Kingdom Hearts - Blades of Three Realms

[[XIII] Roxas]

"Yeah, about that, Axel got into a lot of trouble with Roveth over you disappearing like that," Roxas pointed out watching to see what Shiro might try to do. It didn't look like he was going after Sora straight away which meant Shiro was probably waiting for one of them to make the first move. "Anyway, I didn't get to train as much as you did since out here it's only been a few days, but I guess we'll find out if it was enough to make a difference."

"Things have been okay, I guess," Sora shrugged a bit wondering why Shiro was making conversation at a time like this. "I'm glad to finally be away from all those complicated books in Master Yen Sid's tower at least."

Roxas knew if he didn't make a move soon that Sora probably would and it likely wouldn't be a very tactical one. "Right, I guess we'd better get things started then. Don't want to keep the crowd in suspense after all," Roxas already had Auto Haste in effect simply from wielding Road In Between so he was going to be faster than normal even without using his light speed movement or activating one of his Limit Breaks right off the bat. So, to start things off, he started circling around Shiro at high speed while using rapid-fire consecutive Strike Raids at close range to see if he could land a hit on him.

Sora, on the other hand, didn't really pay attention to what Roxas was doing and just kind of went straight for an aerial leap attempting to strike at Shiro from overhead with a vertical swing of the Kingdom Key.

"And it looks like Sora is already off to a reckless start," Crystal shook her head while keeping close watch on the fight. It looked like Roxas was going to be focusing on the one main advantage he had over Shiro, namely his speed, but it also seemed like he was starting to get the hang of the combo chaining ability of his new Keyblade at the same time. "At least Roxas looks like he knows what he's doing don there."

"He's giving the crowd a good show too," Xion agreed. "I wonder how long he can really keep it up though."

"Long enough to keep Shiro on his toes for at least a little while," Crystal considered. "Going after Sora directly right now would be risky."  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Shiro winced a bit, glancing to the stands where he saw Axel, and then back to Roxas with a nod as he settled into a defensive stance "true enough..." he said calmly enough, and once Roxas went under Haste and went full speed on Shiro without going Light-Speed, Shiro himself drew a small clock-like array on his own chest as he focused a bit lightly "Haste... Time Alter.. Double Accel." he whispered under his breath, before quickly started -moving- himself, blocking and parrying the strike raids without fail as his eyes tracked the elusive Roxas, when Sora came in for his overhead leap, Shiro would use Melody to block that swipe and merely add in a bit of Black BLood enhanced strength to shove Sora off as if the attack was nothing, and resumed keeping a sharp eye on Roxas's speedy attacks.

Axel nodded a bit while humming a bit "looks like Shiro really doesn't consider Sora to be much of a threat if he's focusing more on Roxas's attacks, and he seems to be keeping up pretty well."he said with a hum, frowning lightly, the fact that Shiro wasn't going after Sora meant something was up, but what? "is it just me... or is Shiro not ignoring Sora to rile him up, but ignoring Sora because he can tell Sora's not at his fullest and simply not needing any attention to handle him if only to offer a rematch later when Sora actually regains what he's lost?" he asked, thinking about it, that'd be more of a Shiro thing to do, simply wait until someone was at their fullest potential before fighting them to see how strong they are...  

[[XIII] Roxas]

Sora, being the lightweight that he is, bounced up into the air again when Shiro deflected his strike and decided that since he was already up there anyway he might as well use the opportunity to unleash his signature Ragnarok technique to send out a bombardment of energy blasts from the tip of the Kingdom Key to shoot at Shiro. "Hey, don't ignore me!"

Roxas pulled back when he realized Shiro was easily blocking and deflecting his attacks while practically ignoring Sora altogether. Since Shiro kept guarding the only way Roxas was going to cause some damage would be to break his guard and to that end he switched to utilizing one of his powerful melee combos while keeping Road In Between and Sweetstack firmly in hand, occasionally shooting off columns of light-based magic ahead of his melee strikes. This combined with Sora's antics of unleashing Ragnarok was putting on quite a light show for the audience.

"Even if Shiro is trying to cut him some slack it doesn't look like Sora is ready to take the hint," Crystal shook her head watching him still going at it.

"Well, I'd say Roxas is looking pretty good out there," noted Xion. "It seems like he's gotten more comfortable with his capabilities at least."

"Shiro will probably want to push him into using his Limit Breaks just to make sure Roxas is really going all out and then we'll see how well Shiro holds up once Roxas starts going light speed," Crystal nodded. "This is shaping up to be an interesting match." More-so because Crystal was genuinely curious to see more of Shiro's newly realized capabilities that she hadn't seen before.  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Shiro hummed in thought, looking at the columns of light, before using a bit of his own increased speed more, working to not only dodge the Light columns Roxas was throwing around, but also maneuvering around the Ragnarok blasts Sora had shot, using Melody and ancient to bat the blasts down to the ground to cause up a stir of dirt and dust while clashing each time with Roxas, not going stronger than what he used for Sora due to the fact that he didn't want to utterly rip into Roxas, however, the comment about Ignoring Sora just made him raise an eyebrow "hmm? well, if that's the case.. i guess i can give you a taste of something too." he then would flip around and literally kick aside a strike from Roxas before launching up into the air with one foot, and pointed Ancient right at Sora, a large orb of light energy forming with a golden hue "Ars Nova!" he called out, unleashing the ball at a decent speed right for Sora, if it hit, it'd unleash into a pretty large explosion of Light energy to deal some moderate damage and temporarily blind Sora.

Axel meanwhile nodded, but then saw the fact that Shiro was actually going to toss an attack at Sora and sweatdropped lightly at how casual Shiro seemed to fling that attack after narrowly dodging a few close shaves with Roxas's increased speed and the light pillars and all "welp, if Sora keeps up after this... well, can we say he was a brave young boy but lived so recklessly it will kill him in the end?" he said all too innocently while smirking all the same "to be fair, Roxas is doing really well, if it were anyone else but Shiro i think they'd already be down by now."  

[[XIII] Roxas]

Sora went wide eyed as the orb of light shot at him and he struggled to think how he might either deflect it or dodge out of the way, but that proved entirely unnecessary when Roxas used his light speed glide to intercept the attack while making rapid-fire crisscrossing slashes with his two blades to produce a circular shock-wave of light and darkness that would deflect the ball back at Shiro right as it was about to detonate.

"It looks like we were right about Roxas wanting to cover for Sora," Xion pointed out watching as Roxas disrupted the attack that had been meant for Sora.

"Yeah, I don't think Sora fully appreciates it, but it's certainly making Roxas look cool," Crystal was certainly interested to see more of these abilities that she hadn't seen Roxas use before now. Usually when they were fighting Heartless it was in situations where they all had to pay attention to what they were doing so Crystal couldn't just watch and see what everyone was truly capable of. And, of course, the one time she had fought Roxas directly they hadn't brought any special abilities into the mix. His techniques were really quite impressive. Shiro's fighting style was impressive too, especially the way he was augmenting his abilities to try to match Roxas in speed, but now that Roxas was beginning to make more liberal usage of his light speed it was going to be a lot harder to keep up with him.

After deflecting the orb of light back at Shiro, Roxas used his light speed to circle around behind him unleashing more columns of light magic in his wake and then launched into a vertical aerial spin attack giving his blades the appearance of twin whirling buzz saws from the speed alone as he also flung himself at Shiro.

Sora looked on dumbstruck because he had seen Roxas use most of these moves before when the two had fought each other. It sure was different not to be on the receiving end of those attacks. He was a little annoyed, however, that Roxas seemed to think he needed defending from Shiro. So, not to be outdone, in his mind at least, Sora would launch into rapid series of frontward strikes using his Sonic Blade to try to land some hits on Shiro while he was still busy with Roxas.  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Shiro raised an eyebrow, before letting his eyes starting to haze over, before completely turning full black as he dropped Melody within the detonating explosion, being enveloped in both light and energy that exploded, on top of the things a small voice could be heard "Trace... On. Time Alter... Square Accel." Shiro of course would disappear once more, a whisper of 'Ban... Kai.' could be heard across the wind, and sure enough, within the speeds Roxas was going, Shiro would be seen catching up rather quickly, and starting to fire off energy blades to counter on the columns, and clashing with Ancient and the black blade of Tensa Zangetsu against Sweetstack and Road In Between, when Sora came in at slower speeds on Sonic Blade, Shiro would spin his Keyblade around and fire a blast or three of light shots at Sora with only a reaction notice before doing a three-sixty spin and started slashing with Ancient multiple times with light blades flying right for Roxas as well "Aetherion Blade!" he intoned, it seemed he's gotten quite a few new moves under his belt it seems.

Axel nodded, chuckling "yeah, if it were anyone else Roxas fought i think that the moment he goes light-speed it's pretty much over, though the fact i can barely still hear the clashes it means Shiro's somehow keeping up with him." he then frowned lightly as he hummed a bit lightly "either way... Sora's woefully underpowered for this..." he said, shrugging lightly while humming "not to mention Shiro is showing new keyblade attacks as well compared to what others use."  

[[XIII] Roxas]

"True, but I don't think Shiro can really sustain that amount of speed for very long," Crystal mentioned while she continued to watch the battle as it continued to escalate.

Sora was knocked off balance when one of the blasts Shiro shot at him finally connected and he kind of skidded along the edge of the arena. Before he could recover Roxas was already making his next move, taking advantage of Shiro's attempt to match his speed by trapping him at close range within the magic array that formed at his feet when activating his Limit Break, surrounding the array with damaging columns of light magic while rising up into the air, pointing both of his blades up at the sky and unleashing several volleys of high speed orbs of light magic that would inflict a good amount of damage individually, but also had an additional stunning effect to ensure that each orb after the first was more likely to hit thereby chaining together for massive amounts of damage when taken altogether. And then, once the volleys were finished, Roxas would drop back down into the center of magic array before it dispersed and launch back into his light speed gliding technique while sending out even more columns of light-based magic ahead of his melee strikes while taking advantage of the infinite combo chaining ability of Road In Between to really keep the pressure on Shiro.

All of this happened before Sora could even get back on his feet. And even once he recovered he could barely keep track of where Shiro and Roxas were fighting because they were both moving so fast.

"Poor Sora," Xion commented. "It looks like he doesn't even know what to do anymore."  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Shiro of course could tell, though he wasn't faltering in the slightest, the moment he did he'd be overwhelmed, so he instead of continuing to go full throttle on all attacks, instead minimalized his movements to reach faster speeds and reaction times, though he was taking quite a bit of damage from the light pillars and other attacks, but every melee attack Roxas made was countered or Parried aside by Shiro's own Ancient, with Tensa Zangetsu coming in if it was a double strike he had to block or parry. granted, Shiro was hurting enough, as he finally focused his power, and started letting off a blinding light emanating from his body "Aetherial Pulse!!" Shiro would call out, unleashing a shock-wave like pulse of light energy to push Roxas away, and skid back to land on the Arena floor as he narrowed his eyes, and stopped all pretenses of his keeping up speed wise with a grunt, before reaching up to grasp his chest a moment panting, before igniting his hand in healing light as he unleashed Curaga into his body to at least recover from both damage and outright stress on his body due to Tensa Zangetsu, and Time Alter Square Accel "Ugh!... okay.. looks like i still need work on the speed front..." he muttered to himself, before hardening his eyes a bit lightly while focusing on plotting his next moves, knowing Roxas had to also be pushing his limit by now... once again he was completely ignoring Sora as Roxas really -was- the greater threat of the two, especially when Shiro dropped Tensa Zangetsu to let it disperse once more, and re-summoning Melody into hand as he focused.

Axel had nodded lightly while chuckling "Shiro can keep up the speed for a bit it seems, but his forte is more defense, tenacity, his insane reaction times, and of course, raw brute power and unpredictability being his aces." he said, knowing full well Shiro had not utilized his ranger outfit or capabilities, but neither had Roxas, so they at least were keeping it down and useful in this case as he chuckled a bit "nothing against herc, but i think this is the finals, in my opinion." he quipped all too cheekily, seeing that the crowd was easily in awe over both Shiro and Roxas's skills, of course, Sora.. well, for axel, the less said about Sora's failings, the better at the moment.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

Roxas was knocked back pretty spectacularly given that he is every bit as much of a lightweight as Sora and all that momentum he had built up moving at light speed had to go somewhere. Roxas did manage to catch himself, using Road In Between and Sweetstack to steady himself to avoid being knocked down completely. Truthfully, he could still go on with relative ease, but he knew that pushing himself to keep using his speed as he had been would be overdoing it and would very likely incapacitate him if he kept going against Shiro like that. Roxas was only in this to see how much he had improved and he'd done that already by seeing how he measured up against Shiro so there wasn't any reason to push himself to the point of exhaustion again knowing even then he probably couldn't beat him.

"Alright Shiro, I don't see any reason we need to drag this out any longer so let's end it with style," Roxas readied himself, assuming his duel stance with both blades steady for one final clash after which only one of them would be left standing. Of course, this wasn't a true samurai duel so the one who fell would still be alive in the aftermath at least. It was really just going to be for dramatic effect since the tournament goers did seem to value showmanship to a certain extent along with the combatants's battle prowess.

Sora seemed to have the foresight to stay out of the way while Roxas was preparing to make his final move against Shiro, but it remains to be seen how long that will last.

"It looks like Roxas has seen enough and is ready to end it," Crystal nodded as Roxas and Shiro would be preparing for one last dramatic clash in the arena, totally ignoring Sora from the looks of it. "Hopefully, win or lose, he'll be satisfied with the results of all that training."

"I think Roxas will be okay," Xion added in agreement. "He knew what he was getting into going up against Shiro. Although, I'm not so sure about how Sora will handle it."  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Shiro would chuckle a bit, before nodding as he took off the keychain for Melody, and instead attached the Bleached World keyblade, to give him a much larger reach, and started taking up a stance of his own with his eyes hardening as he dropped Ancient to let it disperse into a flash of light "sounds good enough for me. I am the Bone of my Sword." he intoned as he took up a certain stance, channeling the skill he had in mind from a blade within his Unlimited Blade Works as a blue haired pale faced man began imposing as an image next to Shiro, wielding a fairly large curved Katana of sorts himself "Hiken..." he would intone, tensing his grip on the keyblade in hand with eyes narrowed as he focused "Tsubame... GAESHI!!!" he called out, before disappearing into his Iaijutsu speed mode, aiming to clash/slash Roxas down with the three slash technique that typically breaks all boundaries of physics to perform, and once the two pass from their own respective attacks, Shiro would take a few more steps forward before grimacing slightly in pain, gripping his side with a chuckle "okay.. i guess i can give you that one... ow..." he muttered, still smiling regardless, he could still fight, but he'd need to use liberal use of Curaga to fix the damage before hercules and all. as for Sora, Shiro wasn't paying attention given he was more focused on internalizing the pain in his side right now.

Axel chuckled a bit while watching the final clash "that technique's probably another one Shiro picked up form his mentor's world, because i don't think Auron knows any attacks similar to that." he commented, watching the attacks of the two go off, of course, he was also paying attention to Sora, hoping like hell that the kid knew when he was outmatched and would just let things end there. of course, he also knew from watching Sora in Castle Oblivion that the kid didn't know the meaning of the word Give Up, and it has only gotten worse the more he actually won... "come on Sora... be smart about this..." he muttered, narrowing his green eyes lightly.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

Roxas fell to one knee after clashing with Shiro already feeling the sting from those physics defying blows he sustained knowing that was definitely going to leave some painful bruises once this was all over. "Well, you can't blame me for trying," Roxas put on a pained smile. "Although it looks like I was right about still having a lot of catching up to do." And then he passed out from the pain finally collapsing altogether as his own Keyblades de-materialized from his hands. Obviously, even though neither had been going for a killing blow, Roxas and Shiro were still pretty brutal with those last attacks considering they hit each other hard enough that they were both feeling it.

"It's a pretty famous technique on certain worlds, but it's also rumored to be impossible because of the rapidity with which the strikes must be delivered," Crystal pointed out. "Leave it to Shiro to have actually found some means of pulling it off."

"I hope Roxas will be okay," Xion was clearly worried after seeing him collapse in the aftermath of his clash against Shiro.

"He might have to rest it off, but I'm sure he'll be fine," Crystal smiled appreciatively. It was good that they could take each other seriously without having to be hostile about it. "Which just leaves Sora..."

Sora clearly wasn't ready to take the hint as he drew back his arm and then let fly another Strike Raid with the Kingdom Key as he flung it bodily at Shiro. "Don't forget me! I can still fight!"

"Oh for the love of... I am not healing him after this," Crystal brought a palm to her forehead as she watched Sora's latest attempt to demand Shiro's attention in the arena.

"What do you think Shiro will do to him?" Xion was slightly worried now that Sora had so expertly demonstrated his own foolishness.  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Shiro had frowned a bit, hearing the familiar whistle of a Keyblade flying at him, bringing up Melody into hand and literally smashing the Kingdom Key aside with a backhanded strike, turning to look at Sora with a bit of contempt as his eyes flashed to take a scan of Sora, before shaking his head "i didn't forget you Sora, i was- really- hoping you'd see you're outclassed here and gracefully take a loss." he said, narrowing his eyes before letting his presence out as he dismissed his keyblades, and instead said the words he usually uses when he's about to pwn someone... "Trace... On." he said coldly, almost as coldly as an iceberg as he brought his hand out, tracing what looked to be... a wooden kendo stick with a cute little Tiger charm on it? what in the world? however... when Shiro gripped it with his free hand, his presence actually increased by double, and his eyes activated fully into Alpha Stigma mode with the bright red shine and that blue array spinning within his eyes as well.

Axel of course just winced when he felt Shiro's presence "yup... Sora's doomed." he said, though he looked perplexed when he saw the odd wooden sword, he didn't know why in the world he'd bring something as useless as that out, not realizing the... story.. behind that blade, though Crystal might if Shiro told her about it. but he did start sweating heavily when he felt the increasing presence after Shiro gripped that blade "what...? what in the world is that thing!?!"  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

if it were any other person, Shiro might've possibly seen the futility of attacking him to be cute, and -maybe- not be pissed off about it, but the fact Sora was foolishly still continuing this fight when it was clear he was outmatched.. especially when Sora wasn't even at full power and doing this? it rankled Shiro hard, especially since at least with Roxas, Roxas had something that could aid against Shiro: his speed. Sora? has absolutely nothing.. and continuing like this... "... this utter foolishness ends Here." he said in a cold, hollow voice, , the Ars Arcanum attack closing in would similarly be blocked by multiple slashes with Torashinai, countering them with deadly precision and utter ease compared to Shiro being pressed by Roxas, but Shiro wasn't done there, he literally hopped up into the air and literally hit Sora in the chest with a harsh roundhouse kick to send him flying away from Shiro. once that was done, he would reach into a pouch at his side with small crystals as he pulled out one that began to glow an ominous steel color "let the War God of Steel arise here and now among this very plane.. come forth, ODIN!" he shouted out slamming the crystal onto the ground, unleashing it into a blossoming crystalline summon array, which would summon the legendary steel god of Final Fantasy Report, however, once shiro landed, he looked to Odin, nodding lightly with a grim look on his face "Gestalt Mode, but don't summon the actual blades." Odin nodded, before jumping up into the air, and upon tossing his own blades in the air, Odin would start transforming into a mechanical yet organic Horse as Shiro jumped up to land right on the preferred spot to ride Odin, a white haired man slightly over-imposing Shiro ,though it wasn't the Counter Guardian, one could tell this man meant business "I am Shiro.. Musouka Shiro... The Sword that Shall Cleave through all Evil!" he called out, before nodding to Odin "now Ride, Odin! take us to the speeds that rival that of lightning!" with a large whinny, Odin heeded Shiro's call, charging right for Sora, while Shiro swung back with Torashinai, using Alteration to make it grow, expand through both wood and straw, to become a large, almost greater size than a buster sword "Zankantou..." he whispered, before swinging the blade around, slamming it right into Sora's unguarded side, causing his eyes to bug out a bit, before being dragged and spun around on the blade itself, with Shiro building up momentum and speed to literally cause a localized whirlwind with Sora being battered and bashed around by wind and sword, before left in the sky hanging "IKKI TOUSEN!!!!" Shiro roared, before Odin had literally jumped them high into the air, galloping at full speed before Shiro rode past.. slashing right into Sora's chest with both speed and raw power behind it, his anger boiling over into a near inhuman roar of "CHEEEESSSSTTTTTTOOOOOOUUUUUUUUU~!" before whirling him around and sending him back careening to the ground at full speed, with Shiro and Odin hanging in the air on small sigils that were under Odin's feet, with Shiro looking down towards the ground with contempt and anger still on his face "there is nothing... that my Zankantou... cannot defeat." he said as cold as ice, making it -very- clear that if it had been not an ally.. they would be deader than a door nail at that point. of course the wounds on Shiro's own side started acting up causing him to wince after that and holding his side with his free hand ~Che.. think i ripped a few injured muscles there.. definitely need to use Curaga or three before i have to face Herc...~ he thought to himself in a pained grimace.

Axel had just stared at what just happened, it was almost so fast no one would've seen the ending, but with how Shiro reacted.. it was to be expected. "well, i think you'll have -plenty of time to work with Sora in the world of dreams Crystal, because i don't think he's going to be getting up from -that- any time soon." he said with a wince, but then glanced up to look at Shiro as Odin lowered his summoner down, to where he could get off and hand the swallow like sword to the horse, which then jumped away disappearing into rose petals, and leaving behind the crystal used by Shiro, who walked over gingerly to pick it up. "and that is why i -never- want to be on Shiro's bad side, even as an ally... i and Roveth may tease him, but going too far leads to -that- happening if a Shiro Chop doesn't make us get the hint..."  

[[XIII] Roxas]

"Yeah, I think we're going to have plenty of time for a nice long chat about what exactly his problem is," Crystal nodded to Axel while watching as after being juggled around like a rag-doll while screaming his lungs out Sora finally hit the ground landing in the very same crater that had been left by Cloud during Shiro's earlier confrontation with the spiky-haired swordsman. Sora was out cold. Had he been conscious he would have been very aware of the painful stinging aches of his bruises and more than a few very likely broken ribs from the abuse he sustained from Shiro.

Roxas, meanwhile, had begun to stir after passing out from the pain of his clash with Shiro. The pain had lessened somewhat in the few minutes he had been motionless while unconscious, but as Roxas moved to pick himself up off the ground he could feel the pain threatening to overtake him again with every minor exertion. However, seeing what had become of Sora during his momentary loss of consciousness caused Roxas to go wide eyed as he stared at the unconscious boy in the crater. "Do I even want to know what happened to him?" Roxas managed as seeing Sora out cold like that had briefly distracted him from his own pain. Even so, Roxas was still definitely going to need some proper healing to actually recover from any internal injuries that might have been caused by his clash with Shiro.

Pit and Zidane had already recovered from their earlier matches against Sora and Roxas respectively and so emerged from the waiting area to help with carrying Sora out of the arena to make room for Hercules while Roxas just sort of limped his way back while clutching his side to keep from passing out from the pain again. Since he wasn't going to be getting to fight Hercules himself, Roxas at least wanted to be conscious to see Shiro go for it. Once they had set Sora down on a cot to sleep off his injuries Zidane did of course offer Roxas an Elixir so that he could drink it to begin the healing process for his own injuries and all since he seemed so determined to be awake right now.

"That was some fight," Zidane grinned cheerily.

"Yeah, Shiro is really something else," Roxas had to admit. "I'm glad we're on the same side or that could have gone a lot worse."

Hercules entered the arena and the crowd's cheers became an even greater din of excitement. "Alright Shiro," Hercules nodded to him while flexing for the audience. "You worked hard to get here and you've earned this match so I'll try not to go too easy on you."

"The crowd might love Hercules, but I think we at least know the main event is already over," Crystal sighed shaking her head while glancing toward the waiting area.

"If not for Shiro, I think Roxas really did have a shot at the finals," Xion had to agree.