It was only a few moments after having defeated Konosuke and Keiichi was off in a corner again to watch the busy bustle of the layer area. He didn't like a whole lot of focused attention on him really, so the corner was nice. He wasn't invisible either though, so anyone looking to match up with him would be able to find him easily enough. That white badge he wore though kept a few of the less confident players at bay. There were plenty of people though and he was sure someone else would come along. Otherwise he might have to go out and look for someone, heaven forbid.

It seemed this tournament would test Tomoe's quick-repair and maintenance abilities. She'd had to spend quite a bit longer than intended on that last match, and almost considered going home to see to the matter in full - but this was a test, and she was up for the challenge. In important mechanisms had been cleaned and repaired, but much of the purely aesthetic areas were somewhat . . . patched up. Still, most of the damage was hidden within that thick, matted mane. Chimera looked decent enough. It's not like he was supposed to be pretty, anyway.

Tomoe is still determined to focus on the guest duelists. She found it easier to learn from those with greater experience, and those badges announced who had the experience better than any 'aura of confidence.' And . . . there was one she recognized. Zombie-boy. She nods, making up her mind, and walks over to him. "Zombie-boy." Well, that's a nice greeting. "Challenge?" She looks up to him through hair, holding Chimera over her arm.

Zombie Boy was a nickname that only one person referred to Keiichi as, at least as far as he could recall. Gray eyes seemed to come back to life from a dull stare off into space, averting their attention towards the source of the voice. A bit of a smile tugged at the corner of his lips as Tomoe came into view. "Ah, Inugata-san. I accept." The name was learned from Takakura-sensei but he was also a classmate of Raien, so however he managed to acquire it would have to be asked to be certain. He peers about for a moment and manages to find a layer that has vacating occupants, which he then indicates with a motion of his head. He then pushes off the wall and begins his little trek over there to steal it away before some other wayward dues comes along and snags out from under them.

Tomoe really didn't care how he'd learned her name, any more than she felt the need to find out his. Zombie-boy would work just fine. She nodded to him, acknowledging his acceptance. Without another word, she makes her way to the layer that Keiichi was heading for. She takes her seat, watching for Keiichi to follow suit, then sets things up on her end. The headset is slipped on carefully, as per normal, and she waits for her opponent to ready himself and toss his undead little angel to the layer.

Keiichi had a sense that she wouldn't care about it either way, and that suited him just fine. He settled into his seat finally, and moved to retrieve his angel and set him off to the side of his lap. He then fishes about for his headset, which he then plugs in and looks at for a long moment. He silently wondered how much it would cost to get a custom job done on one of these, like Konosuke and Ranmaru seemed to have. Perhaps a skull looking thing or something of that nature. Before he gets too lost by his sidetracking mind he shakes his head a little and moves to slip the visor over his head before popping the on switch. The wings on the side spring up and click into place before the readout comes to life and indicates that there are no angels on the layer.

Tomoe continues to watch Keiichi, mildly wondering why he's staring at the headset as though he didn't know what do do with it. A brow arches slightly, and she shakes her head slightly. A random layer scenery appears - the jungle. Very doable. "It's undead flesh tonight. Chimera, fall in." With that, Tomoe throws Chimera towards the layer. He passes through quietly, perhaps a bit limply, taking a moment longer than usual to spring to life. There's a small twitch of Tomoe's eye, but Chimera recovers quickly enough. Forelegs reach forward, grabbing onto a tree as the beast falls. Claws and talons dig into the tree trunk, slowing his descent. Just before reaching the jungle floor, the beast pushes off, stretching out his wing to twist him around. He lands much softer than usual, but those thick feet still dig deep into the underbrush. The beast crouches slightly, then extends all three necks, releasing a loud, triple-voiced roar..

Keiichi grins slightly as he watches Chimera's entry into the layer, and then looks down to Zankoku for a moment while lifting him up. "Hmm. Two power types in a row, here we go Zankoku." The zombie is lifted out towards the layer and then drawn back in the start of a toss. "Reach beyond the gates of death, Zankoku!" The little zombie-angel is then tossed towards the awaiting layer with a bit of a spiral.

He passes through the barrier and a flash of red emits from the shadows of the hood where his eyes should be. Dark tendrils of energy crackle down along the surface of the cloak and along the bandaaged parts of his body as well. "Angel, fall-in!" He then springs into motion and flips down towards the layer below, rebounding from tree to tree before landing in a patch of light not too far off from where Chimera stood. Arms crossed over his shoulders as he recovers a normal stance, a small grin forming on his shaded lips.

All six dull red eyes watched as the zombie enters the layer. Chimera has fought Zankoku twice now. He knows at least some of the dead-man's tricks, but also knows how strong this opponent is. The central head licks its maw briefly, and the two outter heads draw back. A small puff of frigid breath appears around the cervid muzzle, lingering a moment before it dissipates. The split tail sways slowly back and forth. Foreclaw and talon dig into the earth, then release, only to dig in again, and that hind hoof kicks at the ground. But Chimera does not move from his spot - he's watching Zankoku, attempting to prepare for whatever the zombie may throw at him.

Keiichi settles into his seat and folds his hands in his lap as his gaze settles upon the layer below. He takes in a deep breath and lets it go before things get going, steeling himself for what he knows he has to do to win. Having faced off with Tomoe and Chimera before, it was necessary to get the edge early before the creature could do too much damage. A smile forms on his lips and he nods, ready.

On the layer, Zankoku braces for an attack that never comes, and after a brief moment decides to take to the offensive himself. Dark purplish black energy swirls about his feet before rising up along his form and into his forearm, it lingers there briefly and crackles about the bandages. Then it sliters and dances along his hand and the ridge of his knuckles before forming into a punch-dagger like form. He lunges forward and to the side, hopping up to kick off a tree and come in from above. His fist sails down to punch at the top and base of the middle head's neck, hoping to find what he needs there to stall the creature out.

Again with the stunning. Before Chimera so much as flinches, Zankoku strikes . . . and, by some bizarre, freakish luck, lands a hit directly over one of the gashes delivered by Rei. Had Zombie-boy been watching her previous match? Tomoe ponders the possibility for a moment - after all, her opponent harbored some degree of fame. Chimera would have to make some attempt to protect those fresh little weak spots.

The strike caused a low sound deep in Chimera's chest. A low rumbling, but a bit warbling. Tomoe makes little reaction, watching Keiichi closely. Chimera can't move. All Tomoe can really do at this point, is pay close attention. Perhaps she'll notice something important. She splits her attention between the layer and Zombie-boy, looking for any useful clue to his technique.

Keiichi lifted a brow slightly with the warbling noise coming out of Chimera, having not quite heard that one before. Still, no time to dawdle because if he lets the creature get some leeway things could turn sour for him pretty quickly.

On the layer, Zankoku had managed to take a perch upon the creature's back, since it couldn't really protest about it much. From there he leaps up from his lowered position and comes up and over the central head in an upside down manner while spinning. A hard and fast roundhouse kick is delivered from this position towards the head, prior to landing upon his hands. He held the odd handstand for the moment, peering up/down? towards the large beast.

That odd noise comes about again as Zankoku perches on Chimera's back. It's somewhat obvious that the beast does not like that. The noise is followed by a dull popping . . . bizarre. What's going on there? Tomoe frowns very slightly, her brow furrowing just a bit. This is not the time for a malfunction - the repairs should have worked. And then, success! Zankoku spins around, delivering a sharp kick that seems to pop something back into place. A hint of a half-cocked grin appears on Tomoe's lips, and Chimera makes a low purring noise . . . then yawns that central maw wide, belching forth a heavy flow of brief, quick-burning flame. The breath is held for longer than he's held it before - if Zankoku continues to just stand there, he'll be scorched with a double-shot of that burning stuff.

Well now, that looked rather nasty and Zankoku had enough with the fire today. First with the fiery bird and now with the beast Chimera. His arms buckled and folded in, allowing him to fall to the ground and roll to the side to avoid the brunt of the long duration of flames. Still the damage had been done. He rolls up to a crouched position and clenches his hand tightly and he leers up at the beast and leaps towards cervid head. The inky dark energy rippling up along his arm and to reinforce the blow.

The cervid head huffs as Zankoku escapes the worst of the fire breath. Another little cloud of frost appears around that muzzle, but the mouth remains closed. The zombie's strike lands rather well the darkness cutting easily into the beast. The serpent head hisses, and then, the stag-like head bellows, swinging its head around to smash the sharp prongs of those antlers into the opponent's dessicated flesh. In the same movement, the serpentine head also lunges out, mouth opening wide to deliver a quick bite.

Keiichi's attention shifts towards Tomoe briefly, it's all he can really afford at the moment with the deadly attacks Chimera was delivering. It was a brief moment to see what she was doing before he looked to the layer again. As the horns came in to strike at Zankoku, the zombie-angel bends backwards at an angel that would be impossible for most people to achieve. It's almost as if he's folding himself backwards, and his hands plant on the ground there. He flips up and over into a crouch just as the snake head comes in to bite, leaving only air for the serpentine fangs to chomp upon. A grin crawls over his lips as his fist balls up again, dark energies coarsing along it and in he goes again. This time the target was the cental head though, and his fist came smashing straight for the side of it with as much force as he could muster at the moment.

Tomoe's attention remains split between the layer and Keiichi. She didn't expect to win this one, but certainly did expect to pick something up from it. Still, his fighting style was so different than her own . . . it would require very close attention, indeed.
The force of the strike knocks the central head sharply to the side, but it immediately shoots back. The mouth opens, baring massive teeth and fangs, which are instantly directed to that intruding arm. If the attack lands, Chimera would jerk that head back sharply, in an attempt to rip flesh from bone.

Keiichi's eyes focus upon Chimera for a moment as the creature comes in for a counter-attack, and he smiles to himself. The puplish black energies swirled about his feet and shifted up into a pillar about his form, twisting in a clockwise motion. As Chimera's head came in for a bite, it would find that it was being veered off course by this pillar of energy and straight for Zankoku's hand. It was held outright, palm open, where an amount of the energies flaring up about them pooled and coalesced into a spere of the stuff. It then took on that sickly green hue as well, and the zombie-angel grinned at the same time as its dues. Inugata Tomoe wanted to know how the poison worked, and the best way he could think to teach her was exposure. As the beast's maw came towards the hand, Zankoku shoved his palm outwards in a strike towards the inside of the mouth and back of the throat with a great deal of force. It was time for Chimera to eat its icky inky purplish-black and green pill.

And, suddenly, the zombie's arm is shoved down Chimera's throat. Punched down, really. There's another odd noise as a fist slams into a hidden mechanism, but that chamber has already been emptied. Perhaps the poison worked, perhaps it didn't - Chimera was not going to stay on his feet long enough to find out. In one last spurt of life, the beast pulls back, convulsing. The heads twitch, the legs kick, and the tail lashes, all quite violently. The spasms continue for a short while, as Chimera's life meter drains, somewhat more slowly than it should, really. But then, it empties, and the beast grows still. All things considered, he did better than his last battle with the zombie - at least he got to move a little, this time.

On the layer, Zankoku watches silently as Chimera flails about wildly, backing away to steer clear of any collateral damage it could cause. He seems ready to strike again, but finally the beast falls and moves no more. After a wary moment of watching, the zombie-angel then stands up fully and peers from Chimera towards Tomoe for a brief moment. Then he turns and walks towards the side of the layer where Keiichi sat, preparing for retrieval.

Keiichi remained quiet for the last moment of the match, and then smiled a bit after it was over. "That was better, you're improving." He powers the headset down after Zankoku takes a seat, and slips it off his head while taking a deep breath and letting it go.

Tomoe is thinking. The overall test was something of a failure - she'd need to spend a bit more time with the detail work, it seems. She powers off her headset, the pulls it off with the same care she took in putting it on. Once her hair is back in proper place, obscurring her face rather well, she looks over to Keiichi, and gives a small nod. "Decent match." Standing, she leans over the layer, plucking Chimera from the surface and looking over his ever-battered form. The onlookers were completely ignored. She had work to do. Without another word, she heads off, tinkering with the little beast.

Keiichi retrieves Zankoku as well, and then stands to return to his corner to await another challenger. Hopefully not another power angel, those things hit rather hard. Once there he settles back into his lean and peers out about the crowds, wondering who would be next if anyone.