11 CHAPTER 11
A/N:
The final chapter for this week! I'll see you guys on the 9th. See you :)
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Watching the two walk into the ring was tense. Both of them were eyeing each other while walking side by side, even while wearing their protective gear. Eventually, they were standing face to face against each other with determination burning in their eyes.
"Now, the Quarter-Finals Round TWOOOOO! On the red side, HIROSE KENICHI!!! And on the blue side, ASUKA ISAMI!!!"
The crowd cheered as the invigilator walks into the middle of the two and stated the rules.
"— 4th, Quirks are allowed in this fight, and only by knock out or out of bounds signifies the match, understood?"
They both nodded without saying anything as the invigilator takes a few steps back. He raises his hand upwards.
"Ready..." And he swings it down, signaling the start of the fight.
"BEGIN!"
DING DING DING!
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The two got into their stances immediately, Kenichi with his cat-foot and closed stance while she had a typical Muay Thai stance, her arms raised to the point where her elbows are parallel to her chin, and a foot raised with her right foot on the floor.
As the bell rang, they started to bounce, going into Neutral as the two gauges each other and range by throwing feint jabs and short kicks to see their range, reaction time, and response to the threat. In other words, they are trying to find patterns that the other will do.
Annoyed at Kenichi's slow approach of analyzing her, she starts her attack. She moves into his range and throws a left low kick to the thigh but gets intercepted by Kenichi quickly reacting to the kick by backstepping the attack before swinging a side kick.
PAK!
The first hit goes to Kenichi as the kick lands on her stomach, but since she was too far away for it, it did little to no damage. However, he has the pressure now. Starting his offense after learning about her range from that little interaction, he sprung.
After the sidekick to the stomach, while she was recovering from that hit he immediately rushed at her and threw a combination of attacks. A jab to a cross, before ending it with a mid-section roundhouse to the rib.
The one-two connected, however, she blocked the roundhouse with her left arm using her forearm before spinning and slamming her right elbow into his face which makes him take a few steps back.
That was Muay Thai's equivalent of the reverse backhand.
To recuperate, Kenichi backed off with pain showing on his face while she advanced. She started running toward him before jumping, pouncing onto him before slamming her knee into his stomach, which made him gasp in pain.
THUK!
"K-Kuh!" The force from the knee was huge to the point that he spat out the saliva in his mouth as she wrapped her hands around the back of his neck, trapping him in a clinch, and did another knee to the ribs this time.
THUK!
But before she had the chance to get another knee, he quickly swept his right hand under hers, creating an overhook. He then pulls, using the momentum to off-balance her.
Now with the inner control over the clinch, he retaliated by repeating what she had done with him with knees to her body and ribs after getting a good grip on her biceps.
THUK THUK THUK!
To escape the clinch, she tried to establish back inner control by moving around and trying to get control of Kenichi's head, but she couldn't as he kept his hold tight and continued kneeing her over and over again until she tried one last option.
With a yell, she slams her head onto his, desperately hoping that his grip over the clinch would loosen through the pain, but he just looks at her with a blank look before slamming his head onto hers harder.
BAM!
He lets go of the concussed girl as he finishes the unguarded Muay Thai User with a series of punches and kicks.
Left Jab to the cheek. Right Low Kick to the thigh. Right Mid-Section Roundhouse to the rib. Right Side Kick to the chest before ending it with a 540° Jumping Roundhouse to the head.
PAK! THUD!
She falls to the ground, unresponsive as the staff checks on her while Kenichi panted in exhaustion and pain, clutching his stomach where the knees were dealt. She must have had a lot of power in her knees to make him visibly hurt.
"That was impressive from Hirose Kenichi! Especially during the clinch! He must have predicted it since it is one of the most essential tools of a Muay Thai fighter!"
The commentator praises Kenichi as Gohru thought to himself.
'That overhook to get out of the clinch was interesting. He must have searched about it, and maybe all potential martial arts that would appear before the tournament. He really is a battle junkie!'
He chuckled at his joke before looking at the waiting room.
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Since there were 4 people (Including himself) in this waiting room left, he speculated his next opponent.
'Looks like those two are the next fighters.' He thought as he saw two guys glancing at each other, probably analyzing and coming up with ideas to counter each other. That leaves just one person left, the one who was watching the fight earlier quite intensively.
The first thing that came into his mind upon seeing him was 'Huge.' The guy was built like a bodybuilder, with muscles twice as big as his own. But the scary part about him wasn't his size, it was his eyes. They were calm. TOO calm.
Even Gohru has some thoughts about the matches, similar to others. Nervousness, excitement, interest, but no. That guy just had calmness in his mind, and that scares him.
'It's always the quiet ones!'
Looking at his build, he reckons that his martial art was Judo or Aikido since those were the typical large-build martial arts that require muscles as big as those.
'OK, Judo. I'll have to counterforce the throw, meaning a foot behind his front foot, and lean backward to stop him from throwing. Then I'll have to take advantage with a throw. The most common throws should be redirectable so the throws aren't that dangerous. The problem is that he's 4 times my size (He's 132 cm while that guy looked 190 cm), so it's going to be hard.'
The only way to counter his Judo/Aikido throws is to honestly just hit and run. With that size, he should have lower endurance than him since big size = heavier = more energy to move. So if he plays his cards right he should have a higher chance for victory.
But there was something at the back of his mind screaming that he was wrong. He takes a minute to think back again before rechecking. Looking back at the two participants again, he now sees that they were talking to each other. After a few moments, the boy facepalms.
'I'm an idiot.' He thought to himself as he saw the small ass logo's on their gi. They were the same, meaning that they were probably trying to signal the other for a talk just now, meaning his observations of them fighting each other were totally wrong.
Taking a deep breath, he looked at the huge guy again before walking towards him.
"Hi, can I know what number you got earlier?" He asked with as much curiosity as possible in his tone, to which the huge guy answered with a deep voice.
"I got 5th. You, boy?"
"8th. So you're next. I wish you the best of luck then." He said genuinely and waved as the guy just nodded before looking back at the stage. They were probably about to announce the next fight, so he left him to focus as he went back to his seat.
'So that means that I'm fighting either one. Shame. That guy looked like it was going to be a good fight too. Welp, the two have an average build for a fighter, so I can't speculate on their fighting style. I'll just go with the flow and think of a plan on the spot.'
But deep inside, he was thankful that he wasn't facing the huge guy without any information about his fighting style and martial art. Something about him feels wrong.
'He should be going to the semi... Hopefully, I don't fight him or Kenichi. I really want to save it for last...'
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