Round 1
The Setting:
The roped off area of street hadn't left a whole lot of room for the crowd to stand and observe, so there were some people standing on top of the wall to the side, and others hanging back behind the guardrail on the other side of the road. All in all, it didn't allow for the fighters to get very far outside of the ring if things were to get out of control.
A man stepped into the central clearing, a microphone in his hand. Shampoo, who was watching from the sidelines, recognized him as the man who had announced the snowman race. Perhaps his job up on the slopes was only seasonal.
The announcer said, "Hello everyone, and welcome to the final match of our tournament's first round! This one ought to be exciting, folks!" Cheers went through the space-deprived crowd.
"Introducing our first combattant! The self-proclaimed Master of Martial Arts, Sukira Kurenai!" The crowd cheered again, although some of them whispered to each other about someone named Tsubasa Kurenai, who was some kind of pervert. Sukira stepped into the ring, smiling at the cheers and such.
The announcer started talking again, "And now, our next fighter, coming in all the way from the country of Kielowitz and a member of the infamous Martial Arts Marching Band, it's Noranov..." He looked at the sheet in front of him, trying to read off the impossibly long name, which he could definately not pronounce. He quickly said, "Let's hear it for Noranov!"
The crowd cheered again as the woman dressed in a marching band uniform stepped out onto the street. She carried her trombone with her, which earned her a strange look from her opponent. Sukira said, "That's an odd choice of weaponry... but I've seen stranger."
Noranov 'hmphed', and said, "I don't care what you've seen. Your style is no match for Trombitsu." She took a fighting stance that looked more like someone waiting for a director's cue to begin playing a song.
Sukira smiled just a bit, and shrugged his shoulders. He said, "Trombitsu, huh? Well, we'll just see who's no match for who, okay?" He took a rather lazy, relaxed looking fighting stance, and waited for the match to begin.
Commentary:
Spanner
Sukira has shown himself able to fight an opponent (Suteko) approximately equal in skill to Ranma, and Noranov has, as well (in her case, Ryoga - wasn't in the clip, but she dueled Ryoga earlier in the story). So, it would seem to come down to a battle of depth versus breadth. Who will win? Sukira, with his partial mastery over a wide range of fighting techniques, or Noranov, with her complete mastery of Trombone Martial Arts? Unfortunately for Sukira, he's got several things working against him. First off, his story clip seems to imply that he's got a Ranma-like resistance to fighting against girls. Even if he can bring himself to fight Noranov without changing into a girl first, he'll undoubtedly be pulling his punches, at least at first. You can bet that Noranov will not be returning the favor. Additionally, while Noranov's fighting style is likely to be totally alien to Sukira, Sukira's fighting styles are mostly drawn from the Ranma 1/2 regulars - and those are styles that Noranov and the rest of the Kielowitz Martial Arts Marching Band have studied, in order to be able to subdue those martial artists more easily. Unless Sukira manages to disarm her (Trombitsu is HEAVILY dependent on the trombone), Noranov should definitely emerge victorious from this battle.
Hitman25
Although Sukira can be quite sloppy on his technique, the variety he holds makes up for this. Also, if he holds the knowledge of moves that most other characters have, he should be great on both offense and defense. Also, he is skilled in weapons but doesn't depend on them. Noranov on the other hand appears to depend on her weapon. If she is disarmed, she will be in some trouble. Another disadvantage she has is that her moves, although quite powerful, are more strategic and not really for offense nor defense. Because of this, she'll have to connect with one of her moves before she can actually get a clean hit on Sukira.
Starphoenix
I think that Sukira will win in that though he has moderate knowledge and all of martial arts while Noranov is more localized, he has skill that seems to put him close enough in league with Ranma. His moderate knowledge of all martial arts is inconclusive and doesn't tell very much about what techniques he has learned, but it may be safe to say that his knowledge is good enough to tackle Noranov's.
Jazzie
Interesting match. I guess I'd pick Noranov though: she's got a bunch of moves to choose from which would keep opponents off guard. Also, we know next to nothing about Sukira. We dont' really know how he compares to the others or what exactly he can do.
Tanu-Kun
It's the Generalist Versus the Specificst. When it comes down to it, that's all there is to it. Noranov has the advantage that Sukira may never have seen any of the moves she has. However Sukira has a larger pool of moves to use and may be more receptive to strange new attacks (especialy if he has hung around with Ukyo). But for this match I'll throw my hat in Sukira's corner for one reason, Tsubasa! Yes, that little crossdresser will play a part in this match. Noranov seems like the arrogant type and if she finds out about Tsubasa she may be so shocked that Sukira may find an opening.
The Fight:
The announcer wasted no time, and shouted, "Fight!"
Noranov slashed at Sukira's head with her trombone's slide, which the young man ducked. Instead of counter attacking, Sukira allowed his opponent to keep swining with her weapon. After a few seconds of this had elapsed, he hopped away, and pulled out his 'memory metal' staff.
He took a Kung-Fu-esque stance, and said, "I've got your moves figured out. You're just using that thing like a staff." He smiled confidently, as though his figuring out of Noranov's fighting style would unnerve her. Instead she just stood there, staring at him coldly.
Odd, he thought... maybe she was hiding something. He dismissed that, and charged in, swinging the staff at his opponent. His battle aura caused the metal staff to react by glowing softly. Noranov blocked the attacks, but it looked as though she underestimated the power behind them. She was driven back on the defensive as Sukira pressed his advantage.
Noranov looked at the glowing weapons as she blocked each attack. The light got more intense as her opponent continued attacking. If she didn't stop him soon, the attacks would be too strong to block. Another attack from Sukira came, and Noranov almost lost hold of her weapon trying to block it.
Sukira found the opening he was looking for, and brought back his staff to set up the final blow. As he started his swing, Noranov lowered her weapon a bit, and said, "I concede..."
Sukira went, "Huh?" And his battle aura diminished. The glow of his staff faded as he halted his strike before it moved any closer to his adversary.
As Sukira halted his attack and prepared to accept his victory, Noranov finished her sentence, "... Nothing!" She extended her instrument's slide into Sukira's throat before he could react. She followed up the attack, but Sukira's battle aura flared again. The weapon took on an even more intense glow, which allowed him to block the next strikes easily.
Noranov observed the weapon's behavior. Her band's information gathering efforts had learned much about martial arts secrets from around the world. She had heard of 'memory metal', which would react to its owner's battle aura. Well... she had a solution for that.
Dropping back into a more defensive stance, Noranov put her instrument to her lips and started to play. Sukira smirked, and said, "You wanna play music in the middle of a fight? Well, it's your funeral. I'm not falling for any more of your tricks." He gathered his ki and started attacking as his enemy started playing a soft tune.
Sukira pressed his attack, but Noranov managed to dodge every strike, just barely. It seemed she was used to dodging while playing. Sukira noticed that the tune was very soft and soothing... His staff's glow faded away, and his strikes got a lot more lazy and easy to dodge. Noranov smiled, and suddenly stopped playing the tune.
She immediately went on the offensive, fighting her opponent on 'fair' terms now. It was obvious to the onlooking crowd that Noranov was much more skilled with her weapon than Sukira was with his... it was almost like a natural extension of her body. Now that the Lullaby was over with, however, the young Kurenai's battle aura was returning. Before it could get to it's former intensity, she disarmed him with one powerful stroke.
Sukira jumped back as his weapon flew free from his hands. It sailed off into the crowds, and hit some guy on the head before dissapearing into the mass of people. The 'Master of Martial Arts' re-evaluated his position. He may have been disarmed, but he had several more tricks up his sleeve.
Noranov smiled, thinking that her opponent was disarmed and very vulnerable now. Time to finish the fight. She put her instrument to her lips again, and started playing her Glissando Vertigo attack. Sukira felt his equilibrium suddenly out of balance, and struggled to stay standing as Noranov walked slowly over to him. The crowd collectively held their breath as the trombone player walked well into striking distance of her adversary. She kicked him in the chest, causing him to fall onto his back as he groaned from the pain of the attack.
The Martial Arts Marching Band representative stopped playing suddenly, and shouted, "Big Brass Bash!" She swung her trombone powerfully at the prone Sukira. Before the blow could connect, Sukira sat up and extended his finger, striking it directly into the musical instrument with a yell of, "Bakusai Tenketsu!"
The trombone shattered, and then exploded right next to both of the combattants. The crowd panicked, and turned away as best as they could from the sudden attack. As they turned back to see what had happened, they saw Noranov looking rather cut up and very disarmed while Sukira was relatively unscathed by the attack.
The 'Master of Martial Arts' smiled as he rose to his feet, and said, "How effective is Trombitsu without the Trombone?" His opponent was already battered, so he struck out with a simple pressure point technique. Noranov was too slow to dodge it, and when it hit, she was knocked out.
With his opponent on the ground, Sukira took bows to the crowd as they cheered for him. The annoucer said, "The winner by knockout... Sukira Kurenai! Thanks to everyone for attending, and remember: When a true martial artist like Sukira gets thirsty, they drink Wonder-Ade." Sukira frowned, and didn't appreciate being used as an advertisement tool unless he was getting a cut, but decided to let it slide.
The Results:
Sukira Kurenai: 5
Noranov: 2
I'm fairly sure I got one person voting several times on this fight. I didn't count those votes, and they wouldn't have made a difference to the outcome anyways. Please don't multi-vote. This whole web site is just for fun... Cheating is really kinda pointless.