The announcer raises his hands, alerting the audience that a match was about to begin. 'Ladies and Gentlemen! Tonight we will have two relative newcomers battling it out on the ring. Tsukikage Nazo is a student at Eriol Gakuen who aspires to be a novelist. She has an equal if not superior passion for defeating her opponents on the layer with her angel Mukuro, a lightweight and very versatile fighter, who knows what this angel will do next!? Our second deus is also a student of Eriol Gakuen. Fukami Kikichi by name, this unknown deus controls a chilling angel known as Jinto. Can Mukuro defeat the solid defenses of this solid angel? Just wait and see!'

The announcer points at the doors to the waiting room and then slowly open. A thin mist covers the floor of the arena, giving a mysterious and somewhat spooky look to the layer. 'Let's give a round of applause for our two deus's and bring them on out!'

Kikichi hears the announcer and walks out on the layer /just/ as the audience begins cheering. Her stomach twists and causes those little tingles that we call butterflies to swirl around her midsection. She nearly decides to bolt, but the idea of forfeiting a match because of a cheering crowd was ridiculous, so she steeled herself and pressed on through the layer floor until she reached her egg-chair. She pulls out Jinto and waits for the announcer to call for the fall in.

Taking a deep breath to calm her already frantic nerves, Nazo steps out into the arena, her eyes mostly closed behind her bangs (though no one would be able to tell). She still clutches Mukuro tightly to her chest and the contents of her right pocket just as tightly as in her match with Asayama. Her nerves hadn't calmed in the slightest. She didn't hear many cheers for any particular deus (save the obvious ones from Tatsu-kun); rather than just random shouts for blood and violence. Nazo vaguely wonders if the Angels even /bleed/, but doubts the audience cares enough to change the shouts. Once she manages to make it past the extremely long walk to the chair that would take her to abnormally high heights she certainly didn't like, she sits and waits for the announcer to bring her up, trying to remember that fights could be fun; just looked what happened with Gunslinger and the hat!

'If I could have your attention on the Layer please. We are about to set the scene of our battle.' The layer rapidly flashes among several different sceneries, going past a deep sea, a grassy plain, and then stops on a field of rye. 'The rye field. Perfect for the dextrous and sneaky. Watch out Jinto, Mukuro has the advantage on this one!'

The announcer points a hand up into the air. 'And now, ladies and gentlemen, it's all your favorite part. ENTER THE AAAANGELS!' The announcer slashes his hand down toward the layer and then sweeps it to the side, giving way to the deus's and their angels above the layer.

Kikichi grabs Jinto from her lap and holds it high in the air for everyone to see. 'Jinto, show our opponent just how cold you can be!' She throws the angel into the layer and there is a flash of blue as she crosses the barrier. Jinto comes to life and flips over, feet downward. Moisure from the air snaps all around him, condensing into crystalin shards of ice. Jinto meteors downward and there is a large shattering sound as he makes impact with the rye field. Standing from a kneeling position, the stalks of rye all around jinto freeze, leaving a whitish blue coating of ice all around him and a slick of ice covers the ground. Jinto, face as emotionless as ever, looks up at Nazo, waiting for the entrance of her angel. He points at her and then snaps his arm down, pointing at the ground, challenging Nazo to bring her angel into the layer.

Nazo blinks. This was a new one. 'Interesting... Wonder if there's anything I can use as a projectile...' Nazo mutters. 'Those frozen stalks of rye should work, for now.' Ugh, not /this/ again. What is it with the projectile weapons?! Anyway, Nazo positions her Angel in her hands just as she'd practiced at home so many times. 'Time to show them what you can do, Mukuro...!' she yells. Well, it's yelling for her, which probably means about three people can hear her.

Mukuro, as she's released from her deus's hands, does the little spiral, but seems slightly off-balance. As she hits the layer, she does some sort of odd acrobatic maneuver involving twists and twirls of multiple kinds before landing in the grass with hardly a trace of her landing present after the original landing. Looks like she's going for the 'hide for a while' strategy for now..

The anouncer, as exuberant as ever, shouts into the mic 'OOOOOH! Tough landing Mukuro, but you pulled it of. And Jinto! You didn't even get to the battle before you started destroying the layer... this could be interesting. This could be fun... this could be an..... ANGELIC FIIIGHT!' The announcer points up at the billboard and the timer begins to count down.

Jinto hardly waits until the buzzer sounds to start the match before he charges directly at his opponent. 'First... let's test our foes reflexes, Jinto' Kikichi points at the area around Mukuro and Jinto mimics her. The stalks of rye all around his opponent crystalize and harden, then randomly shoot in from all around her, trying to skewer her on icy rye-spears.

She /could/ dodge that, but what Mukuro /really/ wants is one of those icicle ryes for a weapon. She moves out of the way of most, and grabs a particularly large one that grasped her deus's interest. She failed to realize that the edges weren't smooth, and it cut slightly into her palm. No matter, it was no big deal. Shifting the oddly large icicle to hold like a sword, she swings said item up at Jinto, aiming for its headband. Why? Because the deus wanted to cut it off. If you have no idea why, see her duel with Asayama; that'll more than explain it. Nazo chuckles at the thought of this turning into another match like her one with Asayama-sama.

Seeing the attack coming in swift and high, and not knowing about Mukuro's battle with Asayama, Jinto covers his head in a helm of ice. The hardened rye sword that mukuro wields shatters with the helm upon impact, sending pieces of cold hard rye stalk into Jinto's face, leaving a small laceration on his cheek. If he could bleed, he would be very angry indeed. Now that he's got Mukuro in close, he stomps the ground. Shards of ice jump into the air all around Jinto, then go flying towards Mukuro's right while Jinto sends an ice-covered punch in from the right. She's got to go one direction... which will it be?

Mukuro's choice of direction? Up. One of the shards barely manages to catch her on the leg, but that doesn't keep her from jumping out of the way of the ice Elemental's attacks. She mostly leaves her opponent to collide with his own attack, but she takes an unfrozen stalk of rye and hits him over the head with it; if for no other reason than to look silly and hopefully freeze it. Then try for his headband again. She was determined to cut it off him!

The rye-stalk aimed back-of-headward towards Jinto does indeed freeze solid when it enters the cold aura around him. It colides with his skull with a hard CLONK sound, not exactly what he was expecting from the flimsy plant. I guess sometimes an advantage can become a disadvantage as well. He is sent forward from the blow and he penguine slides for a few feet along the ice covered ground, connecting with frozen rye stalks that shatter and fall on top of him. Standing from under the pile of plant-ice he swirls his hand through the air, creating thin panes of ice. He snaps pieces of the ice off in mid air and begins throwing them rapidly at his opponent, albeit not as accurately as he could be due to the constant motion his hands have to maintain to create the ice.

Unfortunately, accuracy is something you need in a match with Mukuro. This time the limber Angel manages to completely avoid the attack, keeping hold of a few icicle spears and disappearing into the grass. Knowing full well that neither deus nor Angel could see her (her own deus could barely see her, even with the first person point of view; everything on the layer looked the same), she sent a few of the extra icicle spears in random directions as distractions, then hurled her largest one she'd grabbed straight at Jinto. Mukuro couldn't see him from her point of view, but Nazo far above could easily tell where the elemental was. That doesn't mean the knowledge and aim transfered, though...

Jinto looked around for the quick angel and created a shield of ice on his arm, just in case. Mukuro was very unpredictable and yet very predictable. Seeing the very accurate, and somewhat expected stalk of rye come at him, he raises his shield. The shattering ice shards cut him a little, but it interrupted the attack, which could have been much more painful. Jinto crouches and touches the ground, slowly expanding the ring of ice around him, watching rye stalks crumble under their own weight as they freeze and become brittle. Trying to be quiet and sneaky, he continues to expand the ring of ice, hoping to freeze his opponent, or detect her direction via a breath of frosty air.

Her deus saw the expanding ice, but misjudged which direction to send Mukuro in. The ice freezes a small part of her arm before the Angel darts off in another direction, seeming to mutter something under its breath (which was odd; Mukuro never spoke on the layer). Growing weary of hiding, and worried the entire arena would be encased in ice and she'd lose her main means of weaponry, Mukuro jumps into the air and sends a new rye spear she grabbed in Jinto's direction. Hopefully this one would do some damage, but the deus was quickly realizing this would turn into a battle of stamina, not health. This was going to take a while.

That is exactly what Jinto is hoping. Keep attacking small one, keep dodging, and you will lose. Waste your energy attacking me. Let me sap your strength with cold! Jinto sees a streak of movement and follows it upwards. The expected rye-spear comes slicing inwards, but jinto simply catches it in his hand. Making the same mistake that Mukuro did earlier, the spear cuts into his hand slightly, but he turns it around and leading his target as she falls to the ground, he throws it below her, hoping to catch her just as she lands. 'HA!'

Nazo now saw a vital flaw in her training with the Angel; they'd yet to perfect dodging in midair like the person Mukuro was based off of. Taking the hit straight on as she falls, Mukuro's thrust backwards into the yet unfrozen rye field, and she takes advantage of this by dodging far into the field. After that hit, she needed time to recuperate and rethink her plan with her deus. Nazo recognized the common sign of the turning point; Fate had allowed her her fun, and now it was time to destroy her hopes of an actual win this tournament. Nazo immediately thought of three lyrics that went perfectly with that realization, but she doesn't voice any of them. For now, she and her Angel simply watch, and wait.

The piece of earth thrown at Jinto did do /something/. It splatters against his upraised arm and a few granules of dirt fly onto his once clean face. Jinto cocks his head to the side, raising his left eyebrow and his lips get tight. 'Really?.......Really?' is what his expression is saying while he shakes his head at Mukuro. Holding his hand out straight, he sends a palm sized crystalin ray of ice streaking towards the other angel, if only just to keep her moving, trying to goad her in closer for a real fight. 'Time's running out swifty... let's give these people the fight they came to see.'

'Not just yet...' Nazo mutters, a thoughtful look upon her face. She realized time was running out, but she'd yet to think of a strategy for getting that headband to come off that would work successfully. She'd need a few more moments. This was her main goal in the match now; she knew she would lose. Never stopped her from trying, though. In the meantime, Mukuro slides out of the way and into the frozen rye field, looking for a rye sword that would be effective enough to slash off Jinto's headband. It wasn't easy, and takes longer than originally anticipated. Jinto's probably not going to sit around and wait forever; he's already shown he's growing impatient.

Impatient, a little. Bored, kinda. He's been smacked around so much by his previous competetors, that he expected a really close if not desperate fight on his part, so while he could be enjoying his small lead thusfar, he really just wanted to have some fun. Oh well, whatcha gonna do? Not knowing exactly where the lithe rascal is, he creates a boulder-sized ice-ball and rolls it in the last direction he saw her head towards before dissapearing into the field.

Come on now. Something of that size was /painfully/ obvious in its approach. In her search, Mukuro had wandered off to one side, and only had to jump back a little to avoid the boulder completely. It left her hiding spot in shambles, though, so hiding wasn't quite an option anymore. But just when all seemed lost, she found it. An abnormally thick stalk of rye; no, two of them. They had been broken off by the boulder's destruction, saving her the effort of doing it herself. Grabbing both, she held them by the duller ends, using them both at the same time. Time for Nazo to put her Tales of Symphonia knowledge to work. Running up to Jinto (using bits and pieces of debris to push off of so she wouldn't slip), Mukuro swings the ryce (Oh boy, new words. Rye+ice=ryce. How creative, Nazo.) swords up in a cross-slash, the focal point being the center of Jinto's headband. Surely /this/ would cut it off!

The crowd sees Mukuro grab the two Rye-swords and charge Jinto. She pulls her arms back for the devastating cross-slash that would obliterate the headband (and maybe take a nice sized chunk out of fattys' head). The swords sing a crystalline tune as they whistle through the air towards their victim...and then they stop. No impact, no shattering, not even an ice on ice scraping sound. No sound could be heard, because there was no movement. Mukuro's swords, as well as hands and arms up to the elbow, were encased in matching columns of ice, the transparent blue element reflecting light from the layer at the other doll. Jinto's hands are placed palm up at shoulder height, elbows bent, showing that he had raised them straight up from his sides. He waits a moment longer, letting the timer count down before he lets the ice crumble to the ground in a pile on either side of Mukuro. And he waits.

Something seemed to drain out of Mukuro when her attack stopped dead. She didn't even move for a few moments. Nazo hadn't been able to see quite clearly, but knew that the most powerful attack they had the possibility of pulling off had just been nullified. The angel seems to send a message to Nazo almost telepathically, as a line from Black Fire pops into her head. 'Why can't you see what they're doing to me...?' Nazo sing-whispers, finishing the rest of the line in her head. 'Is it fair that I'm dying in vain?'

Back on the layer, Mukuro picks up one of the larger pieces of discarded ice and, jumping back to put some distance between the two, hurls it at Jinto, with no hint of her former strength in it (not that her strength had been very apparent in the entire battle, but now it was borderline pathetic). At close range (comparitively), it would most likely hit, but dodging didn't seem to be Jinto's style in the first place.

Jinto takes the blow straight in the face, but the piece of ice was weak already, and it just breaks apart, leaving a speck of snow on his brow. He looks up at Nazo with sad eyes as if saying 'Please try'... and he stands there, waiting for the other angel.'Come on, Mukuro,' Nazo says in her normal speaking voice (not that many could hear that in the first place, but Kikichi might be able to), 'mourning is for after the match. Give your opponent a good hatashiai; it's what he deserves.'

Reluctantly complying with her deus's command, Mukuro grabs yet another ryce sword and goes in for an attack. She felt no determination anymore, but her deus /really/ wanted that headband to come off... For the sake of her deus's happiness, Mukuro focuses and aims the sword yet again for Jinto's headband, though she doubts it will even connect; she's expecting it to be stopped dead again. Nazo's positive this will be the blow to cut it off. Odd, how deus and Angel were thinking so differently this match... Perhaps something was wrong with Mukuro's AI system? Nazo had tried to fix her herself after she lost to Asayama-sama, after all...

And with just over a minute remaining on the clock... she does it. Clipping his head, and bashing through the thin ice-helm he cockily created for himself, Mukuro sends Jintos' head to the side. His now loosened headband flies off of his head, yet remains stuck to the ryce sword. It may not have damage Jinto much... but at least Mukuro can say that she accomplished what she came to do. Jinto throws out a simple kick, as slight revenge for her actually taking his headband... but is also smiling widely at the angel and laughing, which slows down his attack. 'The headband? You were going for my headband!? AHAHAHAHA! Keep it!'

So overjoyed were she and her deus that they almost forgot to guard against the incoming attack. To avoid the majority of the attack, Mukuro does something unexpected; she comes in closer to the Angel. She draws her weapon back - grabbing the headband off it - and tries to stab Jinto through the shoulder, something that should do a fair amount of damage (comparatively). No wonder Nazo had been so insistant about getting hold of the headband; it made the Angel and deus feel as though they had accomplished something major. The horrible feeling the Angel had felt vanished with the accomplishment. Nazo, realizing this, became somewhat disturbed; she hadn't realized until the feeling was gone that she was bitterly disappointed the attack hadn't gone through. It seemed as though Mukuro had simply expressed a different set of feelings the deus had; a set deeper into her subconsious. Perhaps, then, nothing was wrong with the AI system? Or did the little Angel even have one? This would call for some research later. Perhaps her father would know...

Jinto likes the new fire he sees in Mukuro, she might pull something off yet...So rather than let Kikichi feel another bout of failure, he braces for impact, taking a minor scratch on his arms, then he backs off, a small blizzard beginning to form around him, waiting for the next attack. He would not let it get through. Not one to be deterred, Mukuro tries again. She knows the match is coming to a close, so she puts as much strength as she can muster into this slash. Of course, since the attack is surely anticipated, there's little hope that it'll actually go through, but that never stopped this pair from trying. Nope, nothing stopped these two, not even having an attack stopped cold. Thinking of carrying on, another song got stuck in Nazo's head, but she tries not to focus on it; the match came first. She could listen to music later. For now, Fukami-san deserved her full attention, and Jinto deserved Mukuro's.

The blizzard grows dense around Jinto, obsucring his view in a shpere of swirling snow and ice. Mukuro slashes into the flurry and feels a satisfactory CLANK, surly the icy armor of Jinto once more. Her ryce sword passes cleanly through her target and she hears a sickening SPLOP. The blizzard dissipates and Mukuro feels a tap on her shoulder. Looking behind her she sees Jinto smiling at her. 'You killed yourself pretty good!' Looking back at where her target should be, Mukuro sees a statue of ice and snow, split in half, the top in a pile of itself. 'Last chance to show me what you got swifty' He points to the clock on the bilboard, then bows to her respectuflly and goes into a defensive stance.

Panting, shaking, and smiling wryly, Mukuro shakes her head. She had no strength to attack with; she used it all up in that last attack. At this point, it was just a matter of who collapsed first, if anyone collapsed before the buzzer. It had been a good match, but Mukuro had no strength left to strike with.

BUUUUUZZZZZZ. The audience hushes for a brief moment while the bilboard tallies the hitpoints of both angels. When it shows the totals, Jinto is ahead by a single bar. 'WOW! WHAT A GREAT FIGHT! So close Mukuro, but Jinto wins! Let's give a round of applause for that great battle!' The egg-chairs lower, and Kikichi smiles over at Nazo. 'That was fun! You almost had me!' She smirks. 'You probably could have beaten me if you hadn't been so obsessive about Jinto's head band' She winks playfully at her rival. 'We have GOT to do this again!'

Nodding as she takes off her visor and goes to retrieve Mukuro, Nazo agrees, 'Yes, another match would be fun. Perhaps, with a little training, I could defeat you. Sorry about the headband; things like that just become an obsession. You should've seen how many times I knocked off Asayama-sama's Angel's hat last round.' Bowing to the victor, Nazo apologizes, 'I'm sorry, but I must return home. My father is expecting me to help him with inspiration for his latest video game. He's hit a standstill in the plot. Perhaps we'll see each other at school.' With that, Nazo leaves the arena, cradling Mukuro in her arms, but miraculously not frowning. Yet another match she had enjoyed; this tournament was beginning to seriously draw her into the world of Angelic layer. She wouldn't be able to stay on the outskirts of the players for much longer, if things continued on this way.

Kikichi smiles and watches as Nazo walks out of the arena. Grabing Jinto, she decides that it's time for her to do the same. Holding up Jinto the crowd one last time, she smiles at them and waves. Walking into the waiting room, she hums a little ditty and thinks about the match she just won. Today has been a good day, and it was a decent match, but she still had a lot of training to do if she was going to compete in the big leagues.