The Way of the Fist

[Fingolfin]

The air is still as the sky darkens overhead. It would rain soon. How fitting. There, on top of the condemned building, two fighters stand facing each other as they scrutinize the other. They decided that this would be a fitting place to fight. That it could be somewhere they could go all out without anyone annoying to interfere with them. Steel beams stick out from the top of the structure, the building having been incomplete and abandoned years ago. It stands at over fifty yards high, with a width of at least two hundred feet. It was to be the basis of a new conglomerate before the economy crashed.

"You really want to do this?" The man asks. They stand apart from each other by several yards. The man is wearing a blue karate gi, his bare hands outstretched in an odd position; as if he were trying to emulate some sort of snake. He finds it strange that a child this young would challenge him: Toji Mura. He garnered quite the reputation for killing his opponents in the underworld. How this gajin ever found him is a mystery in of itself.

"Yes." answers the boy. He speaks in Japanese, but his accent is hard on it. He wears a simple white t-shirt and blue jeans. His feet are bare of any shoe wear as well. After all, he would only destroy them if he wore them in this fight. He takes the stance of hachiji dachi; the ready stance most commonly found in karate. He's not an actual practitioner of it though. It's just a force of habit he picked up after fighting so many people. He is simply Ken. He threw away his last name a long time ago. He had no love or need for it.

The two fighters take a deep breathe, exhale, and the moment the first drop of rain hits the building they disappear. At least, that's what it seems to be; in truth they are simply too fast for the human eye to follow. The sound of what could be a cannon is heard, as Ken's kick shatters one of the beams in half; having missed its target by a hair's breath. In the air, Toji jumped to avoid it; he cleared at least a dozen feet. Toji attacks, striking down at Ken with a precision a machine could never hope to match; he aims for numerous nerve clusters and joints. However, each strike misses Ken. Ken dodges them all with such an expert grace, it's almost like he can read Toji's every move before he makes it.

They separate from each other, and stop. "Tell me, what style do you use?" asks Toji. It's strange, he never saw that kind of foot work before.

"I have no style. I just fight." Ken retorts, as he stomps right foot against the ground; the whole building shakes a he propels himself towards Toji again. He crosses several dozen feet in a fraction of a second. What dangerous speed. The boy is like lightning--no, he's faster than lightning could ever be.

Toji twist backwards, as Ken's punch grazes his chin. He feels his body shake and vibrate under the force of just that. The boy has extreme strength, as well as speed it seems.

"W-What?" Ken stutters. He can't move his right arm. Toji pierced into it with his index fingers in the very instant Ken punched him.

Ken has strength and speed but he lacks discipline. He lacks experience. The fights he had so far were nothing more than bar brawls in comparison to this. Still, Ken smirks. This is exactly what he wanted. "This is fun!" He pulls on his paralyzed arm, as he drags Toji towards him with the killer's fingers still embedded in his arm.

Toji eyes widen in surprise, that should have paralyzed Ken completely. Did he miss the right nerve cluster?

There is a resounding boom as Ken's head collides with Toji's. Toji falls as the ceiling collapses under the force of the headbutt, as the old master is forced into the top floor of the building with a sickening crack. The windows throughout the floor shatter under the force of the sonic boom.

Indeed, what monstrous strength. Toji pulls himself up, and wipes the blood away from his face. "I seem to have underestimated you." Toji stands up as Ken approaches him, having entered through the new hole in the ceiling. "I apologize for that." He bows.

Ken stops, stunned by the sudden act of humility. "Uh, thanks. I guess." It's hard to get respect like that when you're a street urchin like him, wandering from place to place. The best he usually gets is disdainful apathy.

"I will take you seriously now." Toji's muscles bulge, as he releases the natural limiters within his body. "Prepare yourself."

Ken smiles. "I would expect nothing else." He punches his right arm, and feeling begins to finally return to it.

The world erupts into thunder the next instant, as the two warriors cross fists. The dust that's built up over the years gets blown away. A right jab from Ken is deflected, a piercing move from Toji grazes Ken's neck, and Ken launches a front kick in retaliation. Toji does a back flip, and avoids the attack by just a portion of a millimeter. Again, they both close in on each other and trade hundreds of attacks in a second. The pattern repeating again, and again. "YES! That's what I'm talking about! More, more, more!" Ken begins to laugh hysterically, as the euphoria of battle consumes his mind. It's sweeter than love, and fiercer than sex. It's a drug that could not be denied.

Toji chuckles. Ah, youth. He was the same at that age. Toji extends his right palm out into a spearing motion, and launches his next attack. Ken dodges, but the air pressure from the attack alone annihilates the steel wall that was behind him.

Ken whistles in admiration as he surveys the damage Toji dealt. At this rate, they will destroy the entire building. That doesn't matter though. There is only the fight now. He stomps against the floor, cracking the concrete beneath his heel as he kicks at Toji again.

The man in blue doesn't budge as he uses both arms to block the kick this time. Ken can tell that at least one of the bones in Toji's arm broke. Ken's not sure which one though. The right or the left arm? The left, it has to be the left. Ken kicked Toji from his left side, so his left arm must have took the brunt of it.

Ken jumps back, and dashes towards Toji again. He unleashes a right jab, aiming to finish that left of arm Toji's...

"Damn, I was wrong." Ken curses. Toji caught his punch with left arm. It was the right that broke. Toji is merciless as he uses his left knee to break Ken's right arm, it bends in an unnatural angle as the bone visibly sticks out from his flesh.

Ken grimaces. "It's not over yet!" He punches Toji in that same instant with his remaining arm, dislocating Toji's jaw and sending him flying through several walls. Ken quickly snaps his arm back into place, and tears his shirt off--using it as a makeshift bandage, he ties it down with his belt. "That should hold it for now." He clenches his right fist. Yes, it still works. That's only thanks to how fast he heals though.

Ken ducks, as he senses Toji next attack, just avoiding the projectile coming at him from behind. Ken turns, and sees the large metal beam sticking out of the floor behind him. That was close. "They weren't kidding when they said you were the killing type."

Toji shrugs, as he pops his jaw back into place. "It would be disrespectful of me to hold anything back." It's not like he likes to kill, it's just that he refuses to disgrace an opponent by restraining himself; especially when the opponent is someone who garnered his respect.

"That's true." Ken turns to face him once more. "I apologize then."

Toji raises his brow up in curiosity. "For what?"

"Holding back." Ken disappears. He vanishes completely, even from Toji's sight. In that very millisecond, a pain builds up in Toji's chest as it implodes under the force of something greater than heavy artillery fire. The bones in Toji's chest do not break, they liquify. It's Ken, with his left fist imbedded into Toji's chest as he plows the older fighter down through all the floors of the building, each falling apart under the force of Ken's last attack. The supports of steel and granite all crumple as the building finally groans in defeat. It falls, sustaining too much damage to hold itself up anymore.

"I won't let you die though." Ken murmurs, as he picks up Toji's unconscious form from the bottom of the complex. He plows through the many walls of the building, jumping off of falling debris, and finally makes his way out before it collapses in on itself. "It's not my style."

<<<X>>>

This is just a one-shot. I just felt like writing a fight scene, and decided to make something original along the way.