Round II: Joker [Pyro Bastard] vs. Ichigo [Tuna2]

[Island of 1,000 Condiments]

Welcome to Round II.

Both of you, the best of luck.

[Pyro Bastard]

OOC: Good luck Tuna.

Joker yawned as he walked through the tunnel towards his new match. Unlike last time, the fighter was cautious of his step, making sure to not trip over anything. However, the carefulness slowly disappeared as the trident wielder remembered the end of his last match.

“…wood do these ninjas use nowadays?” Joker asked himself after dodging Naruto’s attack. His position was wide open for another attack, but that worried the male little due to his unique way of finding a hole through everything. Even more of a reason to be careless was the technique that had been pulled on his enemy.

The two clones that had previously been running towards Joker had dropped to the ground due to gravity and were squished until they exploded in smoke. However, the smoke was extinguished just as quickly due to the amount of force pushing it downwards. On the other hand, the creator of the two was no flying through the air with little gravity. In only a matter of seconds, the child rammed face first into the hard concrete before sliding down onto the grass…immediately disqualifying the ninja.

The announcer looked dumbfounded as he watched the happenings. Not once had he seen a fighter propel himself out of the arena to be disqualified. Weird things had happened before in the arena, but this was a new one for him. However, the chuckles and ‘awwws’ of the crowd brought the black suited man back to reality and he quickly walked over to Joker, wanting to get out of the rain as fast as possible. “And the winner is-“

Just as he almost remembered his win, Joker tripped over his own foot, face planting the hard ground right outside the entrance to the arena. A few chuckles and murmurs could be heard while the announcer, who just so happened to be the same one, face palmed himself out of embarrassment for being in charge of this match.

[Tuna2]

OOC: Same to you Pyro

Ichigo leaned against a wall in the lobby, awaiting his turn to be called into the arena for the next round. Still bearing the shinigami outfit from earlier, little difference could be seen in his appearance aside from a few bandages wrapped around his left arm which covered the wounds of his previous battle.

Kon, the mod-soul and temporary inhabitant of Ichigo's real body, was opposite him, a bored expression clearly visible on his face. He had noted on how unusually serious Ichigo had seemed throughout the tournament. Could it be that he truly believed the progress he made here would help him in Hueco Mundo? Perhaps he was preparing for the Winter War. Whatever it was, Kon knew he had little say in such things.

"Oh, how I wish Nee-san were here," Kon complained quietly, giving Ichigo a bitter look as though to confirm his boredom. Suddenly, an idea struck the mod-soul's mind. He would just wait for Ichigo to leave and then, during the shinigami's match, he would take the chance to have a little fun. A wide grin appeared on his face as he mused over these ideas.

At this, Ichigo opened one eye as if the mod-soul's thoughts had transferred directly into his mind. Having been with the mod-soul so long had given the orange haired shingami an idea on what Kon was thinking from time to time, especially when that perverted grin made its way on to his face. "Hey Kon, I don't want you fooling around while I'm out there."

"I won't, I won't..." the mod-soul replied absentmindedly, his eyes glazing over as thoughts of what could be done in this opportune time crossed his mind.

"Good, because I'd hate to see what Yuzu would do to you if she ever found you again," the shinigami smirked as he made his way out into the arena.

Kon's jaw dropped a couple of inches at this. "W-Wait Ichigo," but the orange haired shinigami had already made his way on to the arena floor.

According to both Urahara and Shinji, Ichigo would more than likely find worthy opponents here and thus far he had yet to be disappointed; but upon stepping on to the arena floor he began to question their predictions. Before him, on his face, was what appeared to be his opponent. "...Hey, you alright?" the shinigami asked awkwardly, taking a couple of steps closer to the fallen 'victim.'

[Pyro Bastard]

Silence met with Ichigo’s question as he neared Joker. However, after a few seconds, the sound of snoring could be heard. The crowd, now annoyed, started to yell insults, both directed at the coordinator of the tournament and Joker himself. Easily seeing the anger and impatience of the crowd, the man in black rose the microphone up to his lips and spoke. “Any contestant not in the arena in one minute will be disqualified.”

Those few words caused the sleeping fighter’s ears to twitch and the snore to lower. With the only warning being the low snore, Joker jolted up. A small stream of blood now started form on the forehead and slide down the nose before dripping to the ground. Joker however, didn’t notice the red rain drops nor the pain that accompanied by it.

With little hesitation, Joker ran up to the arena before jumping forwards planning to jump onto the stadium and redeem himself. That was not the case though as the last step caught the male’s foot bringing him forward once again. The sound of a crack could be heard as the head hit the grey tiles. People in the crowd sighed as the saw how clumsy this fighter had made it. Some even wondered how this male made it to the second round. More thinking how bad of a fighter would have lost to the man…Those that hadn’t though of how bad the fighter was had only been thinking of the cracking sound. Those thoughts only came from the cleaning crew who hoped that it had been the contestant’s head that caused that.

Instead of falling asleep though, the trident wielder pushed himself right back up. More blood had begun to flow and was slowly filling the newly cracked tile. A grin was still held on the warriors face though as he stood up, the light from the bright sun shining brightly upon him…and everyone else.

Those that had seen Joker’s last match could only see a few differences from earlier. The blue toboggan and blue sleeveless shirt were now gone due to being destroyed in the last fight. It could be easily seen why the shirt was gone due to the large burn spot in the center of the fighter’s back. Along with that burn were multiple small scratches that littered both the upper and lower body. On the lower half of the body, those scratches were only noticeable due to the small cuts in the light-grey jeans where blood stains had formed. The last noticeable thing was the large cloth wrapped object held upwards like a rifle, but could easily be seen it wasn’t a regular pole or sword due to the length and wide top.

“Hm, I wonder if this kid has any attacks like that last one. If so, I’ll have to be on my toes.”Joker thought to himself as he looked towards Ichigo. The only betrayal of that innocent and clumsy attitude was a pair of cunning eyes and large grin which seemed as if it never left.

[Tuna2]

Ichigo's eye twitched in annoyance as he watched his 'adversary' jump in to the arena with such a lackadaisical attitude. Actually, 'jump' seemed to be the wrong word for the situation. It was more like an attempted jump that ended in failure. Sighing in frustration, Ichigo took a step in an attempt to make his way on to the arena floor. However, he was stopped by something brushing over his shoulder. He looked down to see the announcer, still wiping his brow in embarrassment from the 'Joker's' antics.

"Hey, kid, I know I don't know who you are but could you please get rid of this guy for m-the tournament's sake," the announcer paused as though knowing what he said shouldn't be coming from out of his mouth. "He's becoming a real nuisance, both to himself and the people around him. I know the announcer isn't supposed to be bias in these sort of situations but..." by this point in the conversation, Ichigo had already turned away from the announcer, his face hinting at not wanting to hear what the man had to say. Eyeing the irritated shinigami wearily, the announcer decided not to mess with the orange haired boy and instead backed off a couple feet, although still awaiting a response.

"If I win, I win. If I don't...I don't." A slight smile played across Ichigo's face as he stepped into the arena, "but to tell the truth, I don't plan on losing this match," Ichigo murmured more to himself than anyone. With such a clumsy opponent, was it even possible for him to lose? Perhaps, but all bets were against it.

Walking opposite Joker, Ichigo fingered the hilt of his sheathed blade, questioning whether he should even use it against this guy. However, upon seeing his opponent's weapon, he decided it be best that he use it. After all, if this guy had made it to the second round, he must have had some hidden techniques under that easygoing attitude. That or his last opponent had been a real pushover. Either way, the boy hoped he would get something out of this match, be it a win or a loss.

Back in the waiting room, a bright clump of orange hair signified that someone was looking out over the tournament's two contestants. His face was abnormally serious as he looked towards the two fighters. "Good luck Ichigo," he muttered before turning away from the stadium and letting his feet carry him out of the waiting room. His figure was quick to disappear amongst the spectators outside the arena.

[Pyro Bastard]

Joker yawned as Ichigo entered the arena floor. Not out of boredom, but just tiredness. Considering the earlier act, one could only wonder if this clumsy floor had gained much sleep. Even the warrior himself pondered upon that same question. However, the thought soon brought the craving of more sleep, and the thought was quickly banished. Sleep would have to wait for later.

Back in reality, Joker scanned his new opponent. With a sword that size, any ordinary man would be slowed down immensely. This tournament had always been an attraction for oddities and today had been no exception. After only a few seconds of scanning, the fighter chuckled.

“I didn’t know orange was in style nowadays.” The male said in reference to Ichigo’s hair color. Blonde, black, white, and even a some blue and purple had seen but this was Joker’s first time seeing orange hair. On the other hand, the trident wielder didn’t even think that the color of the child’s hair could have caused him to grow into such a great warrior.

“That’s enough chit-chat though. How ‘bout we give these customers a fight to remember, eh?” The male asked, his usually wide grin still planted on the warrior’s face. At the same time, Joker lowered his weapon only to accidentally miss catching the valuable.

The clothed weapon dropped to the ground with little noise due to its fabric protection, but the sighs of the crowd and the announcer could easily be heard. Two parts of the weapon could have been easily viewable by the shinigami and some of the crows. Those two parts could have freaked out and installed a sense of cautiousness in any normal human being.

One of the two parts that were now not covered by cloth was the single prong at the very end which was sharpened to a fine perfection and looked as if it could penetrate even steel with the right amount of force. The other part was much different from any weapon. That part was a wide eye, near the size of an adult human’s face, that had a single slit go down it as if it was searching for something.

Hastily, and still clumsily, Joker picked up his weapon and quickly covered the open areas back up. Either the male had purposefully dropped the weapon to show parts of the weapon or it had just been from the apparent clumsy nature, one could only guess. Most had just decided that lady luck was on this idiotic contestant’s side.

OOC: Sorry if there are some crappy parts or if I misspelled ‘shinigami’. I’m kinda started writing this around 1:30 and my eyes are startin’ to force themselves open. XD

[Tuna2]

"No offence but you look pretty weak," Ichigo murmured while eyeing the trident and strang eye device skeptically. " I'll finish this match off quickly, I won't cause you any unnecessary injuries." Yet, even though Ichigo was currently talking down to his opponent, he knew better than to underestimate the guy. After all, last time he had underestimated his opponent, he had been beaten and eventually forced into releasing his more powerful form.

Taking a step forward, the shinigami unsheathed his blade, the cloth that acted like a sheath twirled around the blade momentarily before seemingly wrapping itself around the hilt of the sword on its own. He could hear the crowd whispering amongst themselves as they stared down at the arena, several folks were standing just to get a glimpse at not him but at Joker.

Why, one might ask, would they be looking at Joker and not himself? It was simply because no normal human could actually see a shinigami. Only those of high spiritual power or those who wore a special type of device could see him, hence the reason he had given the announcer a pair of glasses that allowed him to see spirits. He would have to thank Urahara for that later.

As he held the sword before him in an aggresive like matter, an invisible energy began to build itself around him. A slight gust of wind surrounded his body as a serious expression made itself apparent on his features.

The announcer watched in awe momentraily before snapping back to his senses. "Alright, both contestants are ready, let the match begin!" With that Ichigo disappeared and reappeared in front of his opponent, that same stoic expression still present on his face. He quickly brought his sword up in a vertical arc in an attempt to catch his opponent off guard.

[Pyro Bastard]

Joker’s green eyes seemed to gleam as he saw Ichigo unravel the sword, the cloth controlled purely by spiritual power. However, the gleam was not caused by the display, but instead that the user was a swordsman rather than someone with just their fist. If the shinigami was to rely on sword only, he would find that this match would be incredibly more difficult than expected.

Even as Joker disappeared and reappeared in front of the fighter, that gleam hardly changed. Although still holding that sense of cleverness, the male had pulled his body back as if to act in surprise. At the same time though, the clothed weapon was flipped at such a speed that the wide part was pointed down in less than a second. The action never stopped Ichigo’s sword, but prevented it from touching skin. Instead, the sound of ripping could be heard accompanied with the trident wielder being sent into the sky.

The crowd members that watched wondered two things. The first was how the match had only begun and the second was how Joker had been sent into the air. Even though spectators from the last match had seen Joker’s high flying antics before, they too wondered what had propelled the blonde haired man so high up into the sky. A select few on the other had only watched the action like brainless idiots without even realizing that there was only one fighter.

Unlike any normal human, Joker grinned as he was up in the sky and continued as he slowly fell to the Earth, making it seem as if he had the ability to levitate. “Nice. I wasn’t expecting such speed with a large weapon, but I guess this shouldn’t be too different considering the oddities that surround this stadium.” The warrior said towards the spirit making some in the crowd wonder who exactly he was talking to while also seeming less like a fool with his speech.

However, instead of waiting for another attack, Joker went on the offense. With just as wide a grin, the gravity defying male sent the clothed item forward towards Ichigo, but still held onto one piece of cloth. The weapon went into a drill styled fly as it unraveled making the item look even more deadly due to the three prongs. It quickly became apparent that the cloth had been tightened around one end of the item, but one other thing became apparent: The miscalculation of the distance.

The cloth holding the weapon had quickly reached its maximum elasticity, but it did not stop. Just as the miscalculation had been an accident, another one occurred. The rip in the cloth from Ichigo’s sword caused the wrapping the snap. The trident was now soaring towards Ichigo far above speeds that could be thrown by any human or shinigami. Just as in the last fight, this speed had been caused by the mass being altered from light to heavy while the gravity holding it up had gone away completely leaving it to fly its path unless stopped. The stopping points just so happened to be Ichigo followed by the cement wall just behind the spirit.

Just as people from the crowd looked surprised, so did Joker showing he initially had no intention of completely releasing the weapon. “Shit.” The blonde fighter thought to himself as the cloth that originally held the trident began to drop to the ground.

[Island of 1,000 Condiments]

After a long, drawn out battle, we've come to a conclusion.


May voting start.

[Inuyasha16]

Pyro. Both did great jobs.

[Null]

Pyro GMV, he had a slightly wider range of vocabulary and posts were better constructed in general. Tuna2 did a good job as well, however.

[Island of 1,000 Condiments]

Voting Ends.


Pyro proceeds to the next Round.