City Lights (Azuki)

As soon as the cool night air hit Shoga's face, he nearly tumbled from his perch. Freed from the stifling distractions of the city streets, the scent of an incredibly strong aura stood out like smoke in a fireworks shop, and his head instinctively snapped to one side to see where it was coming from. With the stars obscured by the city lights, there wasn't much to go on up here, so Shoga couldn't make out much of the person perched on the building opposite him. However, he could see their aura, shining brightly against the pitch-black backdrop of the starless city sky. Looks like someone had the same idea as me! Shoga thought, the corners of his mouth beginning to curl up into his signature grin, which was only a little bit crazed-looking.

Whoever they were, Shoga could tell even from all the way over here that their power dwarfed his. Rather than discouraging him, however, this information only made his heart pound with excitement. He had a way of getting himself into situations like that, duking it out with somebody way above his pay grade. Some of those beatings were still fresh memories, his body still bearing the bruises of harsh lessons well-learned. But long odds had never stopped him before, and he certainly wasn't going to let them stop him now.

Crouching, Shoga willed energy into his legs, the sound of creaking metal emanating from his hardening flesh as he prepared for a mighty leap. He looked up, focusing in on his target, and then... vanished. Or, so it would seem if anyone had actually been watching. As Shoga accelerated to ludicrous speeds, tunnel vision began to obscure what little he could already see in this dark. One of the great weaknesses of his Flash Dash technique... but he had alternative means of navigation. As he homed in on the mysterious second roof-dweller's energy, Shoga would appear suddenly on the neighboring rooftop, as if from nowhere. Without missing a beat, Shoga announced himself by shouting at the top of his lungs. "HEY, YOU!! You're stronger than me! Wanna fight?!" It was short, sweet, and to the point. He truly was a master of his craft. Nobody could refuse such an earnest challenge!

... Or so he hoped. Tonight would be a hell of a lot less interesting if they did.

"Weird? Is it?" Shoga looked around at the rooftop they were situated upon. It was unusually large, speaking to the sheer immensity of the building below them. It didn't seem like there was any way up here from inside the building, so they surely wouldn't be interrupted, unless somebody decided to fly up here. "Seems like a pretty kickass arena to me! One wrong step, and down ya go, gahaha!" Though, it occured to Shoga that if you could fly, that wouldn't be nearly so scary. Shame that he had never been able to get the hang of that technique... oh well, he could probably survive the fall.

Lost in thought as he was, Shoga only barely noticed the flash of movement from his opponent in time to react. He was surprised by his opponent's sudden attack, but it would take more than a head-on rush like that to catch him off-guard! The attack was fast, but it seemed as though he still had ample time to react... which was strange. From the power he had felt from her earlier, Shoga had expected a more overpowering assault. Looks like she's holdin' herself back on purpose. Well, fine! Concentrating ki into his legs, Shoga suddenly disappeared from view as he accelerated upwards and out of the way of Azuki's attack. As he ascended, Shoga twisted in the air to face downwards at his opponent. Raising one hand, he summoned a sky-blue orb of ki and hurled it straight downwards at Azuki, before completing his jump and landing on the opposite edge of the roof once again.

"GAHAHAHA! Fine by me, lady! Never liked all the waitin' around anyway..." Shoga grinned at his opponent as he took the opportunity to rush back into the fray, unleashing a barrage of body-blows to the midsection of his taller opponent, hoping to bring her head down so he could reach her with an uppercut to the chin!

Shoga wasn't really in any position to answer questions as Azuki's fist rapidly accelerated towards his face. He could probably dodge it, but that would mean breaking off his attack. Nah! Gotta keep the pressure up! he thought as he continued to dash forwards, directly into the path of Azuki's blow. It impacted full-on into his jaw, sending Shoga reeling backwards. Thanks to his experience in taking punches to the face, Shoga managed to keep his legs under him and pull himself back upright to counterattack with his own ki-empowered punch! He crouched, ducking under any follow-up punches that might be sent his way, and followed up with a powerful uppercut aimed for Azuki's stomach. After that attack, he'd leap backwards, putting some distance between the two of them.

As soon as distance was created, Shoga thrust both arms forward and opened up with a barrage of ki blasts, meant mostly to keep the pressure up and hopefully make it more difficult to counterattack rather than to actually hurt Azuki. He was quickly coming to the realization that Azuki's greater experience, not to mention the difference in height and bulk, gave his opponent a distinct advantage in close combat. That said, he wasn't really very good at anything other than close combat, so it would have to do.

"Fly? Uhh... no, I can't fly. Never could get the hang of it. But worry about yerself first!" Shoga shouted, only now having the chance to reply. With his Flash Dash, his jumping capabilities were more than enough to compensate for his inability to fly. Or so he liked to tell himself, at least.

Shoga blinked as he felt a wave of pain shoot up his arm. Glancing down at it, his fist was covered in blood. Judging by the smell, it was his own! His knuckles had split open at some point. Yeesh. She's pretty tough. Never hurt myself punching somebody else before... Is that what it feels like to punch me? Shoga wondered, having never faced this problem from the other side before. But he didn't have time to ponder, as Azuki easily swatted aside his smokescreen of ki blasts and approached him rapidly. OHSHIT! he thought, rapidly drawing out every scrap of ki he still had in him to defend himself. Shoga's fiery blue aura manifested around his body as he put everything he could into his hardening technique, causing his skin to take on a metallic sheen.

Shoga just barely managed to get himself into a stable stance as Azuki's kick impacted the side of his head. CLANK! The feeling would probably be a bit of deja vu for Azuki, as hitting Shoga felt just like kicking a brick wall. However, no matter how much he reinforced his skin, the laws of physics would not be denied, and Shoga was sent skidding on his feet several meters backwards, a network of cracks spreading all across his skin from the force of the blow. Without missing a beat though, he charged right back in, throwing another flurry of punches at Azuki, seemingly without concern for his safety considering the futility of his last batch of attacks. "GAHAHAHA!" he laughed, sounding just a bit manic as he threw wild punch after wild punch, apparently too caught up in his adrenaline high to consider strategy.