Losers Bracket
The Setting:
Rei walked down a Nerima street in a rather downcast mood. A few days earlier, she had been eliminated from the martial arts tournament that would have given her a shot at curing her curse. After that, she was attacked and defeated by some crazed Amazon warrior. Apparently, it had been a case of mistaken identity, and only because the Amazon realized this, the young Saotome was still alive.
To lessen her sorrows at having been put into such a slump, Rei had bought herself a five-scoop ice cream cone, and was busily indulging her sweet tooth as she walked down the street. Maybe she was just taking on opponents who were way out of her league. Maybe this slump of hers would end when she found someone more on her level.
Chen-Shan Chin was, as always, angry. School had just ended, and now he was on his way to work, dressed in his Burger Land uniform. Being beaten in his own restaurant was a disgrace, especially by someone who fought using a musical instrument. And then there was the tournament... He shook his head. He still had the greatest of confidence in his own abilities. Sometimes, it seemed, the gods simply did not smile upon him. Soon, he thought to himself... Soon, that would change.
Both Rei and Chen-Shan were quite lost in their own self-pity when they ran into each other on the sidewalk. Rei's gigantic five-scoop cone had managed to splatter all over her favorite red shirt, and all over Chen-Shan's uniform. Rei said, "Why didn't you watch where you were going? Look what you did to my favorite shirt!"
Chen-Shan looked down at his uniform, and needless to say, he became more angry than he had been. He said, "Excuse me! You seem to have gotten ice cream all over my uniform! I demand that you apologize, please!" It was hard to sound very threatening the way he spoke, but his tone of voice was angry enough to compensate.
Rei said, "What? Me, apologize? You should apologize, cause you ruined my ice cream cone. I think you should buy me a new one, too!" That ice cream cone was the only thing comforting her, so naturally she was upset. Even if Chen-Shan knew this, it wouldn't have brightened his mood any.
The fast food martial artist said, "Buy you a new one? I hope that you are joking. If you don't apologize to me, I will have to fight you."
Rei jumped back, and took a fighting stance. She said, "Oh yeah? Come get it then, buddy! I challenge you!" This guy was just a fast food worker, she thought, but if getting out of her slump meant beating on him, so be it.
Chen-Shan looked at her, finding the situation almost laughable... almost being the operative word. He never had anything against beating up little kids, and now that she had openly challenged him, nothing was holding him back. He took a fighting stance, and said, "Challenge? You have just officially signed your death certificate."
Commentary:
Thrythlind
I hate to say this, but Rei is very accurate in her assessment, however she has been facing a succession of opponents much more skilled than Chen-Shan and at least a little more versatile and stronger than his opponents....following the normal pattern of Ranma improvement, Rei has probably improved quite a bit over the last couple of days.
Spanner
And thus, is Rei Saotome's loss complete. While both she and Chen-Shan are very versatile fighters, Chen-Shan just has more experience, and more unexpected tricks up his sleeves. Chen-Shan is somewhat hampered by the fact that he is fighting outside of his restaurant, and therefore cannot use his slippery-floor advantage. But it just isn't going to be enough to save Rei. Victor: Chen-Shan Chin.
Maxfield Santon
Rei uses anything-goes, and even though she's nowhere near the class that the 'current' Ranma is in, she is still a competent martial artist, probably as strong as her older cousin was at the beginning of the series. Chen-Shan uses a very specialized style, and as we've seen, Anything-goes is very good for dealing with these types of opponents. A beginning of the series Ranma could have easily beaten Chen-Shan, so Rei won't have too much more trouble.
Hitman25
Hmm... this one should be tough. Still, I say the victory goes to Chen. Why you ask? Let's put it this way. Both Rei and Chen will not hesitate to fight dirty. Throughout the entire tournament, Chen is probably the dirtiest fighter of all. He also has a larger arsenal of moves. Also keep in mind, he lost his matches to Eddie Wong and Noranov. Those two fighters are obviously a lot smarter than Rei. Dirty tactics usually have a strong advantage over weaker minds. So if Rei gets hit by the mop scum tsunami, she will probably be pissed about her favorite outfit becoming even more ruined.
The Fight:
The two stood in their respective fighting stances for a moment, quickly sizing the other up. Neither one expected the other to have any real martial arts skill. In Japan, however, it wasn't uncommon for the average person to have at least some basic training in the art. After this brief pause, both fighters charged one another, shouting a battle cry at the top of their lungs.
Chen-Shan thought to himself, "She's just a little kid. I won't even need to use my weapons!" He was the faster of the two, and thus, he was the first to attack. He let out a very quick kick at the side of Rei's torso, which hit before the younger martial artist could block. He then proceeded to continue his attack, using his acrobatic Kung-Fu style.
Rei reeled a bit from the first blow, and thought incredulously, "What in the world? How can a fast food worker know this kind of martial arts?!" As a punch came in her way, her block was too slow to stop it in time and she was forced to stagger back a few steps. She thought, "He's fast, but doesn't seem much stronger than any average guy." Of course, it still hurt, since the average 17 year old tended to be a little bit more tough than a well trained 13 year old martial artist.
The fast food martial artist followed up that punch with another, and then a strong backhand to the side of Rei's face, which sent her spinning as her feet left the ground. She hit the ground hard, and let out a pained groan. Chen-Shan dusted his hands off while chuckling, and turned to walk away, satisfied that he had won.
Rei gritted her teeth, and rose to her feet again. The crazy Amazon she had fought not too long ago was fast... probably faster than this guy. She thought back to how she had managed to get in at least a few blows on that crazed warrior... She dropped into a fighting stance, and shouted, "Hey! This isn't over yet."
Chen-Shan turned around, both of his eyebrows raised in amusement. He said, "It would have been best of you to stay where you were. Now I will have to slap you around." In reply to this, Rei simply started rushing at him with a very serious look on her face before jumping into the air, preparing to assault him from above.
He smirked, and then leapt into the air after a short running start. He brought his foot up and threw a kick at the airborne Saotome. Being a Saotome, however, Rei was more than skilled in the air. She twisted herself around in mid-flight and avoided Chen-Shan's quick kick, before pummeling him in the chest with her fists. Rei landed on the ground safely, while Chen-Shan just landed.
He growled as he rose to his feet again. Rei turned around and said to him, "Who was supposed to be slapped around, again...? I think you're the one who had better just lie down and give up."
This made Mr. Chin a little bit angry. He honestly hadn't expected any sort of trouble from this girl, and now she had the nerve to try and insult him. Oh, she would pay. He turned to face the young Saotome, but he saw that she was quickly charging at him again before leaping up into the air to deliver another aerial attack.
He said, "You have just made a mistake!" as he pulled out several of his frozen hamburger patties. He threw them into the air at his opponent in mass numbers, confident that she would have absolutely nowhere to go. She once again proved her skills in the air, however, as she twisted herself repeatedly in the air to avoid the shuriken hamburger until she had cleared the field of them. She didn't escape unscathed, however, as her shirt had been grazed in several places.
Chen-Shan didn't believe that she escaped his attack, but the people he had been fighting over the last few days were able to do the same thing, and he didn't let it get to him. Rei continued descending on him, however, looking even more determined than before. She drew close, and threw a very strong kick. The fast food martial artist quickly produced his chicken tongs, and grabbed Rei's foot before it could hit him. After securing her foot, he delivered several punches to her gut before twisting the tongs and throwing her to the ground.
Rei jumped back to her feet with a recovery time that would impress even Ryouga Hibiki. The beatings she'd been taking over her last few fights had upped her endurance, and she was still determined to punish the fast food worker for ruining her favorite shirt. Once on her feet, she threw a punch at Chen-Shan. Reacting quickly, he caught her fist with hiis chicken tongs, and said, "I'm so sorry, you're just too slow."
He reeled back his fist and prepared to smash her in the face, but she wasn't deterred in the slightest. With a shout of "Speed of Light Kick!" she kicked him faster than he could hope to block right underneath his chin. He released his hold on her fist, and stumbled back a few steps. Before he could recover, she rushed in and kicked him in his stomach, causing him to double over. Rei then followed up with a viscious uppercut, sending him off of his feet and onto his back.
The young Saotome jumped up, shouting, "Hyaaaaaah!" She aimed a jump kick directly at the prone Chen-Shan's throat, fully intending to put him out of action, and fast. Before she could, he quickly produced a squeeze bottle of ketchup and mustard, and squirted them into Rei's eyes before rolling out of the way and to safely. She landed on her feet, and wiped the condiments out of her eyes in time to face off with him.
He chuckled, and said, "You have hurt me. Now it will be your turn to be hurt." He started spinning on one foot, and squeezed the bottles of ketchup and mustard as he did so. Rei tried to duck around the streams of flying condiments, but as Chen started spinning faster and faster, they were everywhere. She covered her eyes to keep herself from being blinded, and soon she noticed that the spray had stopped. She lowered her arm, but by the time she did, Chen-Shan was practically in front of her face. In an act of desperation, she pulled her lead pipe from hammerspace and jabbed it out at the fast food martial artist's face.
Chen-Shan saw the attack coming, but he had no idea that she had the ability to pull a pipe from a distant dimension. He leaned back in order to get out of her reach, but he was struck right in the cheek by the pipe, and yelped in pain. He stepped back, and rubbed the ring-shaped red mark on his face. He growled, and glared at Rei.
Rei, for her part, looked down at her favorite red shirt. It had a large ice cream stain on it, and several small cuts from the hamburger shuriken... And now it was completely covered in ketchup and mustard. She balled her fists, and shouted, "You're going to pay for ruining my shirt!"
Chen-Shan wasn't really impressed, and he shouted back, "You will be the one to pay! You're making me very late for work!" He took an odd stance, and started making silly gestures with his hands, as though he was building up his energy or something like that. The fast food martial artist yelled, "Chi-Ken!"
The young Saotome panicked. She clearly underestimated this guy's power if he had the ability to throw around blasts of energy. Chen-Shan shot out his hands, causing Rei to flinch, and released the chicken fillet he had been holding in the tongs. Unfortunately for the fast food martial artist, Rei was a Saotome, and Saotome's had a very finely tuned instinct when it came to food. She sensed the chicken projectile in the air, and caught it in her mouth gracefully, before quickly munching it down. She chuckled, and said, "What was that supposed to be, anyways?"
Mr. Chin started to get angry again... So much so that an unhealthy battle aura had started to develop around him. He thought to himself, "How in the world is she still standing? What curse has been placed on me, that I must be beaten by such scum?!" He pulled out his trusted mop and bucket, and set himself.
Meanwhile, Rei started charging at him, saying, "Time to end this, sucker. You're gonna pay for messing up my clothes." Chen-Shan dipped his mop into the bucket, and pulled it out before swinging it in an arc across the street top in front of him. A wave of scummy water rose up and headed right toward the charging Rei. Before it could hit, however, she launched herself high into the air and jumped over it. Chen-Shen seemed to be counting on this, and while she was still in the air he shouted, "Mop Scum Tsunami!" and performed his move again. However good Rei was in the air, she couldn't defy the laws of gravity. She fell right into the incoming wave of nasty water, and was carried along in it until it slammed into the wall on the side of the street rather roughly.
As the wave subsided, Rei was groaning, in a lot of pain from the battering she'd recieved. She realized her shirt was now covered in oily, dirty water in addition to all of the other things, and thought to herself, "No matter what it takes... I will have my revenge for what he's done to this shirt!" She started to start to her feet again with considerable effort, but as soon as she made it up, she saw that Chen-Shan was standing right in front of her with a bill in his hands.
He said, "Your total comes to 5000 yen, Ma'am." He reared back his arm in one speedy gesture, and then shot it forward as he shouted, "Burger Land Final Attack!" Rei pulled out her lead pipe and struck at Chen-Shan in desperation again, but this time he was prepared and easily moved his head to the side. With Rei wide open, he struck her in the forehead with the bill, which pushed her back into the stone wall again. With one last pained groan, she slumped to the ground, finally unconscious.
Chen-Shan observed his foe for a few moments, and then breathed out a sigh of relief. He looked at his watch, out of curiosity, and his eyes went wide. He said, "Oh no! I am already 5 minutes late!" He would probably be written up, but since it would cost the management so much to replace him at the restaurant, he was sure they would forgive him.
The Results:
Chen-Shan Chin: 4
Rei Saotome: 2
These two characters don't seem to draw a lot of votes compared to the other ones... Maybe people just prefer to vote on the matches between more powerful characters? Who knows... I still like the little guys though. ^_^