The waiting room if nearly empty now, most of the people leaving after their match was over. Hers was the last match of the night, and you never know how stressful that can be until it actually happens. And now little Hama knows /exactly/ how that is. It does make it easy to see who her opponent in this match was going to be however. She knows nothing about him however, and that tends to make her a little antsy as well. She likes knowing something about who she's going to be fighting, and all she knows is a name. She sits on the bench, looking down at her angel and quite clearly shaking like a leaf from all the nervousness that has gathered in her time waiting. She can't wait for it to start, her mind will be occupied and she can't think of the pressure caused then, only playing the game with who ever she happens to meet along the way.
Walking in to the waiting room, having
just been looking for information on this opponent himself, Fukata
sees Hama sitting on the bench, and greets her as he approaches with
a smile "Mitsunaka-san, ka?" He asks, seating himself in
the bench across from her. "I'm Ito Fukata, nice to meet you."
he gives her a bow of his head, and glances at her angel.
While
normally Hama wouldn't leave her angel out in the open for people to
see for a couple of reasons, today is a little different. Two matches
are over so there's probably been more people who have seen it then
have not, but it still bothers her a bit cause of how different it is
to most. When Fukata comes up to her she involuntarily jumps, looking
up at him and the smiling weakly. "Hello, nice to meet you
Ito-san." Her voice is quiet and oddly enough just this side of
fearful, given their close proximity he should be able to hear her
without listening to terribly hard.
"You look a bit nervous - I thought that would have worn off by the third round, Mitsunaka-san. Although, this is your first tournament, right?" He looks up from her angel to Hama herself, "There's no need to stress so much." he adds, having actually almost gotten used to the stadium and the crowds, almost. "So, that's Hogosha?" He asks, reaching for his own angel, and displaying her on the palm of his hand, "This is Yuki, I'm sure she'll be pleased to meet you and your angel.
Hama takes a deep breath again, trying to calm herself down. "I wasn't all that nervous after the first match surprisingly, but it caught up to me at the second match, and I thought that was because of watching Inugata-chan shake. This time I started out fine, but as I started not getting called it started hitting me." She lifts Hogosha and hugs him lightly, and it's about that time when Yuki catches her eye. She stares at her for a moment, "What a pretty angel." she finally manages to get out after a few moments of silence.
Fukata smiles, a little shyly, and nods, "Thanks. Your angel is an interesting design, is it based on something in particular?" He says, nodding towards the angel in her hand. He places Yuki back in the shirt pocket he took her from, and leans back - "Well, it'll be any second now - try not to stress - it's all for fun, ne?"
"Ladies and gentlemen!" The Announcer's voice thunders across the arena, illiciting renewed screaming and cheering from the crowd, the roar of it threatening to drown him out. And he hasn't even gotten around to announcing the match yet. This far into the tournament, everybody is pumped. "It's been an amazing tournament so far!" he shouts over the din. "And it can only get better! We're into the third round of match-ups now, and the next one is a doozy!" An arm sweeps out towards the Layer, as if needing to indicate just what he's talking about, and then he points dramatically towards the door.
"This Duel promises to be an incredible show, folks! In the West Corner, a relative newcomer to the Angelic Layer World that is quickly carving out a niche for herself. Her face may soften the coldest of hearts, but her FAITINGU SPIRITO is like a rock slide!" Spotlights that had been zooming randomly about the arena moments ago change focus and luminate the door through which the competitor's will enter, in preparation for the first one to appear. "I present to you, Mitsunaka Hama!!"
"And in the East Corner," he goes on, switching his microphone over so that he can point to the same door with his other hand, "a dashing young man that's no stranger to the Layer. This is certainly not his first tournament, and while he hasn't taken home the trophy just yet, it's surely only a matter of time! The charmer with so many girls calling for him from the stands that even /I'm/ a little jealous, Ito Futaka!!"
Hearing her name announced, Hama slips up to her feet and takes another deep breath before starting out towards the layer. She seems to be a lot better now that she's actually up and moving, but the jitters are still there ever so slightly. She crawls into the seat and slips the headset on flipping out the wings and awaiting the signal to fallin.
Following Hama out, Fukata can't help but grin at his own announcement, "It's a shame that the girls are mostly about Mitsunaka-san's age..." he mutters to himself, "Although not everybody would see that as a problem." He steps out into the light, still grinning, and walks out to near the layer, turning to wave at the stands, before he moves to his seat, and places the headset over his eyes while the seat ascends.
Both Deus claim their respective seats, and the chairs raise up to place them well above the massive Layer they'll be battling it out on. "Oukei~" screams The Announcer over the cheers of the crowd, sweeping his arm out dramatically. He'd use both, but one has to keep the microphone pressed into his face. The scenery on which the two will be dueling springs up from the featureless white of the Layer. A giant hamster wheel. There have been worse. "Uh-oh! This one looks simple at a glance, but it could get turn treacherous in an instant! Our Deuses better be careful, or they could end up hamster kibble! Angel, FALLIN!!"
There it was, the signal that it was time to get started with the match. She eyes the layer scenery for a moment and frowns, that would be an interesting spot to fight, especially with Hogosha. Well delaying doesn't help anything so might as well get this over with. She closes her eyes, calming herself from the excitement earlier before starting. "Protector of those in need, Hogosha." She hefts her heavy angel towards the layer with both hands, landing him semi close to the hamster wheel, though not quite in it. Given that the goal was to fight in the wheel, and she's already set up, someone from the side slips over long enough to get Hogosha in where he's needed before retreating back. This is the second time she's had trouble not getting her angel in the larger layer, the first she only just managed to get him the rest of the way in this time was a little different. But it's over now so it's time to watch her opponent's fallin to see if it's as pretty as his angel is.
Fukata holds his angel in his hand, and looking around all the crowds, he closes his eyes and holds her to his chest, begining his fallin phrase, clearly and calmly. "Even in the impossible, let us not accept defeat. Ikke! Yuki!" and with that he looses his angel towards the layer scenery. She turns in the air, and as she reaches the barrier, her eyes and his open in unison, a clear focus visible in both. She rights herself and falls to the layer scenery, catching onto the wheel with a hand to guide herself to a rung.
She takes in the scenery with a long
look around. She gives Hogosha a bow as she looks him up and down,
smiling, and taking a ready stance in preparation for the announcers
words: "Angelic Fight!".
On the layer, Yuki eyes her
opponent, to see if he would start charging towards her, and when he
makes no move to attack - she takes that cue to open the fight
herself. Hopping between the rungs, skipping a few each time, Yuki
gathers speed as she moves towards Hogosha, she stops when they are
together, balancing on one foot, and spinning around to whip a kick
around at head height, testing the waters.
Hogosha doesn't make much move at all, and that's kind of odd considering where they're fighting. But as the attack comes in Hogosha's ready for it. His mouth opens and then bites, grabbing the offensive leg in what would be the simplest means at it's disposal. Just to make things more entertaining it throws an attack at the hopefully helpless foe, an attack that goes much faster then one might expect for one so large. It isn't an overly complex attack, just a simple punch really.
On the layer, Yuki flows backwards with the punch, and it brushes through her hair that rushes forwards as she moves backwards, never more than touching the tip of the fist with her forehead, and never moving far from it either, with some quick footwork, she weaves under the fist as it reaches the limit of the arms extension, and pops up just in front of Hogosha, and with a twist and a leap, she throws a leaping uppercut towards his jaw from just within his guard.
On the layer, Yuki flows backwards with the punch, and it brushes through her hair that rushes forwards as she moves backwards, never more than touching the tip of the fist with her forehead, and never moving far from it either, with some quick footwork, she weaves under the fist as it reaches the limit of the arms extension, and pops up just in front of Hogosha, and with a twist and a leap, she throws a leaping uppercut towards his jaw from just within his guard.
Now Hama's not entirely sure how it happened herself, but something with the rotation of the wheel and a little sliding, coupled with what could only be dumb luck saved her from getting hit by that attack. She's not about to spend a long time thinking about it however. Hogosha however sees this as the perfect chance to try and lash out at what's hopefully an unprotected front. This involves little more then a forceful shoving type attack aimed at the opponents side.
On the layer, Yuki had left that front seemingly open intentionally, and she simply shifts to the side a little, allowing the shove to brush past her, but making no real contact. With a slight smile, she makes her move. She disappears, moving with a speed that makes her almost invisible, she runs straight up the wheel, coming around to the other side of Hogosha with a straight heavy punch to the back made more dangerous by it's excessive speed.
Now this one had to be a fluke. Hama isn't near experienced enough to be able to read that sort of an attack yet, so the fact that she dodges by who knows how small a margin couldn't have possibly been intentional. This little display of speed does succeed in putting her on her guard however and Hogosha starts to spin. It's hard to say exactly what it's going to do, but hopefully it will nullify a little of what ever he's planning.
On the layer, Yuki rushes around
Hogosha, circling him at her near invisible speed, and then she
starts to attack, momentary still images of Yuki appearing in the
blurred circling, she snaps out a fist quickly - a little punch here
and a little punch there. It would seem that this attack would be
futile against the tough shell of Hogosha, but the little punches add
up, when there is such a huge number of them.
The combination of
spinning and the quick reaction speed of Hama makes this a lot less
painful then it might be otherwise. She manages to block about half
the attacks, and it's armor manages to deal with a bunch of the ones
that aren't able to be blocked. But his assumption that the number
would overwhelm even the stalwart defenses of Hogosha was correct.
The spinning keeps right on going, one of it's arms launching out
while it spins to try and catch the foe if at all possible.
On the layer, Yuki blurs around the swinging arm, and Yuki hops away and comes to a momentary rest, looking a little tired for all the exertion. But she's not one to let up on the attack, so after only a moment of showing her tiredness, she nods to herself, and charges back into the frey. She stops at the last second, her hair flowing past her and momentarily blocking her from view, then with a flip, she moves under this momentary cover, and lands behind Hogosha, reaching for an arm to get purchase, and if she takes hold, hefting him with both arms towards the edge of the wheel, big angels fall hard.
Normally things would be going a little smoother for little Hama and her stone beast, but this person seems to know all the right ways to get around a guard angel and it's starting to get her a little bit flustered. Except for one attack right at the beginning that she's assuming was cause she caught him off guard with her counter she hasn't hit him at all. Now the foe is trying to throw it off of the wheel where they were battling. This may not have been such a big deal normally, but the combination of Hama's fluster and Fukata's skill sends Hogosha falling from the wheel and onto the layer floor.
"What a spectacular battle! The powerful attacks from Ito Fukata and Yuki went right through the stone hard determination of Mitsunaka Hama and Hogosha. What a great battle for both the deus." Hama sighs a little, then she smiles and looks up. Seems like she's got a long ways to go yet. She cups her hands about her mouth to try and shout above the roar of the crowd, "Thank you for a great match, Ito-san." Hogosha meanwhile has picked himself up and moved over to the edge of the layer so that Hama doesn't have to crawl up on the layer to get him again like she did last match.
Bowing his head to Hama for a moment, Fukata replies "And you, Mitsunaka-san, I enjoyed our match. Hogosha is an unusual, but interesting angel. I'll see you in piffle again sometime?" he asks, with a smile. He reaches into the layer, and Yuki makes a leap from the layer where he catches her from the air as the chair descends to the arena floor. Seemingly in a rush, Fukata takes his leave after turning quickly to Hama and saying "Thanks again, Mistunaka-san."
Hama blinks for a second as her chair lowers to the ground, he was gone so fast she didn't even get to say anything to him before he ran off. It's not like he'll be hard to find, at least not as long as the tournament is going on at least. She lifts Hogosha out of the layer before walking down the path back to the waiting rooms.