of 50 it would be too hard to react. She had been in the middle of attacking after all and with her slow speed (barely over the speed of an average human) compared to his speed of a wild animal her body would be slow to react, his punch didn’t have much distance to travel and he was simply too quick. If she did try to kick he was prepared for that and he was ready to simply block the kick and continue with his punch.

If the deck to the gut hit then the uppercut to the nose would most likely hit. This is due to the fact that she would still be in so much pain. The uppercut would most likely make her fall to the floor but if it didn’t then Itou would do one basic manoeuvre. After the uppercut he would grab her by the robe, tug her forward, this would move her forward, as she moved forwards Itou would move to the side as a pre-emptive dodge and to simply get out of the way. Due to this he would sweep her legs from out under her, this would make her fall flat on her stomach and she would be down. Itou then got up from his expertly crouched position. “Had enough?” Itou asked stoically, he still had the uninterested and stoic expression on his face, it was as if he hadn’t been paying attention at all to the fight. He would then take few paces back so she didn’t sneak attack him while on the floor, he wouldn’t want that.

Music

As should be expected of a fighter this superior to his opponent, Itou had easily dodged Yoko’s strike once more. However, Yoko’s instinct was low enough that she simply couldn’t react to his dodge properly. She had already committed to her kick. With her instinct as low as that of an average human’s, it was simply asking way too much to expect that she could pull her kick in time. The target of her kick had changed unintentionally as a result. Initially the kick had been targeting Itou’s midsection, but now it was on a path towards the Shinigami's head. Once more, Yoko had targeted the enemy fighter’s head by mistake. In fairness, Itou had literally moved into this one.

Despite these repeated kicks towards Itou’s head, Yoko still had little to fear in terms of actually injuring the other man. Itou appeared to have been preparing for a strike, but his instincts and battle prowess were easily enough to notice and prevent the second threat. Even with his superior strength, the power of a roundhouse kick is still considerably greater than that of a single arm. Because the roundhouse is a spinning back-leg kick it has the force of the entire body behind it. This meant that Itou actually had to focus on a block for a moment, and this was the key factor that prevented him from ending the fight right then and there. If he had chosen to simply ignore the kick and go through with his punch, there was a chance he could have simply struck first. Instead, Itou’s cautious nature as a martial artist caused him to block Yoko’s strike first.

In the immediate aftermath of Yoko’s kick being blocked several important things happened. The first is that Yoko’s kicking leg landed close to Itou’s own feet. This proximity congested the fighting area greatly. With the combat moved so close, Yoko was actually at a slight advantage. Before, her small size had meant that she needed to get in close, but Itou had just allowed her to do that. Now Itou’s lanky body was a liability. His greater height and longer limbs meant he had to move more when time was at a premium. The difference in size was nowhere near important enough to offset the difference in physical capabilities and fighting skill, but it gave Yoko enough of an edge to hang on better than she could at kicking range.

The second important piece of information about the time just after Yoko’s kick was blocked was Yoko’s stance. Her left leg was forward, but having her kick blocked meant she had landed slightly wrong. Her stance was considerably wider and lower than her normal fighting stance. In fact, it resembled a horse stance more than anything else, though her back leg was a bit straighter than it should be for a proper horse stance. Also of note was the positioning of her arms. Her right arm (the one that had done the hammerfist) had been brought back to a vertical guarding posture as she rotated into the roundhouse. Meanwhile, her left arm had been dropped parallel to her waist for added balance. Technically this was considered poor form for a student of Kenpo Karate – Kenpo Karateka strived to always keep both arms up—but this accidental arm placement came in quite handy.

It was the combination of Yoko’s stance, her arm placement, and the slight delay between Itou’s block and attack that gave Yoko the ability to come away from Itou’s uppercut with a much more beneficial outcome than the Shinigami had predicted. The slight delay between blocking and attacking gave Yoko enough time to react to some degree. It was far from enough time to let her react in an ideal fashion, but it was enough to let her be aware of the attack. Her left arm was already almost exactly where it needed to be in order to get in Itou’s way. A slight downward movement accompanied by a loud kiai saw flesh meet flesh. Yoko’s left forearm impacted Itou’s fist. It was a successful block.

While the block was indeed successful, it also was far from a desirable outcome. Itou was over twice as strong as Yoko was. The only thing that prevented this from being crippling damage to her forearm was how little movement Itou had been allowed before the point of impact. Between Yoko’s downward block, short height, and low stance Itou had barely had any room to move. In such a confined space it simply wasn’t possible for him to make the best use of his strength. The impact had occurred before his entire body could get behind the strike. This caused it to lack the power of a Shoryuken style attack. Instead, it hit with force closer to that of a standing uppercut.

Even though the attack wasn’t perfect, there was still noteworthy damage to Yoko’s arm. Her left forearm would soon sport a nice black-and-blue just below her wrist. The pain from it was bad at first, but Yoko’s skill in pain tolerance prevented her from screaming out in pain or losing focus. She still needed to be careful with this arm. If she took a second blow in the exact same spot it would be more than her pain tolerance would be able to handle. She also needed to be careful what strikes she threw with that arm. Even a block that impacted that spot on her forearm could potentially put her in a good deal of pain.

It wasn’t visible on the surface, but Itou seemed to be getting aggravated by something at this point. Yoko didn’t realize it, but she had almost kicked her sparring partner in the face twice now. This was completely unacceptable, and Itou was going to try and make her pay for it even if her sensei didn’t. After that uppercut was blocked, Itou began his next attack almost immediately. He rose back up to a fighting stance and sent another punch straight towards Yoko’s nose. His strike was a straightforward attack: a cross. It the only strike that Itou could use that would be able to precisely target Yoko’s nose and guarantee breaking it if it hit.

There was one major consideration that Itou hadn’t made when choosing this strike, and that was the range he was at from Yoko. The cross was a very strong strike, but a proper cross needed several things. One of those things was rotation. Another was adequate distance. Most importantly, a good cross needed to be thrown from a good fighting stance. The cross drew most of its power from the rotation of the back foot when the punch was thrown. That was problematic in this situation simply because of how close Yoko was. Itou needed to rise back up into a fighting stance before he could throw a punch strong enough to attempt to break Yoko’s nose. After rising into a fighting stance, he would still need to pivot and throw the actual punch.

If he wasn’t so close to Yoko, he could probably have gotten away with all that quite easily. Instead, he would be walking right into an attack. Yoko was already in a fighting stance. She was ready to attack. Itou had triggered one of the basic responses drilled into even a moderately experienced karateka: block, then counterattack. Yoko had blocked his uppercut and she wasn’t about to let Itou set up another attack unchecked. Her right arm was already raised. She was in the perfect spot to throw a cross of her own, and she did. Her back foot pivoted, her right fist raced towards Itou’s chest, and her left arm was chambered at her waist to give her additional speed and power.

Itou would be hard pressed to dodge this strike. He was being attacked while in the middle of standing back up from a crouch. He wouldn’t be in a stance of any kind, let alone a stance where he was able to guard easily. While he was definitely a faster and more experienced fighter, that mattered little if you were caught completely off guard like this. On top of that, he was at a disadvantage at this close range. He was so much taller than his opponent that it would simply be hard to get a block wedged into such a confined space.

Worse still is that his mind was fully focused on his offense. Itou was agitated under the surface. His thoughts were entirely on trying to take down Yoko. He wanted to make her pay for attempting to kick him in the face twice now. Cliché though it may be, anger does cloud the mind of fighters. When one is fighting against someone using a discipline as technical as Kenpo Karate, their mind needs to open and analytical, not closed and filled with rage. Everything about this situation was bad for Itou. Neither his mind nor body was in the right state to defend against this attack. Even if he did manage to find a way to defend, he would do so while rising. This would mean his balance would be off and thus his guard would be weak. Even with his superior strength and speed, managing to cease his attack and execute a block in time would be impressive.

Fortunately for Itou, if he failed to block the strike it wouldn't be the end of the world. His greater physical strength also meant that he had greater resistance to being struck than Yoko did. Depending on where exactly the strike hit, it could cause varying amounts of damage. If he was hit in the gut it would probably knock the wind out of him. If Itou was a bit slower in standing up, then the strike might hit him in the breastbone. Getting hit in this location would likely do no more than daze Itou for a moment. Such a blow would likely be accompanied by a small red spot, but Yoko lacked the strength to do any serious damage to a naturally well armored location. If Itou was able to get a solid block in, then he would likely take minor damage to whatever location he chose to block with.

Music

I hit him? Fuck yeah! I hit this smug bastard! That was the only thought going through Yoko’s mind as her fist connected with Itou’s body. Itou’s attitude had been bothering her since the beginning. His smug smirk, nonchalant attitude, and weird stances all bothered the girl. What bothered her most right now though is that he wasn’t that good. He clearly knew how to fight, and he was clearly strong, but he just really didn’t seem to be thinking through his attacks all that much. His form was good, and he could definitely overpower Yoko… but he just didn’t seem to understand how ranges of combat worked at all. If he kept this up he was just going to get hurt more.

The force from Yoko’s punch knocked Itou back a few steps. I’m not that strong, am I? The fullbringer was surprised that she was able to stagger this man. He was clearly stronger than she was. Maybe he was off balance? No, that couldn’t be it. His form was too good for such a simple mistake. Something about this fight was making Yoko feel like she was advancing in skill and strength at an incredible rate. Just a few moments ago she was just a normal orange belt, but now she was holding her own against someone twice as fast and strong. Either she was in the zone or there was something special in her powerade today.

In the lull between attacks Yoko took a moment to gauge how Itou was doing. His earlier smugness was gone. In its place was obvious anger. The look in Itou’s eyes was nothing short of rage. It was clear from his earlier attitude that he thought himself to be far above Yoko. It was almost like he was some kind of prince or something. He reacted to being hit as if he was some kind of bourgeois caricature that had just been slapped with a fish by a plebian. Had this guy never been hit before or something? Yoko was honestly rather dumbstruck by how mad this guy was getting. It was just a spar after all.

Itou had landed in a crouched position when all was said and done. From down there he spat out a line about watching where the kicks were going. Yoko was awestruck by the gall of his comment. “And you should be more careful about ducking straight into a kick. Ducking only really works in boxing Itou.” Seriously, who the hell tries to duck against someone using a mixed martial art? That roundhouse only went near his head because he had ducked right into it. There was also the issue of the earlier back kick, but Yoko hadn’t really been able to see where she had aimed that one. As far as she was aware she had only aimed one kick at his head. Even then, that one as Itou’s own fault.

Even as Yoko shot the comment back to Itou she was prepared for him to go on the offensive. She was already in her fighting stance and ready to go. This time she would wait for Itou to come to her. He hadn’t shown he could take advantage of his height very well. This meant Yoko wasn’t as worried about the distance issue anymore. As it stood they were roughly four paces apart. Itou was still on the ground. This wouldn’t give Yoko quite enough time to react perfectly, but it was more than enough for her to at least try something, especially if Itou tried to get into punching range.

Young though she may be, Yoko also caught the look in the Shinigami’s eyes. They were that of a predator about to strike. For just a brief moment she was reminded of a battle-crazed Shinn in SEED mode. This made her wary of the attack, but it also made her sure that it would come. Just as Yoko was thinking about how to counter him, Itou literally sprang into action. He exploded towards her far faster than she could hope to react properly to. Even so, she knew the attack was coming. She expected Itou to try and rush into punching range based on his previous actions. Because of this Yoko deployed the standard answer to a charge. Her back knee came forward and released a front snap kick that she hoped would catch Itou in the chest.

Itou’s prediction about Yoko’s reaction being too slow was right though. Between the difference in speed and Yoko’s low instinct it looked like things were going in Itou’s favor drastically. Itou had already closed into punching range by the time Yoko’s knee was swinging forward. There was a punch coming straight for Yoko, but it was nothing but a feint. Even if Yoko had wanted to change her plan based on this she couldn’t. Her instincts were too slow to react in time and her martial arts skills were too weak to abort a kick halfway through. Had Itou gone through with just punching Yoko his combo would have gone off flawlessly.

Instead, what happened was the basics of Keno Karate paid off quite well. The chambering of a front snap kick is effectively a knee strike. As Itou ducked down to go for his leg sweep he ran straight into Yoko’s rising knee. The joint met his chin and his jaw would explode into a burst of pain. Even with the difference in strength between the two combatants this was a bad situation for the Shinigami. A knee strike to the chin would have shattered his jaw if done by someone with strength to match his own. Luckily he would be able to walk away from this with nothing but soreness and a bruise. Despite that fortunate circumstance this strike would still cause enough of a stagger to halt Itou’s plans in their tracks.

The feint and duck is what doomed Itou. If he hadn’t opened with a feint after charging, he would probably have landed a clean hit in this situation. He was far stronger and faster but his flourish meant there was enough time to react to some extent. On top of that, he was developing a bad habit of ducking straight into the path of Yoko’s kicks. She had even warned the guy not to duck, but he did it again. There wasn’t anything she could have done to avoid this situation aside from not defending herself. Too bad for Itou. Yoko was well versed in the basics of martial arts. If you just stand there against a charging opponent then you’re an idiot. Yoko may not be a genius but she certainly knows enough to send a kick towards a charging opponent.

((Stop music here))

In that instant immediately after contact was made Yoko realized what had happened. Sure, she had warned the guy to stop ducking, but she had still landed a blow square on his jaw. She was in deep shit and she knew it. The young martial artist backpedaled a few steps and sank into a bow, bending at the waist. “Please forgive me for hitting your face honored guest.” She hated having to say the line, but she also knew it was the only thing that gave her a chance to not be in complete shit with her sensei. Having to call this guy “honored guest” really rubbed her the wrong way though. That term ought to be reserved for people who actually deserved it.

“NOT GOOD ENOUGH YOKO.” A voice boomed from across the room. It had come from a rather giant man. He was probably in his mid-forties. His body was simply massive. This guy was easily over six feet tall and probably had 250 pounds of muscle on him. He wasn’t the kind of guy you wanted to piss off. Even Itou would probably realize that this guy could kick his ass. “YOU’RE DONE FOR THE NIGHT. GO HOME.” At first Yoko simply stood there with her mouth half open. She hadn’t expected that harsh of a reaction. “NOW!” Well… that was that. She bowed again to Itou and stepped off the mat. Their fight was over, even if she wanted to keep smacking that guy around a bit. She didn’t even bother to change. Instead she just slipped on her shoes and headed home. There was always tomorrow.

((This concludes the battle. There's no IC acceptable way to land a kick to the head as has been established a number of times in this thread, thus this result.))