Clash of the martial artists! (For Gnihton)

Qi had been considering everything that had been happening since she left Beijing for Japan, her Brother had followed her and was competing in tension. Although he hadn't really had any action yet, so Chuang had been hitting the gym with fervour. And when the Lingxian siblings had went to the beach her Brother developed a crush on a wrestler by the name of Mikoto Kusanagi, and was going to visit her place soon. Qi had been happy for her Brother, since coming to Japan she could tell he was homesick. He didn't show it, Chuang always kept himself upbeat. Still though Qi knew her Brother, sometimes she thought better than he did.

It turned out that Mikoto and her friend Suzumi had been wrestlers in an organization called wrestle angels, which went bust and under it seemed. It reminded Qi of WCW, and speaking of wrestling.....Qi had come off from a match against a man called Blaise Cameron. He had acted a bit well, odd to say the least in the match. But still Qi won in the end, and he didn't attack her after it. So in the end it was a moot point.

So with that in mind Qi had headed inside the friction gym, dressed in a white tanktop and white sports bra with black leather gloves. Her lower body had black jogging bottoms with red stripes and black footwraps around her feet, Qi's long brown hair was put in a practical ponytail.

The fist of compassion stepped into a nearby ring, doing some light stretching and working out like her parents taught her. After a few minutes of this Qi had begun doing a slow martial art kata, her thoughts were on how she might do in her next match. After all it had been some time since Qi had a match in friction, but she was also considering just going to tension and tag teaming with her Brother.

Zi Qui was still relatively new to the AFW scene, up until recently she had been training as well as living in the ancient temple of Shaolin, but due to the tragic loss of the one she called father, Zi wished to leave, put her years of gruelling training to some good use, hoping that all the negativity and ever prominent sadness would be unable to follow her. Unfortunately, memories aren't things which you can simply run away from, no matter who you are, or how hard you may try.

In an attempt to get better aquatint with her surroundings and perhaps distract herself from the lingering misery, Zi had headed to where she believed the Friction gym to be located, wearing her seemingly singular attire, religiously washed white bandages wrapping around her hands, elbows, legs and waist, all accompanied by thin crimson strands of rope. A similar bandage of a more light brown colour coiling around her chest, finely woven red silk covering her endless gaze, long black hair tied back into an equally long braid, void black tattoos scattered over her entire body.

Upon reaching her destination, Zi entered the gym as quietly as possible before standing tall, slowly beginning to silently scan the area, searching for something to strike.

Qi was wrapped up in what she was doing, it had been some time since she had done light breathing workouts. Her win loss record has only been a few matches, making her still seem like a bit of a newcomer. Which in truth she sort of was, but back in Beijing Qi had gained a good deal of renown alongside her Brother Chuang.

The pair got into all kinds of stuff, usually sorting it out with a pair of fists and a word or two. It seemed like a long ways ago, even if it wasn't actually. Qi gave a smile and opened her eyes, getting out of her stance as she did so. And leaned against the ropes, and then she noticed someone entering the gym.

Qi had to admit this woman looked like she knew her stuff, tattoos and bandages. It instantly made Qi remind herself of China, and if the woman looked the part....then Qi might have herself a good partner to spar with, aside from her Brother. Still though the fist of compassion wanted to see what this woman could do, see if she walked the outfit so to speak.

"Yo! You uh, looking for someone to spar with?" Qi said, titling her head slightly and raising an eyebrow.

As soon as the figure in the ring spoke to her Zi turned her head, focusing her hidden eyes on the girl within an instant, whilst maintaining an unreadable facial expression. An actual living person to spar with would certainly have numerous positive points, such as them being able to dodge and hit back, yet there could be negative problems as well, the main one for Zi being that she may actually have to engage someone in conversation, something which she currently disliked greatly.

Zi remained silent and motionless for quite a considerable amount of time, internally debating with herself whether this would be a good idea, not removing her eyes from the girl for even a moment.

"Yes." Is the only quiet word Zi spoke, in a somewhat late reply to the question. In the end she decided that sparring with an actual person would be a lot more beneficial to her training, instead of just constantly beating on an inanimate object. Zi's only problem was that she currently viewed this girl to be delicate, and she would rather not break anything unless she had to.

This girl had accepted Qi's offer to spar, hitting training dummies was all well and good. Even more so as stress relief, smacking your Brother outside of sparring wasn't very acceptable behaviour she had learned. Even more so when he was just as good as you, more so in Smash Bros. Him and that damnable Falco.

Still this girl was quiet, even more so than Qi had expected. But Ms Lingxian could tell that there was potential here, her outfit and the way she carried herself. Qi reckoned she had snagged a good catch, you wouldn't find this in Beijing. Although Qi and her Brother did actually spar against a Tai Chi expert....who was over 100 and he still kicked their asses. But this was Japan and not China, here they had cosplay and power rangers! And Qi couldn't get started on the crazy stuff that could happen in Friction, she had seen some of it and her parents would flay her if she ever did any of that stuff.

Qi kept a smile on her face, doing some light stretching as she did. "Sweet! Get in this ring when your ready."

Once Zi entered Qi would say to her "So is there anything you wish to focus on? I'm Qi Lingxian by the way." giving a small and polite bow to the girl. The fist of compassion had been taught from a young age to always be polite and respectful to those she crossed paths with.

Without a glimmer of hesitation Zi made her way into the ring, at last breaking eye contact with Qi as she climbed onto the ring side, grabbing the top rope and nimbly hopping over it before making her way to the rings centre.

This was the first time that Zi had ever been in a proper ring, she hadn't expected it to feel any different from her usual training grounds, yet this was not the case, and even though she was maintaining her neutral facial expression, it wasn't hard to tell she was feeling a certain sense of wonderment.

At last breaking herself from thought, Zi locked her eyes back onto Qi, giving more of a slow drawn out bow as she finally replied with the same monotone voice, "Im Zi. I would like to focus on overall combat." As with last time she spoke, her words were quiet and planned, she had decided not to give her second name as she didn't wish to make friends, only to train and become more skilled in the art of combat.

Qi could tell a few things from how Zi carried herself, one thing was that she didn't seem talkative. The other was that Zi knew how to carry herself, it was with confidence and certainty in battle. The fist of compassion could tell that this was going to be good, and looking on it now it had been some time since Qi went up against another martial artist. Not since she left Beijing in fact, unless you counted Chuang. But he was her Brother, so it kinda didn't count.

Still though a ring was one place Qi still wasn't fully used to, fights back home were often in large open spaces that were flat. A ring was still smaller than say a street or building rooftop, and it had ropes and turnbuckles. Which provided for extra layers of potential mixups.

After doing her bow Qi said "Zi huh? Nice name, pleasure to meet you. Overall combat's just fine with me, shall we just go at each other till we're tired then?" Qi would say before entering her stance. Her left hand was balled into a fist and placed near her belly button, the right hand was out stretched with the elbow bent and her palm forward. Zi might be skilled in martial arts, but so was Qi. Still though the fist of compassion wasn't sure about what sort of style her sparring partner was good with, but Qi knew that she'd find out once they got underway.

Zi was also quite perceptive, and because of this she was also able to tell a few things about Qi, first being that Qi wasn't at all intimidated by her, something which wasn't very common in people she had met, second being that Qi was experienced in martial arts, something easily recognizable by her stance.

In an attempt to up the ante, as well as to see if Qi would allow herself to be intimidated, Zi responded to the earlier question, "Or until one of us cannot continue." As always her voice was neutral, yet this time it contained an obvious element of challenge.

Without delay Zi entered her stance, slamming a single palm into the canvas before swiftly leaning back up, hunching her back and standing on tip toes, extending both arms forward before moving her fingers into claw like shapes. Ones prepared, Zi remained motionless, waiting for Qi to make the first move, interested on how she would do so.

"Heh, well there's that. But now then, let's begin Zi-san." Qi said with a nod of her head, the fist of compassion had to admit that she hadn't seen Zi's stance before. But she could tell that her sparring partner was handling it like a pro, a large grin appeared on Qi's face.

In fact she was almost quivering in anticipation, perhaps it been the feeling of not exchanging blows against another martial artist. Obviously being here in friction meant one faced several different types of opponents, but at the end of the day martial arts were the thing that Qi loved to see in her opponents. It was a simple thing, but the way one carried themselves, and how they battled spoke volumes without words.

But now it was time to begin the battle, Qi was focused and ready to begin. And it was obvious to the fist of compassion that Zi was letting her go first, no doubt intrigued on witnessing how Qi would attack. That was fine with Qi, perfectly in fact. Qi took a couple of large steps and then went right into the motions of a butterfly kick, flying right at Zi's current position.

Through a simple choice of words Zi had managed to learn something quite important about Qi, this being that she wouldn't let herself be intimidated so easily, in fact she appeared to revel in the thought of fighting until the point of unconsciousness, something which would certainly prove to be most potent in their intense sparring session.

Moments later Qi made the first move, taking a couple of nimble steps forward and motioning into a powerful yet swift butterfly kick.

Luckily Zi recognized the movement pattern, darting backwards whilst remaining on her tip toes, avoiding the attack by mere inches, feeling Qi's foot come dangerously close to her. Attempting to retaliate quickly, Zi would pounce forwards like a tiger, trying to knock Qi down, if she managed to do this Zi would aim a few sharp blows at Qi's face before backing off.