That actually sounds like a really good idea, keeping him awake or just waking him up at midnight. Perhaps we could knock on his door really loudly at midnight or so, and make up some emergency to wake him up? It might give him a "Sleep Deprived" aspect for Keiko's fight.
Step 1: Have Jiraiya Summon the Smallest Toad he has available ~ 30 minutes before the match during a pre-match "pep talk" with Hazou
Step 2: Stuff it in Hazous shirt
Step 3: Smoke bomb + shout "summoning jutsu" + have the little guy jump out of his shirt mid fight.
Step 4: Profit?
That sounds interesting, but I'm not sure if people thinking that Hazou is the new toad summoner is a good idea. Now, if we could make it look like we were summoning a different species of summon, that might work.
That actually sounds like a really good idea, keeping him awake or just waking him up at midnight. Perhaps we could knock on his door really loudly at midnight or so, and make up some emergency to wake him up? It might give him a "Sleep Deprived" aspect for Keiko's fight.
That sounds interesting, but I'm not sure if people thinking that Hazou is the new toad summoner is a good idea. Now, if we could make it look like we were summoning a different species of summon, that might work.
He can be the frog summoner!
But seriously, if people actually bought it (which I really doubt), it'd be a massive win for Jiraiya. The next time he got into a serious fight he'd have an extra trump card, and it may even bring out enemies who were avoiding him because of his summons down the road.
But seriously, if people actually bought it (which I really doubt), it'd be a massive win for Jiraiya. The next time he got into a serious fight he'd have an extra trump card, and it may even bring out enemies who were avoiding him because of his summons down the road.
There they were: brother and sister standing in the arena. This was their moment to spread their ideas of Uplift to an international audience. Whatever happened here would determine how the world would see the Goketsu forever.
Keiko generally had no interest in anything involving showmanship but even she couldn't pretend to be totally unaffected by the pressure. They had to get this right. They just had to!
It should be fine though since Hazou would take the lead and she would just have to go by the script they memorized. And play the villain which was a nice little bonus.
"Hello everyone, it's me again: the closest claim Mist has to an actual victory in this tournament - not that they can actually take credit for it but we all know it won't stop them. You obviously remember me from my previous, explosive performance where I punched a guy into a coma for getting my shirt dirty. But today I want to talk about something close to my heart: Uplift! It's pretty great and you should all try it!" Hazou said with a smile, then turned to look expectantly at Keiko.
And kept looking.
And looking.
Keiko didn't even have to glance around to know that the audience was starting to grow restless. Was that it? Was that all he was going to say? Why was he going off-script already? What was he thinking?
Did he seriously expect her to pull in the audience? Or did he scrap his Uplift speech in an effort to unbalance her for the match? That was not really in character for him but Hazou could be tricky when he wanted to...
And that was clearly not acceptable so she would have to retaliate in kind.
"No, it's not", she replied with just a hint of ice in her voice.
"Oh", he replied intelligently.
Keiko just kept staring at him - waiting for any sign that would indicate they would go back on script - but all he was doing was smiling at her. The prospect of bashing his perfect white teeth in was becoming more and more appealing by the minute.
She didn't know how much time had passed but if she didn't know better she would have sworn she heard chakra cicadas chirping in the background. Which was clearly not possible because it was neither the correct climate nor the season for them.
Finally, the annoyingly energetic judge she got to know during her last match decided to jump in and clear her throat. "Well, I suppose this would be a good time to start?"
Might as well. And after the match Hazou and her would have words. Thankfully they already stood in the quarry so there was no need to move down because she didn't trust herself not to trip Hazou if they had to walk down together. Which would be bad because Mist would probably try to disqualify them both.
But probably worth it.
Maybe?
"One moment please, Keiko. Before we start I wanted to advise you not to use your summons in this match." What? "Because Jiraiya taught me Summoning as well last night and I would have to respond in kind, you understand. Also, I have awakened the Sharingan which is pretty neat. Didn't even have to die for it."
Not yet anyway.
Hazou is clearly making things up so he has to overcome not only his targets' Deceit score but also a hefty penalty modifier. NB: This isn't a precedent for future encounters because I clearly don't know what I am doing and it might change later on.
The audience actually started cheering at his proclamation which meant the sound amplification jutsu was still active. And that her Idiot Brother just blew OPSEC on his trump cards. Which - to be fair - seemed a lot more in character for him than anything else he said so far.
Forget having words after this match. They would have sentences, if not paragraphs.
"Anyway, just figured I would tell you so you aren't too surprised later on," Hazou said while cupping his hands over his eyes. "Oh, also: Sharingan activate, WOOHOO!"
Hazou removed his hands and looked at her with red eyes and a smug expression.
Just going to sum up rolls from here on. Remember Hazou is operating under a penalty for Deceit (and clearly Intelligence).
SharinZou, Deceit: 6
Audience, Deceit: 3
Keiko, Deceit: 10
Also, were those onions she was smelling? Did he seriously smear them into his eyes just to irritate them (and her!) so they would turn red? And why was the audience cheering for this idiocy?! For crying out loud, you could even see the discarded pieces lying around him!
Enough. If he was lying about this Sharingan, chances are he was also lying about having been taught summoning. It was time for her to make a move.
Hazou, Summoner Extraordinare, Sharingan User and Likely Target of Fratricide, Deceit: -4
Keiko, Deceit: 16
Pangaya, Deceit: -6
"Gamabunta", Artistic Value: 0
Once the smoke had cleared, Pangaya was standing beside her awaiting her orders whereas... Hazou was standing on a huge boulder. A boulder that had clearly been drawn upon crudely with crayons to - if one were to be very generous - look like some form of animal. One that a five year old could have effortlessly drawn on better because she was pretty sure toads did not have five legs.
"Hah, see! I wasn't joking. Boss summon right there, no problem! Also, please note how I copied your jutsu with my awesome Sharingan", her Target announced.
Keiko couldn't help but fixate on his throat and imagine how nice it would feel to choke him right here and then. But that had to wait. First things first:
"Pangaya, please inflict as much as pain as you can on my brother without crippling him permanently," she ordered her summon.
"I apologize, summoner, but I cannot. The Toads are allies of the Pangolins and attacking one another even in a mock battle is forbidden."
OH FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!
What had she done to deserve this? Besides abandoning her village and murdering some innocent people, anyway (which clearly didn't count since a lot of ninjas did that).
-o-o-o-
"I see you have taught Hazou well, Jiraiya?", That Woman said with a laugh that Jiraiya was sure didn't require tapping into the Iron Nerve. "He even picked up on some of your... better qualities."
"Well, I guess so. But at least he is still in the tournament, so there is that", Jiraiya countered with a tone that indicated that he clearly wished he wasn't. He had to surpress a wince when Hazou started pulling out a bunch of chakra drained - and most definitely not summoned - chakra toads out of his pocket to throw at Pangaya who just stood there with a decidedly confused expression while they bounced off of her scales harmlessly.
"Indeed, he seems to be on the mental fast track for jounin, don't you agree?", A chimed in.
Jiraiya could only facepalm when Hazou started cackling like a maniac from atop his stupid, stupid boulder.
Well, at least someone was having fun.
-o-o-o-
"Look at me! I am invincibile! I am a god! Fear me!" Hazou yelled at Keiko while contuining his futile barrage of toads against her summon. Keiko drew no small amount of pleasure from the fact that even with such a large and stationary target he was still missing more than half of his... projectiles.
In the end, she decided to do the mature thing and throw a blunted kunai at his face.
"Ow, my nose! You are just lucky that I am still not used to my new Sharingan vision and things are still a bit blurry."
"...And that couldn't be because your eyes are still tearing up from the onions?", Keiko countered while dismissing Pangaya for Panashe who would hopefully turn out to be less gullible than her previous summon.
"What? No! I have no idea what you mean. Anyway, time to use another of my patented trump cards! Secret Technique: Ino-Shika-Cho Comb--"
Unfortunately for him that was as far as he got because Panashe grabbed the storage seal out of his hands and threw it at Keiko who inspected it with a dubious look.
'Ino-Shika-Cho-Combination Attack by the Almighty Hazou - Only Open During Emergencies, Akatsuki Invasions or Party Night (or when hungry)!'
Seriously?
While it was generally a bad idea to operate seals with unknown efects, Keiko was pretty sure this was just a normal storage seal and - more importantly - she was beyond caring at this point. If whatever came out of the scroll killed her, then so be it. Plus, there was always a chance it would take Hazou along with it.
She activated the scroll and deftly caught the three items that popped out: a long, black piece of cloth whose ending was tied up in a noose; a bag of snacks; and a piece of paper which read: 'Yo Keiko, you so bad at ninja that you don't think of explosives as the first solution for all your problems!'
This was... terrible. No way around it.
A stupid piece of cloth that presumably stood in for the refined Shadow Techniques of the Nara, a beyond awful insult emulating the Yamanaka Mind Techniques, and snacks because... Akimichi?
She was again sharply reminded why Hazou usually ran his plans through Noburi and her before implementing them. With a sigh she discarded the items and prepared an explosive to throw at Hazou to end this match for good.
"Wait! Please!" the Moron begged.
Against her better judgment she actually did. "What now, Hazou?"
"I didn't want to do this but you leave me no choice. Secret Anti-Keiko Technique: Doll of Many Hugs," he replied while unsealing a life-sized, stuffed doll that was... wearing her clothes?!
"You see, I really didn't want to do this but if you don't yield now, I will hug this doll that looks exactly like you." It did not. Not even remotely. "And since we all know you hate hugging, and this is basically me hugging you by proxy, you have no choice but to forfeit the match."
Hazou (?), Grasp on Reality: 2 (Base stat) + 2 (Dice) - 3 (Concussion from Keiko's previous hit) - 1 (Onion stuck in his nose) - 30 (Thinking this would actually work) = -30
Keiko, Grasp on Reality: Swiftly dwindling but still higher than Hazou's by a huge margin
By Yugara's Bad Haircut, he actually believed that this would work, didn't he?
Keiko was weighing the advantages of simply admitting defeat here just to lull him into a false sense of safety so she could pay him back later. On the other hand, she could just explode him. Very gently, so he wouldn't be crippled for life. But no, injuring him now could elicit sympathetic responses from their family and friends later and that just would not do.
There was one way to maximize his suffering however:
"Fine, I yield the match. I can't make promises as to what will happen later though."
"Hah, I win! I am amazing!"
Hazou turned to the audience. "Witness the glory of Uplift! It can do anything, even defeat the scariest of foes!"
Bold claim, that. One that Keiko was sure to thoroughly test tonight.
With a pillow held firmly against Hazou's sleeping face.
XP AWARD: 2+1
Vote time! What do you do now?
(Do try and survive the night so @Velorien can write the Ami date.)
Voting ends on Wednesday, January 16, 2019, at 12pm London time.
That plan didn't win or you would have gotten more XP.
I am also dubious about Hazou's throwing skills considering what happened in the update, and he never actually got close enough to Keiko to take her down with taijutsu.
That plan didn't win or you would have gotten more XP.
I am also dubious about Hazou's throwing skills considering what happened in the update, and he never actually got close enough to Keiko to take her down with taijutsu.
Doylist, back at character creation the Iron Nerve was just supposed to grant a minor boost to all physical skills, with the fluff being that actions were perfectly reproduced. We thought that was a little underpowered for the cost of a bloodline (30 points out of 72), so we (the QMs) voluntarily threw in the ability to retain seals as an extra benefit. It later turned out that the bloodline was intended as a gotcha -- it seemed perfectly reasonable, but the person who had designed it had thought of all these ways to exploit the fluff in order to make the bloodline substantially more powerful than we had expected. As such, we've declared that the seal-copying ability cannot be munchkined. It does exactly what it says on the tin and any attempts to use it in other ways will fail for no apparent reason.
I actually didn't know about this. What kind of gotcha abilities had the maker of the iron nerve thought of and was any of it kept in or was it all disregarded?
If heat seals are possible then maybe a cold seals are too? Or at least some type of heat absorber. If heat/cold seals are possible then it could be possible to mimic the same effect Akane's temp control jutsu is capable of, maybe even more effectively. Would be a life saver on missions in extreme weather. Plus imagine slapping a heat seal set at the highest setting right on someone, oof. Would need to make sure the seal is durable enough to not be destroyed if it does high enough temperatures. Or at least make them a successful one time use item.
I believe that between the hivemind we could come up with an argument that would separate him from them. The tricky part is having Hazou and the eyeballs remain in tact throughout the process.
There they were: brother and sister standing in the arena. This was their moment to spread their ideas of Uplift to an international audience. Whatever happened here would determine how the world would see the Goketsu forever.
Keiko generally had no interest in anything involving showmanship but even she couldn't pretend to be totally unaffected by the pressure. They had to get this right. They just had to!
It should be fine though since Hazou would take the lead and she would just have to go by the script they memorized. And play the villain which was a nice little bonus.
"Hello everyone, it's me again: the closest claim Mist has to an actual victory in this tournament - not that they can actually take credit for it but we all know it won't stop them. You obviously remember me from my previous, explosive performance where I punched a guy into a coma for getting my shirt dirty. But today I want to talk about something close to my heart: Uplift! It's pretty great and you should all try it!" Hazou said with a smile, then turned to look expectantly at Keiko.
And kept looking.
And looking.
Keiko didn't even have to glance around to know that the audience was starting to grow restless. Was that it? Was that all he was going to say? Why was he going off-script already? What was he thinking?
Did he seriously expect her to pull in the audience? Or did he scrap his Uplift speech in an effort to unbalance her for the match? That was not really in character for him but Hazou could be tricky when he wanted to...
And that was clearly not acceptable so she would have to retaliate in kind.
"No, it's not", she replied with just a hint of ice in her voice.
"Oh", he replied intelligently.
Keiko just kept staring at him - waiting for any sign that would indicate they would go back on script - but all he was doing was smiling at her. The prospect of bashing his perfect white teeth in was becoming more and more appealing by the minute.
She didn't know how much time had passed but if she didn't know better she would have sworn she heard chakra cicadas chirping in the background. Which was clearly not possible because it was neither the correct climate nor the season for them.
Finally, the annoyingly energetic judge she got to know during her last match decided to jump in and clear her throat. "Well, I suppose this would be a good time to start?"
Might as well. And after the match Hazou and her would have words. Thankfully they already stood in the quarry so there was no need to move down because she didn't trust herself not to trip Hazou if they had to walk down together. Which would be bad because Mist would probably try to disqualify them both.
But probably worth it.
Maybe?
"One moment please, Keiko. Before we start I wanted to advise you not to use your summons in this match." What? "Because Jiraiya taught me Summoning as well last night and I would have to respond in kind, you understand. Also, I have awakened the Sharingan which is pretty neat. Didn't even have to die for it."
Not yet anyway.
Hazou is clearly making things up so he has to overcome not only his targets' Deceit score but also a hefty penalty modifier. NB: This isn't a precedent for future encounters because I clearly don't know what I am doing and it might change later on.
The audience actually started cheering at his proclamation which meant the sound amplification jutsu was still active. And that her Idiot Brother just blew OPSEC on his trump cards. Which - to be fair - seemed a lot more in character for him than anything else he said so far.
Forget having words after this match. They would have sentences, if not paragraphs.
"Anyway, just figured I would tell you so you aren't too surprised later on," Hazou said while cupping his hands over his eyes. "Oh, also: Sharingan activate, WOOHOO!"
Hazou removed his hands and looked at her with red eyes and a smug expression.
Just going to sum up rolls from here on. Remember Hazou is operating under a penalty for Deceit (and clearly Intelligence).
SharinZou, Deceit: 6
Audience, Deceit: 3
Keiko, Deceit: 10
Also, were those onions she was smelling? Did he seriously smear them into his eyes just to irritate them (and her!) so they would turn red? And why was the audience cheering for this idiocy?! For crying out loud, you could even see the discarded pieces lying around him!
Enough. If he was lying about this Sharingan, chances are he was also lying about having been taught summoning. It was time for her to make a move.
Hazou, Summoner Extraordinare, Sharingan User and Likely Target of Fratricide, Deceit: -4
Keiko, Deceit: 16
Pangaya, Deceit: -6
"Gamabunta", Artistic Value: 0
Once the smoke had cleared, Pangaya was standing beside her awaiting her orders whereas... Hazou was standing on a huge boulder. A boulder that had clearly been drawn upon crudely with crayons to - if one were to be very generous - look like some form of animal. One that a five year old could have effortlessly drawn on better because she was pretty sure toads did not have five legs.
"Hah, see! I wasn't joking. Boss summon right there, no problem! Also, please note how I copied your jutsu with my awesome Sharingan", her Target announced.
Keiko couldn't help but fixate on his throat and imagine how nice it would feel to choke him right here and then. But that had to wait. First things first:
"Pangaya, please inflict as much as pain as you can on my brother without crippling him permanently," she ordered her summon.
"I apologize, summoner, but I cannot. The Toads are allies of the Pangolins and attacking one another even in a mock battle is forbidden."
OH FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!
What had she done to deserve this? Besides abandoning her village and murdering some innocent people, anyway (which clearly didn't count since a lot of ninjas did that).
-o-o-o-
"I see you have taught Hazou well, Jiraiya?", That Woman said with a laugh that Jiraiya was sure didn't require tapping into the Iron Nerve. "He even picked up on some of your... better qualities."
"Well, I guess so. But at least he is still in the tournament, so there is that", Jiraiya countered with a tone that indicated that he clearly wished he wasn't. He had to surpress a wince when Hazou started pulling out a bunch of chakra drained - and most definitely not summoned - chakra toads out of his pocket to throw at Pangaya who just stood there with a decidedly confused expression while they bounced off of her scales harmlessly.
"Indeed, he seems to be on the mental fast track for jounin, don't you agree?", A chimed in.
Jiraiya could only facepalm when Hazou started cackling like a maniac from atop his stupid, stupid boulder.
Well, at least someone was having fun.
-o-o-o-
"Look at me! I am invincibile! I am a god! Fear me!" Hazou yelled at Keiko while contuining his futile barrage of toads against her summon. Keiko drew no small amount of pleasure from the fact that even with such a large and stationary target he was still missing more than half of his... projectiles.
In the end, she decided to do the mature thing and throw a blunted kunai at his face.
"Ow, my nose! You are just lucky that I am still not used to my new Sharingan vision and things are still a bit blurry."
"...And that couldn't be because your eyes are still tearing up from the onions?", Keiko countered while dismissing Pangaya for Panashe who would hopefully turn out to be less gullible than her previous summon.
"What? No! I have no idea what you mean. Anyway, time to use another of my patented trump cards! Secret Technique: Ino-Shika-Cho Comb--"
Unfortunately for him that was as far as he got because Panashe grabbed the storage seal out of his hands and threw it at Keiko who inspected it with a dubious look.
'Ino-Shika-Cho-Combination Attack by the Almighty Hazou - Only Open During Emergencies, Akatsuki Invasions or Party Night (or when hungry)!'
Seriously?
While it was generally a bad idea to operate seals with unknown efects, Keiko was pretty sure this was just a normal storage seal and - more importantly - she was beyond caring at this point. If whatever came out of the scroll killed her, then so be it. Plus, there was always a chance it would take Hazou along with it.
She activated the scroll and deftly caught the three items that popped out: a long, black piece of cloth whose ending was tied up in a noose; a bag of snacks; and a piece of paper which read: 'Yo Keiko, you so bad at ninja that you don't think of explosives as the first solution for all your problems!'
This was... terrible. No way around it.
A stupid piece of cloth that presumably stood in for the refined Shadow Techniques of the Nara, a beyond awful insult emulating the Yamanaka Mind Techniques, and snacks because... Akimichi?
She was again sharply reminded why Hazou usually ran his plans through Noburi and her before implementing them. With a sigh she discarded the items and prepared an explosive to throw at Hazou to end this match for good.
"Wait! Please!" the Moron begged.
Against her better judgment she actually did. "What now, Hazou?"
"I didn't want to do this but you leave me no choice. Secret Anti-Keiko Technique: Doll of Many Hugs," he replied while unsealing a life-sized, stuffed doll that was... wearing her clothes?!
"You see, I really didn't want to do this but if you don't yield now, I will hug this doll that looks exactly like you." It did not. Not even remotely. "And since we all know you hate hugging, and this is basically me hugging you by proxy, you have no choice but to forfeit the match."
Hazou (?), Grasp on Reality: 2 (Base stat) + 2 (Dice) - 3 (Concussion from Keiko's previous hit) - 1 (Onion stuck in his nose) - 30 (Thinking this would actually work) = -30
Keiko, Grasp on Reality: Swiftly dwindling but still higher than Hazou's by a huge margin
By Yugara's Bad Haircut, he actually believed that this would work, didn't he?
Keiko was weighing the advantages of simply admitting defeat here just to lull him into a false sense of safety so she could pay him back later. On the other hand, she could just explode him. Very gently, so he wouldn't be crippled for life. But no, injuring him now could elicit sympathetic responses from their family and friends later and that just would not do.
There was one way to maximize his suffering however:
"Fine, I yield the match. I can't make promises as to what will happen later though."
"Hah, I win! I am amazing!"
Hazou turned to the audience. "Witness the glory of Uplift! It can do anything, even defeat the scariest of foes!"
Bold claim, that. One that Keiko was sure to thoroughly test tonight.
With a pillow held firmly against Hazou's sleeping face.
XP AWARD: 2+1
Vote time! What do you do now?
(Do try and survive the night so @Velorien can write the Ami date.)
Voting ends on Wednesday, January 16, 2019, at 12pm London time.
