2017-06-30 - Navigation: Kasagami v. Saionji, First Duel

Navigation: Kasagami v. Saionji, First Duel (alternate title: Kingdom Come)
Summary: In the second duel of the first round of the challenge bracket, Kasagami defeats Saionji in combat after the dislike between the two duelists surges beyond limit. Other duelists look on in amazement.
Who: Kasagami Araki, Kyouichi Saionji, Kozue Kaoru, Anthy Himemiya, Shizuru Fujino, Takeo Akamizu, Miki Kaoru
Where: Duel Arena
OOC - IC Date: 06-30-2017 - 01-30-2015

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+ Duel Arena +*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*
  The most forbidding feature of Ohtori's campus looms at the far rear of
  campus, but remains visible even at the main gate. It is an odd structure, a
  great white decagon that slopes upward, forming the support for a hulking
  jade pagoda. This pagoda, however, is made not of tile, but of living
  forest. A dark canopy of leaves forms a vaguely pyramidal roof, supported
  invisibly by the gnarled trees beneath. Though this arena is akin to a
  potted plant on a grand scale, it's hard not to see it as a single discrete
  building.

  Entrance to the arena is possible only through a single, grand gate. Bone
  white, the gate sprouts stylized marble wings at either corner, which arch
  up to form a frame for a three-meter diameter carving of a rose, its white
  petals worked so delicately they appear silken-soft. This gate is locked at
  all times, only permitting entry to those with the proper signet ring.

  Inside, a fairy-tale path of white stone guides a visitor through the
  graveyard darkness of the forest, until they reach the center, where a wide
  corkscrew of a stone staircase is driven into the soft earth. Ascending
  feels oddly effortless, though the steps are as identical as they are many.
  At the top is the duel arena, an uncanny place that feels as though it were
  hung from the sky. This stone-floored dueling field is rarely the same
  twice, changing according to the people and emotions that fill it.

<Pose Tracker> Kyouichi Saionji [Ohtori Academy (12)] has posed.

Saionji is tall and strong and proud and heartstoppingly gorgeous, in a mopily soulful-eyed sort of way. There's are reasons that he has a following; it isn't some sort of mass delusion on the part of Ohtori students.

One of them is his hair. Let's take a moment to admire it in earnest; greener than emeralds, greener than the still-living heart of the verdant wood, it falls in effortlessly fabulous waves across his shoulders and down his back. In the afternoon light (it isn't sunset today, and the sky is a cold, cheerful blue) it sparkles and twinkles every time he takes a breath.

He isn't breathing very often, though. His breath always gets stolen by the castle.

Upside-down, it spins lazily above the rose-engraved, skyhooked arena, all parapets and flying buttresses and towers, tantalizingly out of reach even as it points inexorably towards the ground. It is simply too far away to make out fine details, but more than close enough to suggest them for the enthusiastic imaginative mind to fill in. Fairies could live there, or knights of old, or mighty wizards, or fair maidens.

You could live there, too.

The distant lights of the castle reflect in Saionji's eyes, and the tiny, unconscious smile on his lips is soft and lovely as a rose. It is, however, as fragile as one, too -- returning his attention to Earth and its many concerns, he draws his katana (a family heirloom, and champion of many kendo tournaments -- his partner in many respects) and listens to the cool winter air sing down its length.

It sings him a tale of new beginnings, a tale of hope, and his smile shifts inexorably into an anticipatory smirk.

COMBAT: Kasagami Araki transforms into Crimson Rose Duelist!

<Pose Tracker> Kasagami Araki [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.

If there's two things Kasagami can admire about one Kyouichi Saionji, it's his hair and kendo skills. Those fabulous waves utterly outclass her own roguish black locks, and he has none of her flaws or scarrs on her face. His kendo skills are still ones she constantly compares herself against, even now.

Speed and grace. Her body shivers in anticipation. To reach that castle in the sky, she needs to beat this man. She's been here for at least an hour prior, down on one knee. Her sword's already draw