The tournament was going well so far as far as Ishida was concerned. He'd lost more than he'd won, sure, but the fact that he'd won at all amazes him. He comes striding into the room as the previous match completes, getting his timing down so he could spend time between matches in the stands. "Alright then, one more battle, one more chance for me to show that I can take to the sky." He walks forward, not even giving the attendant a chance to call out his name for the next match. It was his turn, and he was ready for it. "Who do I get to dance with now?" he says quietly, gazing about the room and trying to guess which one was going to be his next opponent.

Kikichi had been sitting in the chair, closest to the arena doors, and farthest from the rest of the crowd. A small suitcase lay in her lap and she seemed to be fiddling with a few pieces of red and black leather and some thread and a needle. What was this she was working on? It was small, Angel sized, even. And it was very girly. One look at the Angel sitting next to Kikichi could tell you that this outfit was NOT for him.

Hearing the boy speaking out loud in the room broke the trance Kikichi was in and she looked in the general direction of the voice and slowly clicked her suitcase shut, standing up and brushing off her clothes, tiny pieces of thread falling to the floor. "Nobuharu-san" she says in a whisper, "I am your opponent today. Watashi no namae wa Fukami Kikichi desu. Hajimemashite." She was being overly formal, almost like she had no contact with other people and didn't know how to act socialy.

Now Nancy wasn't able to hear what the girl said partially due to her being quiet and partially due to the music he had on, but the fact that she stood from what she was doing allowed him to guess. He smiles and nods a little bit, giving her an exaggerated bow. "Pleased to meet you." He glances up at the screen, then over to the attendant. She nods once and he looks back over at her. "Well it's about time for us to head out now. You ready to play?"

"Yes, I am ready. Please lead the way." She looks down at her hands, waiting to see movement from the corner of her eye before she follows the boy into the expected explosion of sound comming from the audience.

The stadium went dark, lit only by the lights on the stage and a single spotlight on the announcer. His spiky blond hair, sun glasses, and purple suit were a familiar sight to all used to Angelic Layer tournamets. He clears his throat, adjusting his glasses and bringing the mike to his mouth. "Now that was a brilliant battle, let's hear it for them." The crowd claps and cheers even more than before to the request of the announcer. "But we aren't done yet, folk. We've got a lot more where that came from coming up right now!" He waves his hand down to point dramatically at the one door, a spotlight following his hand to point at that same door. "First up, in the east corner. He's a student, a skater, and a dancer, bringing his own unique style to our stage and showing what he's capable of, Nobuharu Ishida! His angel commands the air, showing that wind is more than just what we breathe, Hiroto!" The crowd cheers again, welcoming the battler to the stage.

The young man steps out into the light, angel perched on his arm, waving to the crowd and letting his eyes adjust a moment before continuing up towards the stage. He moves over to the chair, taking a seat and putting the visor on, settling in and waiting for his opponent to be called out.

The announcer waits for a moment for the crowd to settle down a little before continuing. "And in the west corner," he gestures towards a door on the other side of the hall, a spotlight once again following where his finger points. "A young girl and also a newcomer to these games, she's shy and quiet, but that doesn't mean she's weak, Fukami Kikichi! Her angel is a stoic, not one that you can expect to hurt easily, but at the same time willing to dish out the hurt. That's right, here's Jinto!" Once again the crowd goes wild, welcoming the other competitor to the stage and waiting restlessly for the battle to begin.

Hearing her name, she enters through the west doors and only cringes slightly at the burst of noise being emited all around her. The myriad colors from the crowd created a dizzying display, so she kept her eyes down to her hands as she walked over to her egg chair and sat down. She looked down at the sturdy angel in her hands and whispered to him. "Jinto, make me proud today. We have worked very hard to get this far. Let's do our best!"

The announcer glances between the two contestants for a moment, nodding and holding out a hand. He brings the microphone back up to his mouth and speaks again. "Now we have our deus, let's see where they're fighting today." The layer scenery starts spinning quickly, slowing and coming to a halt on infinite staircases, leading every which way and looking more like a maze than a layer. A collective 'oooh' escapes the crowd as they see the layer, the announcer speaking again as it come into sight. "The realm of the labyrinth. Infinite stairs and variable gravity will make this a challenge for even the most experienced deus, lets see how these new comer's can handle it. Now, it's time to FALLIN THE ANGELS!" He makes a chopping motion with his hand towards the layer as he speaks, the large lights all focus in on the layer on and seats where the two were seated, the crowd going down to a dull roar from what it was in anticipation of the start of the match.

Ishida picks his angel up off his arm, holding him above his head and starting to chat. "Look to the sky, ride the wind. The breeze carries all on it's way to a new day. Spread your wings and prove that the wind is more than just a breeze and blow down all in your path! Hiroto!" He flings the little angel towards the layer, he breaks the barrier, descending towards the stairs and looking like he was going to land on a platform in the center, but as he falls he twists and flips, ending up on a platform near the targeted one, but upside down. A sudden breeze blows through the layer, twisting and snaking it's way through the maze of passages and stairs. "It's time to dance."

Kikichi raises her eyebrows at the scenery the layer has selected for them. "Interesting..." she says quietly to herself. She holds Jinto up for everyone to see and speaks. "Jinto, show our opponent just how cold you can be!" Kikichi throws the large doll into the layer and it comes to life the moment it passes through the invisible barrier. He positions himself downward? While the air around him crackles, turning into ice, and he begins to fall like a comet, each passing of a staircase alters his trajectory and he clips the side, sending him up and to the left (of the audiences view), crashing into a set of stairs and he rolls up them before coming to a stop on a small platform. Kikichi grimaces at the botched entrance and has Jinto stand up, a layer of ice creeping its way "down" the stairs a few feet and the air around him crackling and falling upwards like a backwards snow-storm. Trying to wrap her mind around Jinto's enviroment, Kikichi calls out to Ishida. "I'm ready... I guess."

Seeing as both deus are now ready the announcer continues his iteration. "Now let's have an Angelic Fight!" He waves a hand down at the layer again and the timer starts slowly ticking down, all lights now focused on the layer as the fight starts. Ishida smiles and nods to the other girl. "Let's have a good battle." And without any further waiting Hiroto springs into motion. He kicks off, leaping off the edge of the stairs, flipping and free falling, slipping through three different gravity fields as he flies towards the foe. A flip through the air as he moves brings a boot down towards the foe's head. He won't land on the same stairs that the foe was standing on though, free falling past to the stairway below and looking up.

Kikichi expects the agile angel to attack first, and seeing the odd architecture around Jinto, she comes up with an interesting plan. She has Jinto create a sled out of ice and has him race around the layer going from one stair case to another. "Hahaha! Catch him now!"

Sliding along the stairs, he turns back around and tries to barrel right into the other quicker angel, hoping to send him for a loop through mutliple gravity fields.

Hiroto wasn't about to be hit by such a foolish attack as that, especially because of how easy something like that was to predict. He backflips off the stairs, starting to fall a little but not going far before coming up again. "Oh, we're playing tag, eh? Well this won't take long." He grins a little bit, kicking off and going spiralling off into the labyrinth. He's not gone long however before he comes flying back in from nowhere, lashing out with a quick kick right at the side of the other angel's head. How he manages to move around so easily through the crazy gravity is anyone's guess, but it's clear he enjoys it.

Jinto seems to almost be having fun, a near smile appearing on his face matching that of Kikichi. Hiroto dodged easily and dissapeared. Jinto looks around and catches the sight of the lithe angel a few moments later, almost too late! Jinto pulls the sled from underneath him and holds it out like a shield, sliding down a few steps, but letting the brunt of the attack shatter his sled. Placing a hand on the stairs, he coates it in ice and then he tries to punch out at the angels' legs, hoping to either hobble the little guy, or cause him to slip on the ice, either way is happy for Jinto.

Once again Hiroto slips away from the attack by leaping backwards off the edge. He flips about, landing on a wall across from the other angel where he has to look up at him. He waves a little bit. "I think this layer was custom made for me except for the fact that it's all stairs. I rule the air, and that's pretty much all this is." He gives a thumbs down to the other angel and grins. "I'll show you what happens when you fight someone who rules the sky, and generally it's not pretty. You just wait right there for me."

Jinto narrows his eyes at the aggresively arrogant angel, but smirks. He can take this as an insult, or he can just have fun with it. He decides to go for the latter. Swirling his arms around in the air, a constant rush of snaping noises can be heard as the moisure in the air crystalizes into ice. Crushing both hands together, Jinto creates an armful of hardened snowballs and then begins to rapidly throw them at his opponent, more in fun jest than in actual damaging capability. "Heads up!" The snowballs react to the distinct gravity fields and end up flying at odd angles from every direction.

"Oooh~ Neat trick you got there." Hiroto jumps up, whirling about and kicking out seemingly at random, but the white snow that was starting to show around him in larger and larger amounts made it painfully clear that each kick was aimed to destroy those troublesome snow balls being chucked at him. He lands on the ground, again, a sudden breeze tossing the snow and pulling it through the corridors. "My turn." He kicks off again, leaping from staircase to staircase and taking advantage of the subjective gravity to close the distance quickly. Once close he lashes out with a foot, trying to knock the enemy for a look with a quick, but deceptively painless attack.

Despite being a rather shy person off of the layer, Kikichi laughs at how much fun this fight is becoming. "Ha!Great idea!" She has Jinto throw up a thin sheet of ice on his arms and simply take the attack, leaving the other angel within his reach. He sends his foot out in search of the quick angel, ice snapping as it moves through the air, hopefully to give a deliciously cold blow to the side.

Hiroto whirls about, bringing his foot up to take the hit on the only armored part he's got. He smiles and nods a little bit. "That's better. Now you're starting to show me how you dance." He backflips away from the foe, landing a few feet away on a lower step and grins. "Now let's see if you can add a little grace to the dance, and we'll make this a battle to remember." He flourishes and bows a little, waiting and watching to see what the foe was going to do next.

"You want grace? How's this?" Jinto begins to slowly spin around in place, his right hand cutting through the air, creating panes of ice. His left hand catches them as they break off from gravity. After several spins, the stack of ice shuriken transfers hands and Jinto speeds up his spin, sending shard after shard of glass-like ice after his foe. He is surprisingly accurate despite his large clumsy size.

Hiroto spins, twirls, flips, pirouettes and otherwise dances out of the way of each and every attack thrown his way, making it look extremely easy. He stops and bows, allowing the last attack to pass harmlessly over the top of him. "Now that was truly a brilliant dance, though I can't believe that you would allow it to end like that." He straightens and smiles a little. "I'd be forced to be very disappointed in you if you gave brought a halt to the dance so soon."

Kikichi grins widely at the exuberant angel opposite Jinto. "Well, then Hiroto!" Kikichi says to the layer, and to Ishida. "Let's give you an appropriate partner to dance with!" Jinto spins even more rapidly, both hands going up and down to create ice. Sending it piece by piece over to the staircase near Hiroto, the ice seems to meld together in mid-air, slowly forming a humanoid shape. Soon, a near replica of Hiroto's favorite dance partner, Usagi-tan, appears in the ice, though it's crystalin blue and transparent. The bunny ice clone pirouettes, gracefully spinning her ice carrot through the air, kicking her leg up and bringing it back down as she dances up the stairs toward Hiroto. The ice-clone smiles at Hiroto and giggles in that girlish way that only Usagi-tan can, then brings her ice-carrot above her head and then slamming it downward, trying to squishify the dodgey angel.

Hiroto frowns, placing his hands in his pockets and kicking straight up. His foot connects with the carrot, shattering it. "That was not a good idea," he says, lashing out with a foot at the ice clone, the motors running overtime. A slicing or ripping sound can be heard and the ice clone falls in half. He's not done yet however, moving forward quickly and bringing that blade to bare on the summoner of the illusion. "I won't allow any copies to be made of Miss Usagi, not now, not ever." It was clear he didn't take kindly to that illusion, and the speed at which he was bringing that blade towards the other angel's head reinforced that thought.

Jinto grins somewhat evily at Hiroto. "What's the matter, swifty, not the dance partner you would chose?" Jinto throws up a wall of ice before the attack, but the vacume crashes through, hitting Jinto square in the chest. He glares at Hiroto angrily, watching his ice wall crumble to the ground. He charges his opponent and tries to kick him off of the stairs, hoping to get him caught into another gravity field to be slammed once again.

Hiroto leaps off of his own will long before the attack actually reaches him, landing on the side of a wall a short distance away. He peers back up at the other angel, at least he thinks it's up. "I don't take kindly to people making copies of other angels, and even less so to someone making a clone of her." He gives another thumbs down to the angel. "And to that effect, I will bring the full force of the wind's extent to bear on you. Expect no quarter from this point on."

Jinto slowly nods to his now angry rival, his face going cold and emotionless once more. Kikichi looks over at Ishida with a determined look on her face. "Let's finish this." Jinto hops from one gravity field to another, aiming himself above the other angel. He leaps off and intentionally gets caught in the gravity field surrounding Hiroto and comes down feet first upon the angel, mimicing his entrance pose to come crashing down with an icy shatter.

Hiroto watches the angel as he comes crashing down towards him, but at the last moment he moves out of the way, leaping and kicking out at the exact moment that the other angel lands. He was trying to bash the angel now, and that kick towards the head was Hiroto's was of applying boot to the head physics to the battle.

The kick connects, but thanks to the fact that he was covered in a layer of ice, the impact shattered the ice around his head, but he felt little of it. Now that he had egged Hiroto into the offensive, Jinto decided to play his opponents game and jumps back, evaluating the situation. He points his hand, palm up, at his opponent and flexes his fingers in and out, giving the "Bring It" signal.

Hiro sighs and shakes his head a little bit. "Can't you come up with something a little more original than that? I mean, come on now. Everyone uses that one." He puts his hands in his pockets and starts moving towards the opponent. "Well, I guess I should continue kicking you now." He dashes towards the other angel again, sliding towards the opponent and kicking out at the other angel's knee.

"You want original... okay, we can do original." Jinto sends his arms out wide, ice covering the ground wide around the angel. Hundreds of spikes, some upwards of 6 feet tall, shoot up from the ice, and then retract, creating an almost living floor of danger.

Hiroto doesn't pay much attention to the spikes, walking through them and completely ignoring it. Most of the spikes just break off once they connect with his armored legs, only a few manage to catch him, and none of those do all that much damage. "You really aren't all that powerful from what I can see." He jumps up, spinning around and bringing his back leg around to try and crack the other angel in the head.

"I may not be that strong, but I can stop whatever you throw at me..." Jinto creates a double wall of ice, effectively stopping the attack cold. Jinto steps back once more, taunting Hiroto with yet another ice-clone, Usagi-tan's image waggling both hands at him above her head, and giving him a raspberry. Above the layer, Kikichi can't help but crack up at the mischief she's causing.

Hiroto shakes his head a little bit. "I beg to differ. I remember an attack I threw earlier smashing right through the pitiful block you put up. Let's try it again, shall we?" He smiles a little dashing forward towards the other angel. "The true power of air isn't as weak as most think." The motors rev up and he starts to kick out, releasing all the built up power in one shot. The resulting surge of power encases his foot in a blade of extremely sharp air which is then aimed to catch the other angel square in the chest.

Jinto sees the attack coming, and attempts to deflect it with a set of ice-bracers, but if the wall didn't work, then the bracers were just stupid. Jinto is slammed back into a staircase, a long gash in his gi accross the chest shows how deadly close the attack was from obliterating the angel. Jinto is dazzled by the attack and charges Hiroto. Not being able to think coherently, he does what comes natural to him and covers his fist in ice, sending a curving punch to his rivals jaw.

Hiroto doesn't care what the enemy has up their sleeve right now, he inflicted some fairly major damage to them and sort of wanted to do that again. As the fist comes flying towards him he does what seems to be the only logical thing to do at the time, smash his face into said fist. The result is shockingly effective in stopping the attack, but he wasn't done yet. He spins around again, bringing his foot around in a much weaker version of the attack he had thrown only moments before. A nice kick to the chest with a little bit of a blade to it. Nothing compared to the last one though.

The kicks continue raining in, and this time, there is nothing Jinto can do to support himself. Entirely too dizzy, Jinto jumps back and tries to regain a bit of composure and defense.

Hiroto keeps the kicks flying in fast and furious, not pausing anymore than needed as he sends attack after attack flying at the other angel, each one weaker than the last. Hiro looks as strong as ever, so it can't be tiredness, can it? Doesn't really matter much, all that matters is that the attack are still flying in towards the angel's head and chest.

Jinto waves his hands in front of him, creating thin sheets of ice, trying to deflect as much of the brutal onslaught as he can, but he's not thinking clearly and nothing that Kikichi is telling him to do is coming in clearly.

Hiroto stops and steps back, peering up to watch the timer as it slowly ticks it's way down to zero. "Well I guess that's it, then. No use continuing to beat someone who can't even attack anymore. Just remember, no more ice clones of people or I'll be forced to repeat this." He smiles a little, walking over to the edge of the stairs and leaping off, drifting down towards what would be the ground in only another short while. He wasn't a heartless angel, and he knew that he had won this match. Damaging someone else's hopes and dreams was about the most cruel thing you could do, and Hiroto was a dreamer himself. "Time to fly."

Kikichi grins at his opponent over accross the way. "Wow. I thought I was doing good in the begining... but you were just playing with me! I expect you to give it your all next time! I do hope there's a next time! Wow..." Kikichi waits for the buzzer, having Jinto walk to the edge of the layer so that he can be picked up.

BUZZ! "And the match is over! Hiroto wins!" The announcer pauses for the applause, as always it's enthusiastic, "What an honourable finish to the match, a victor decided, the angels choose to shed no further blood. It warms my heart." The announcer grins, "But I suspect by the next match, I'll be in the mood for more violence! Everyone, cheer for Hiroto, and for Jinto!"

Ishida hops up out of the seat, removing the visor and setting it to the side before looking over at Kiki. "That was a good battle. You might not be all that strong yet, but give a little more time and practice and everyone is going to have a hard time against you. That guard will give even the strongest angel's problems." He bows quickly to her before reaching into the layer, picking his angel up, and starting to slowly stroll back towards the waiting room. He was almost at the end now, and doing a lot better than he'd have thought at the start. It felt good. A little wave to the crowd and he disappears into the passageway.

Once again she battles a strong opponent, and once again she is beaten. "Jinto... I've been practicing all wrong. I've been making you focus on perfect defense. But you need to work on your endurance... Time to hit the Piffle when we get home... we have a lot of work to do." Kikichi grabs Jinto from the layer and hops down from her egg chair. It hurts that she lost yet again, never seeming to do enough damage or negate enough damage. She walks into the waiting room and out of the stadium so that she can find a good crying spot. She didn't want anyone to see however, because she hates pity.