Final Round

The Setting:

Young people of all sorts showed up for the final match of the martial arts tournament, which was scheduled to take place very soon on the Fuurinkan High soccer field. Many of those amongst the crowd who made a point of being at every martial arts competition were very curious about how this one would turn out. Both of the competitors had easily dealt with their opponents in the previous round, and they would be facing each other without any serious injuries that would lower their fighting potential. Word amongst the students was that even Nabiki had given the two competitors nearly equal odds against each other.

Over the previous matches, both fighters had accumulated something of a fan club. The ones who had come out in support of Noriko were mostly young men. Some of them had bought specially made T-Shirts (provided by the event's staff) which had their heroine's name written on them. A few of them even brought along tennis racquets, which they planned to wave around in support.

Eddie's fan club was composed mostly of young ladies, some of which wore T-Shirts which read, 'Eddie Wong.' A few of them went as far as to have samurai-style banners constructed, which had 'Go Eddie' or something similar written on them. The two fan clubs gathered on opposite sides of the field, and waited anxiously for the fight.

At the scheduled time of the match to begin, the announcer took his microphone in hand, and said, "Welcome everyone, to the concluding match of our martial arts tournament! Today we will finally find out who the greatest martial artist in all of Nerima is!"

Ranma, who was in the audience, grumbled.

The announcer went on, "Introducing our first fighter, of the Wong school of Anything-Goes Martial Arts, the young man who hasn't had much trouble from his opposition so far... It's Eddie Wong!" Eddie took to the field, and began strolling toward the center. The ground of the soccer field was somewhat unstable after all the fights Ranma and friends had been involved in here, and chances were, it was about to get a lot worse. The Eddie fans all stood up and cheered as loud as they could, but he didn't seem affected by it. He wore a look of concentration and readiness.

After Eddie was well onto the field and the cheering died down, the announcer started to speak again, "And last but not least, the young tennis champ who has served defeat to all of her opponents, and a practitioner of the deadly Gagema Piston Power style, it's none other than Noriko Gagema!" Noriko made her way out onto the field, wearing a pleasant smile on her face. She was dressed in the usual tennis attire, and armed with her usual tennis racquet. Her fans, not to be outdone by Eddie's, started cheering as loud as they could.

The two fighters made it to the center of the ring, and gave a short bow to one another. Noriko said, "So it's just the two of us now, is it? I'd wish you luck, but... well, you understand, don't you? I intend to win this match."

Eddie nodded, and said, "I understand. I always prefered to make my own luck, at any rate. May the best martial artist win." The two of them dropped into their respective fighting stances as they waited for the referee's signal to begin the fight.

Comments:

Arcanine10

Ah!  Finally we arrive at the final battle!  I must say, that this is a really, REALLY, R E A L L Y great and extremely close fight!  Both fighters have extrememly high fighting ability.  Eddie has once narrowly beaten Ranma.  And Noriko is described as "almost as powerful as Ranma" without her weapon of choice, the Tennis Raquet.  With the raquet (and the moves that come with it), it could be assumed that she would be even more powerful than Ranma.  Both Characters also have a variety of cool and useful moves that have been demonstrated throughout their previous fights. I'm haveing  alot of trouble deciding who the winner should be... But I guess as a tie breaker, I will look at the character's personalities.  Eddie is described as having a "pure heart."  This might be a good thing in most circumstances, but it seems like it's the kind of thing that might keep a person from going that extra mile in a fight and taking a fight to the next level due to sympathy for the opponent.  Since this fight is so close, both fighters would be pushed to the very limits of their endurance.  Anger and even perhaps a little blind hatred at your enemy might be necessary to keep going through a fight this severe, and though neither fighter is suited to this task at all, I think Noriko's personalitity is a closer match to this feature than Eddie's "pure hearted" personality.

Jarvis

Let's face facts, Noriko's a great fighter in all, but Eddie is just fierce.  Even with his good sportsmanship and subdued manner, Eddie is a physical monster on the battlefield, annihilating all he's faced with skill and intellect.  Noriko has an extensive bag of moves which can play to her advantage, especially the 'Mizumi Rise'.  Even if Eddie uses his vaccuum kick, the blast can still hit him.  However, Eddie tops her in the power department, which eventually will lead to Noriko's downfall.

Stephen Schlueter

I'm kind of glad Sukira's not fighting Eddie. That would've been just plain creepy. But as for this match I'd have to say that since Noriko is about as skilled as Eddie. But, to me  Eddie seems to have won his matches with overwhelming majority of votes. (Noriko won against Sukira in an overwhelming majority but everyone who voted said that the match would be close, the exact opposite of the Wong-Soyokaze match). Eddie might be expecting another relatively easy fight and that could be his downfall. Plus Noriko has a lot more determination to win this thing. And if Eddie is anything like Ranma (or even Sukira) he'll be putting less than 100% into fighting Noriko. It'll be close but Noriko should win. (Sorry about the shameless Sukira plugs. I just don't want him to be forgotten.)

Hitman25

This is perhaps the closest match in the whole tournament.  These two are both as good as Ranma or maybe even better.  Still, I'm going to have to go with Eddie.  In terms of speed and strength, he already has the advantage, even with his weights on.  Also, remember that he's been fighting all his matches with his weights on which gives him a better warm up.  Once he takes them off, it will only make things harder for Noriko.  Eddie also may have the advantage as far as mind and strategy is concerned.  He tends to stay a couple steps ahead of his opponent and as shown in his battle with Ranma, the Hiryu Shoten Ha is practically useless against him.  Noriko can only use the Hiryu Shoten Ha when Eddie wants her to.  And when she does, well... ask Ranma what happens next.

Spanner

More than any of the other characters of the tournament, Noriko stands a fair chance of defeating Eddie. While Eddie has no real weaknesses, Noriko only has two: Her fear of water, and the specialization of her martial arts style. Water probably isn't going to be a factor in this fight. So, it comes down to a test of skill. As long as Noriko is not unarmed, her skill rating is similar to Eddie's. But on top of that, this is another fight in which Will-to-Win is an important factor. While the near-fanatical desire to win did not save Chen-Shan Chin, Noriko is a better fighter than he is. So, while Eddie has the advantage this fight skill-wise, I think that Noriko's desire to win the trip to China will put her on top. Go Noriko!

The Fight:

The two combattants continued to wait for the referees to begin the match. The crowd collectively held its breath as everyone waited to see how the match would begin. Noriko shifted her stance suddenly to one that was better suited to powerful offense. Eddie reacted by shifting into a more defensive Tae Kwon Do stance. The two continued changing their fighting stances to be best prepared once the fight started.

The head referee took a step forward, and shouted, "Fight!" After saying this, he quickly retreated to avoid any potentially devisating ki attacks that he'd been warned about.

Noriko quickly thought, "Winners strike first!" She stepped in toward Eddie, and brought her tennis racquet down in an overhead strike. Her opponent was certainly no slouch when it came to speed, and he brought his arm up to easily block. Wasting no time, he countered with a strong kick. Noriko took a step back, putting herself out of the kick's range.

The tennis racquet gave her a slight advantage in terms of reach, and Noriko knew she would have to exploit it if she was going to get in the first few hits. She summoned up her resolve, and then charged in again. The attack started off with a racquet jab, which Eddie sidestepped rather easily. Noriko followed up with a backhand strike, which her opponent had to hop back to avoid. She continued to press her attack, while Eddie just continued dodging.

Eddie thought to himself, "I really don't like to hit girls... This isn't making it very easy to fight." He continued dodging the strikes as he went over the techniques he knew for disabling opponents without causing them much pain. Before he could come up with a sound strategy, however, Noriko had forced him to dodge to his left, where she was waiting to strike. Eddie was hit across his face with a quick swipe of his opponent's weapon, causing him to stumble back a bit.

Noriko held off on her attack, not wanting to exhaust herself this early in the match. However much this guy was restraining himself, she had no idea how many hits he could take, and it wouldn't do any good being worn out if he suddenly decided to fight back with everything he had.

Eddie thought to himself as he checked his wound, "She's really serious about this... I suppose I'll have to bite the bullet and just fight her." He fell back into his fighting stance, and before Noriko could prepare another offensive, he rushed at her. Eddie threw a kick, which Noriko easily blocked with her weapon. He followed up with another kick, but Noriko had no difficulty blocking it either. It was clear to Eddie that his opponent was not one to be underestimated, and however strong his kicks might be, it didn't mean anything if all he could connect with was her weapon.

Eddie feinted a kick, and when Noriko brought her racquet down to block, Eddie reached down and grabbed ahold of the weapon's handle. Both combattants fought to gain control of the tennis racquet, each one straining to pull it toward themself. As hard as Noriko pulled, however, Eddie was obviously the stronger of the two. The tennis player decided she needed to take additional measures to win the tug-of-war. She threw a kick at the side of Eddie's head, but he was able to block by bringing up his elbow. Even though the attack was unsuccessful, it gave Noriko the chance to re-adjust her grip on the racquet without losing any ground in the battle for it's possession.

The crowd on either side of the soccer field started cheering as loud as they could. Each fan club wanted to give their fighter all of their support. Eddie thought to himself, "Kicking, huh? Well, two can play at this game." He brought up his own leg, and kicked out at Noriko, and she blocked with her elbow just as Eddie had done only moments ago. Eddie's kick was a bit stronger, however, so she nearly lost her grip on her weapon. The Anything-Goes Martial Artist kicked out again to press his advantage, but this time the tennis player brought up her own leg and blocked with that. Now the two martial artists were stuck with both of their hands on the tennis racquet, and one of their legs up in the air. It was at this point that Eddie decided to just let go of the racquet.

Noriko, half-suspecting that Eddie was planning on doing this all along, didn't stumble back very far. In just a few steps she was back on her feet and in her fighting stance again. As she looked at her opponent, however, she realized what he had really been planning all this time. After a few quick arm motions designed to build one's ki, Eddie shouted, "Pure Heart Attack!" He released a powerful ball of energy from his hands which was aimed directly at the other fighter.

The tennis player leapt to the side in desperation, but wasn't fast enough to avoid being grazed by the ki attack. Her flight through the air was forced off track, and she ended up landing in the dirt on her side. Eddie paused for a moment to rest after expending as much energy as he did, which gave Noriko the opportunity to rise to her feet again.

Eddie charged in at his opponent again, thinking, "Time to finish this fight and collect my prize." Noriko started charging at him as well, and the two of them leapt up into the air. As they got closer, Eddie brought his leg back and threw a kick. Noriko twisted in air, and managed to plant a hand on Eddie's outstretched foot. While poised in such a way, the tennis player shouted, "Ki web!" and channeled her ki into her opponent, immobilizing him. Noriko pushed herself free, and landed safely on the ground some distance away.

Falling toward the ground, Eddie started gathering his energy to break free from the technique that had just been used on him. He managed to do so just before he hit the ground, and landed without taking any damage. While turning around to face his opponent again, he heard her shout, "Mizumi Rise!" Noriko was crouched on the ground some distance away, her hands pressed into the dirt. She projected her ki into the ground below, and it emerged right below Eddie, before he could react. The ki blasted him high into the air, and seconds later, he fell down to the ground with a loud 'thud.'

Noriko took a moment to rest as her opponent stood to his feet once again. He said to her, "This fight is really getting intense. I guess the warm-up is over with." He pulled off his jacket, and in a dramatic gesture, dropped it to the ground. When it hit, it caused a small impact crater to develop because of its weight. After that, he removed the weights from his wrists, and discarded them as well.

The tennis player thought to herself, "If he was that good wearing all of that junk, what is he gonna be like now?" As if to answer her question, Eddie suddenly charged again, almost too quickly for her to react in time. He threw a kick, which she blocked, although the attack's force was enough to drive her back just a bit. Without the weights restraining him, Eddie was much faster, and he was able to kick from the other side before Noriko could recover from the last one. She was struck in her lower back, and grunted from what was obviously a very heavy blow.

She swung her racquet out in a counter-attack, but Eddie just sidestepped it, and in a quick motion he kicked the weapon free from her hand. It flew some distance through the air before finally falling into the dirt at the edge of the soccer field. She was rather wide open when Eddie shouted out, "Lightning Strike!" Within a blink of an eye, at least in the crowd's perspective, Eddie kicked out several times at his opponent, and sent her tumbling to the ground after he was finished. The Eddie fans cheered, and the Noriko fans held their breath, hoping that she was still in fighting condition.

Noriko slowly rose to her feet, feeling the effects of each and every kick that Eddie had delivered to her during his attack. She considered the fact that she was no longer armed with her racquet, and her opponent had just gotten a lot faster and stronger. She closed her eyes, and thought, "There's no way I'm going to lose now.. not after coming this far." She stood up tall and looked ready to fight. Her fans cheered on her sudden second wind.

Meanwhile, Eddie observed his opponent, and mused, "Is this really worth it? Should I keep on fighting her...?" He shook his head, "I must keep fighting. This is the true path of a martial artist." He got into a fighting stance, and quickly charged at the tennis player again. To his surprise, she charged right back, giving a loud battle cry. Noriko was the first to attack, throwing a punch, which Eddie made no attempt to dodge. Just when Noriko was sure it would connect, it seemed to pass right through his body. Suddenly, his image dissapeared, and the tennis player felt herself being punched hard in the back.

"He's fast..." she thoguht to herself as she spun around to face him. She stepped forward and punched again, and not surprisingly her fist just traveled right through where his body should have been. Anticipating this, she turned around and caught the fist that the Anything-Goes martial artist had intended for her. She yelled out, "Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken!" With her free hand, she pummeled Eddie several times in the chest, and since he was being held by his fist, he couldn't use his after-image movement technique again. To free himself, he kicked her in the side, and sure enough, her grip relaxed enough to let him get free.

Noriko's punches started meeting nothing but air again, and she said, "Oh, no you don't! Dream Berserker Blitz!" She gathered her ki, and released it in every direction around her. Eddie managed to get in one solid kick to her side before the ki wave slammed into him, carrying him for some distance before depositing him on the ground rather roughly. Noriko stood at the epicenter of the blast, in the rather wide crater that it had created. Feeling a bit dizzy, she had to kneel down to keep from falling.

The tennis player's fan club cheered uproarously for their godess of battle, but as the dust finally cleared, they all fell silent. Eddie rose to his feet with some effort. He started gathering his energy, and said, "I have to commend you on your strength. Few people are as skilled... However, this match is mine." He extended his hands, and shouted, "Purify Buster!" A beam of pure white engergy streaked forth, heading directly at Noriko. She stood to her feet, but the Dreak Berserker Blitz had simply taken too much out of her, and it was taking nearly all she had just to stand.

The people in the crowd had to turn their eyes away from the field as the blast hit its target. As the rumbling and the flying of dirt subsided, they all looked back to make sense of what happened, only to see the entire soccer field shrouded in dust. Eddie's form could be made out, still standing in his post-attack pose. As the dust started to settle, Noriko's body could be seen firmly planted into the wall of the soccer field. It was now the turn of Eddie's fan club to cheer, and they did so with wild abandon.

Just as the referees were about to proclaim a victor, however, Noriko stirred. The tennis player was doing everything in her power to retain consciousness, so peeling herself from the wall was certainly no easy task. She thought to herself, "I can't believe this... The only thing standing between me and being cured of the curse is this jerk! I can't lose... I can't lose to him when so much is at stake. I -won't- lose." After a struggle, she got to her feet, and took a fighting stance. She was covered in bruises and dirt from head to toe, and her ki reserve was almost completely drained. Regardless, something inside her was too stubborn to lie down and quit, so she was prepared to fight on.

Eddie, from the other side of the field, dropped into his own fighting stance. He had just put nearly everything he had into that last Purify Buster. Never had he fought such a resilient opponent. He thought, "I don't know if I can go on much longer... But she has to be worse off than I am. She just doesn't have the skill to beat me." For his part, he had bruises and dirt all over his body as well. Things looked in all aspects even between the two combattants.

They slowly walked toward each other, choosing to save their strength for the next exchange, which both knew would be decisive. As they got closer, however, their speed started to pick up, going from a walk, to a jog, to a full blown run. They shouted their battle cries, and prepared themselves. Eddie was the first to act, throwing one of his kicks. It was much slower than what he'd been capable of earlier in the match, but even so Noriko had difficulty bringing her arm up to block it in time. She staggered a bit, but managed to regain her footing. With a shout, she threw a punch at his chin. Eddie caught the fist in one of his hands easily, but Noriko quickly followed up. The Anything-Goes Martial Artist smiled slightly, and caught her other fist.

Eddie had his trap set, and said, "It's over." He reared back his head, and stood poised to deliver the finishing blow.

Noriko saw him preparing to head butt her, and replied, "Yes, it is. Gagema Piston Power Final Attack... Final Kiss!" As his head descended toward hers, she suddenly leapt up, and planted her lips on his forehead.

Noriko's feet returned to the ground, and the two of them stood still for what seemed to be an eternity. A gust of wind blew through the soccer field, and Eddie Wong fell to the ground unconscious. Noriko dropped to her knees, no longer having the strength to stand up. The referees checked out the fallen Anything-Goes Martial Artist, and then declared the winner. The announcer told the crowd, "The winner by knockout, and our tournament champion, is Noriko Gagema!!!" The crowd went wild, except for the Eddie fans, who stared at their feet in sadness.

One month later...

Noriko trugded trough the mountainous terrain that seemed to be around her for as far as the eye could see. She was well equipped for hiking, with a rather sizeable backpack and appropriate clothing, but it was obvious that she'd been at it for a long time. She thought to herself, "Am I still in the Bayankala Range? Jusenkyo has to be around here somewhere.. Ooh, I just hate how far out of the way this place is..."

Suddenly, there was a rustling to her side, and when she looked over toward the bushes, she saw none other than Ryouga Hibiki emerge. He shouted, seemingly at random, "Where on Earth am I?!" Noticing Noriko, he looked a little embarassed, and said, "What a strange place to see you, Noriko-san. I didn't know you were vacationing here in Hokkaido."

"Hokkaido? But we're in China, Ryouga-kun..." She looked around, trying to confirm what she said, and her eyes happened to fall upon a sign. Of course, it was inconveniently written in Roman letters. She said, "I wonder what that sign says... It isn't in English that's for sure. At any rate, we can travel together now until we find where we're trying to go."

Ryouga nodded his head, and the two of them started hiking off through the mountains. Noriko thought to herself, "Well, I might never find Jusenkyo, but at least I'll get to travel with Ryouga-kun for a while." The two of them dissapeared into the mountain wilderness, leaving behind the sign, which read in French, "France-Switzerland Border."

The Results:

Noriko Gagema: 6

Eddie Wong: 5

Wow... This one was as close as I hoped it would be. (There were a few multi-votes, which kinda sucks since I asked people not to do that. I just disregarded them, though). I guess this means that the tournament is finally over. My thanks go out many times over to those who sent in their characters, and those who stuck around to keep voting in the matches even after their own characters were knocked out of the running. If it isn't a whole lot of trouble, please fill out the form on the main tourney page, so if I get enough good entries to run a second tournament, I'll have a better idea of how I can improve the process. Again, thanks! ^_^

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