Buzzsaw
Chapter One
You've bowed your hellos to your disciples, kissed your hellos to your family as they came up to ringside. Now is the time for focus, as you prepare for the fight. Part of that is stretching muscles, but much more is focusing on your opponent. When you saw the listings you didn't expect Cynthia Balor to be more than a warming-up exercise, an impression that lasted all of half a second after you laid eyes on her.
You do your homework with the people you expect to face in a tournament, especially with a complete unknown like Cynthia Balor. Or you thought you had- but nothing you saw or heard left you expecting
this.
Her ki burns smoothly with the heartbeat-timed pulse of someone who can easily muster several times more power, and is purposefully limiting herself far short of even her usual training levels. As does yours. The girl looks back at you with a distinctly un-girlish expression; the shy bookishness you expected is there in her posture, but not a hint of the nervous tension you'd usually see from an amateur climbing into the ring with you. Even if she's not a master-class competitor, she very much believes that she is.
Whose disciple is she? Who trained her like this? The question keeps circling through your head. You run down the list of every true master of Krillin Style you can think of. And you
do know the two she's actually studied under publicly, and neither of them has spent enough time with her to make her this confident. Not against someone with your reputation. At least, you think not. Maybe you're underestimating their skill as teachers. Worth remembering.
And who's that with her? The short man exchanging glances with the Balor girl that shout "TELEPATHY!" is someone you've never run across before.
He looks odd. You frown slightly, thinking.
Odd. Part of it you can't- no, wait, that's it. Everyone has their saiyan side and their human side, and not just because of the Masque. Nearly everyone lives in both worlds. Some a bit closer to the human side, like cousin Ashitaba. Or like Scion Kakara. But this fellow? You're a good judge of body language, and you're pretty sure he's got to be one of top five or ten most 'saiyan' saiyans you've ever met.
Carries himself like a fighter, with a side-order of something you can't put your finger on. And that side order
radiates killer instinct. Enough that he looks like trouble. A brother Demon stylist in a foul mood, one who hasn't really internalized the spiritual side of the Teachings? Barely possible, but you're sure you'd recognize him even so, if he fights that well. And you are
sure he's not a Krillin stylist. Hmmmm.
Maybe he's from one of those Masquerade-shunning families, one that bears about as high a proportion of saiyan blood as they can manage. You nod slowly. Maybe that's it. Maybe he's here with a Balor because that's the height of 'human-loving' he can tolerate- part of their social circle, but too far out to be part of yours.
The thing is... generally, the Houses like that
only interact with the rest of Exile society because they love fighting. Even more so than usual, in some cases. And that wraps right back to wondering why you've never seen him before. There are a lot of Houses. Could there be some backwoods branch House that keeps up their own martial arts tradition? One that doesn't mingle with the populace, even to spar? One that has a fighting tradition you don't know about? Something like Frieza-style fighting?
You suppose there might. It's that, or he's a lone wolf of some kind who lives out of touch with everyone, even with the 'saiyan pride' Houses that don't mingle with humans. It's not unheard of, even if it's usually the oldsters who go off to live as hermits in the wilderness.
Either way, you decide that if you see him again, it'll be worth trying to talk shop. You'd bet long odds that he's not the one who trained Cynthia in anything of consequence, but you're pretty sure he knows who did.
But as you look at him,
he is looking at
you. And you know that even if he's never fought you or any of your friends, somehow and somewhere he's learned to be a keen judge of fighters and tactics. Combine that with Cynthia obviously knowing much, much more of the martial arts than you thought...
Huh. This is going to get
interesting.
Cynthia makes her way across the ring wards with an odd shiver- probably hasn't felt high-end tournament wards before, not the real thing. You're used to it, keeping your equanimity, smiling and dipping your head to the Balor girl in a gesture of respect for a fellow contender. Even one you didn't know you had-
especially one you didn't know you had. "I see you've been spending that time out of public wisely."
She shrugs. "I train. All saiyans do."
You nod, tilting your head to one side. "Mhm. They do, yeah. Thing is, I know that look. You've trained a lot, haven't you? And you've trained hard."
"Maybe. Let's find out."
As she says the words, she drops into Krillin Style's... wait. That is
not the fifth stance favored by masters. It's what fifth stance would look like if it had been reinvented from scratch by a Krillin Style master who had
somehow never heard of it before.
This is going to get
really interesting.
She's a good one. How good? You'd like to find out,
really find out. She's still carrying traces of the shy, bookish girl about her. That won't do; this is a
world-class tournament. You decide to nettle her a bit- get her to push that aside. This is a tournament of skill, not power, so bring out her best. Better for everyone that way.
You drop into the sixth stance, hands held in high guard position, and smile at her. "Fair enough. Still, though, don't get cocky. I can see that you've trained well, but I have a lot more experience than you do."
It works.
Her energy shifts from latency to activity in the blink of an eye. She lifts her arm towards the ceiling. A mass of swirling power forms in her upraised palm.
"Kienzan!" she shouts, and hurls the destructive disk. You begin accelerating into an upward dodge even before you find the aim point, because against someone throwing those around, getting airborne is self-preservation. The blade, its edge sharp as fury, slices into and through the ring floor, passing half a meter below your feet. You slow your dodge as you realize it wasn't aimed through your center of mass, trying to reacquire Cynthia-
WHAM!
-Which was a mistake, you realize, as she reverses one of your favorite tactics and slams you skyward on a fastball trajectory, with an aerobatic kick.
Well, she's nettled all right.
Very nettled.
She's also at least as good as you expected. Her flying kicks could use a little work, but they'll do. They'll definitely do.
Ow.
You tuck your body into a ball and set yourself whirling, dissipating momentum, willing yourself to a stop short of the ring edge. Lesson learned. Time to start feeling out her tactics. She's practicing a variation on her style, and you need to learn just
how variant.
You cup your hands and let fly with a Masenko; she twists out of the way and begins returning fire with a hail of energy bolts. Not much shaping or charging, just a barrage to get you going evasive. Good tactics; you can tell she's trying to make her own openings instead of simply waiting to exploit them- the mark of a Krillin Style master. She's trying to keep up with you on aerobatics, coming closer than many, but then maneuverability is one of the great virtues of her Art.
The counter is to take whatever the Krillin stylist is doing to create their opening, and react outside the box- which you do. She likes to kick people over the horizon under cover of a big ki attack? Let's do that, then.
Grinning wildly as your blood sings, you turn sharper than she expected, maybe sharper than she thought you could, and pour power into gaining speed, batting aside a few of the little bolts with motions of your hand instead of bothering to swerve around them. The effort costs more, but you gain in speed- and to do it, you have to switch power to your hands, which dovetails nicely into the charging blast you gather as you approach. Cynthia crosses her arms and forces her ki into a barrier to withstand the enormous directional blast of your Demon Wave.
Then she realizes you're still coming straight at her. Behind her carefully affixed glasses, Cynthia's eyes widen as she frantically dodges your flying tackle, slipping underneath you. But you saw that coming and lashed out in passing. Piccolo Style prides itself on abrupt, powerful kicks, with good reason. The new challenger catches your boot in her midsection. The Balor fighter's downward dodge becomes a downward plummet, slamming to the floor like a meteor. Before she can rally and rebound out of the crater you gather your strength, calling the name of the Masenko as you give it all you've got-
Cynthia surprises you again by raising her fingers to her forehead, and disappearing out of the path of the bolt.
Not that big a surprise. Instant Transmission is one of those techniques so useful that anyone who can use it in a fight, does- a common variation on
all styles. But you learned how to defend against a teleporting attacker by fighting the greatest living master of the art. You've practiced the defensive counter-form for years in the face of Berra's many admirers and imitators. And the first thing they try is a kick to the back. Every time. Usually the back of the head, because it usually works, unless you-
ha!
You started spinning even before she completed the Instant Transmission. When you learn to watch for it, and the kais are kind,
sometimes you can time it and catch them in mid-decision loop. Your opponent has to concentrate on the Instant Transmission
and plan her first move after it, so she won't have time to reorient when you-
Lash and and block her kick with your own, in this case. Cynthia jets backward and-
WHAM!
-Whirls through the motions of a Kamehameha faster than you expected. Pretty good one. Very crisp. Most youngsters' Kamehamehas have a fuzzier wave front, and hurt less. She put a lot into that.
Ow. By the same token, it was enough to fatigue her for just a moment- and not enough to stop you. A good chance to reverse things, and by now you've figured out that like most Krillin masters, she's most comfortable at a distance.
Your smoldering robes are snuffed out by the sudden wind of your flight as you flash into range and launch a barrage of punches and kicks at the Balor fighter. Several land, Cynthia recoiling from the impacts as you settle into a rhythm, beginning to regain the initiative. She skips back, aided by the momentum of your next punch, and
vip!
She'll be too smart to try
exactly the same move, so you whirl and dodge, expecting a punch or kick in the chest, and your head whips round as you-
"Taiyoken!"
-Go blind and
then get kicked in the chest.
Right, teleporting Krillin stylist! You should have seen that Solar Flare coming. This match is starting to feel like you reached out to pluck a fruit and found a hidden buzzsaw waiting for your hand.
Tricky.
But Cynthia's got her signatures too, even if you're having to learn them on the fly. She repeats her earlier tactic, backpedaling and charging a blast, but you know how to take the wind out her sails
this time. To your ki sense, she might as well be holding a bullseye in her cupped hands as she charges the Kamehameha wave. You rap out a hardened drill of energy with familiar ease- and Cynthia is smart enough to turn her attack into a defense on the fly, making it out of the Makankosappo's path in time.
Phew! You weren't expecting a challenge like this until the quarter-finals!