The Demon and the Robot Man (spar, grav x20)

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Carmine sat quietly in the Demon Galleon's training chamber, his legs crossed into lotus position. His sword was laid across his lap, and the helmet of his heavy weighted training gear was placed next to him on the floor.

He was waiting for the Captain to arrive. He'd sent Oda to give the demon a message asking for a moment of his time in the training room. He gave no further details, and hoped it was enough to tempt Ryota to come.

Until then, he would sit in meditation, preparing himself for what was to come.

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As Carmine sat meditating in the training room one of Ryota's rifts would open up a few feet away from him and into the room through the rift would step Ryota. He'd been working in his quarters when Oda had come knocking telling him that Carmine apparently wanted to speak with him in the training room. The fact that Carmine hadn't come himself seemed rather odd to Ryota so after Oda had left he'd used his sword to make the trip from his quarters to the training room instantaneous.

As Ryota entered the room he was rather surprised to see that Carmine seemed to be wearing some sort of armor. "Hey Carmine what's up? Oda said you wanted me. Considering where we are I'm going to guess you want to have a spar or something." Ryota said with a grin as he dismissed his rift and placed a hand on his blade just in case Carmine intended to start things off with a surprise attack.

It had been a while since he and Carmine had had a spar with the tournament being there last actual fight though Ryota didn't much enjoy counting that one considering he'd lost control and his other side had taken over and caused all sorts of chaos.

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Carmine opened his eyes and looked at Ryota. He smiled slightly, putting his legs beneath himself and standing. Under one arm he held his helmet, in his other hand his sword. He silently walked to the training room door and locked it. He turned to face Ryota.

"We need to discuss something, Ryota. I figured we may as well have a match while we were at it. Talk is cheap, after all."

He flicked on the gravity with his foot. 20 times that of Earth's normal. He slid his helmet over his head and raised his blade.

"Tell me more about this Samael guy that hitched a ride with us after the tournament."

A baiting comment. Behind his helmet, his brow was furrowed. He knew all about Samael's business practices and overall moral value. He wanted to know if Ryota knew. He followed his words with his blade, a lunge for Ryota's stomach.

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Ryota raised an eyebrow as he spotted which switch Carmine had flipped, it was twice that of what he was used to and as the gravity settled on him he cringed ever so slightly. He managed a smirk as Carmine came at him however the smirk quickly faltered as Carmine asked about Samael, asked about him by name. To his knowledge Carmine didn't know the other Makaioshin save for the few moments they would have spent in one anthers presence at the banquet. So why exactly was he asking about him?

Ryota quickly drew his own sword and almost too late managed to block the strike as the gravity took it's tole on Ryota's speed. Letting out a breath Ryota took a few swipes at Carmine deciding to keep things to just pure swordsmanship for the moment as it would make continued conversation easier. "You know him? I'm a bit surprised. He's a Makaioshin like myself though hes... a bit more like the more 'common' Makaioshin with the important exception that he's all intellect and charisma rather than brute force like the majority." Ryota said as he made a few quick swipes at Carmine's chest and sword arm.

"He worked for my father which is why he knows who I am and why I know anything about him. Though from what I've learned he's since split from my father though I doubt it's because of any moral issues. More likely the old man has simply gotten paranoid and saw Samael as a threat. Which considering what the man does, I wouldn't blame him."

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Carmine only barely blocked the attacked Ryota send his way, and a few of them even screeched off his armor in a shower of sparks. This gravity was something he'd become used to BEFORE he'd attained the armor, but the armor was heavy and encumbering - exactly as he'd intended it.

He returned like he got, however, slashing at Ryota's chest, then his legs as he listened to the man talk.

"Considering what he does? I'm familiar with what he's been doing on Earth. I'm wondering what business YOU had with him, Captain."

He dropped to a knee in an attempt to take Ryota's legs out from under him.

"Especially considering recent events - Suki, that alien we have chained up down in the brig..."

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"Nothing in the brig has anything to do with Samael. Heck the only reason the new one is there is because you put him there." Ryota said as he attempted to pull back from Carmine's attack but the blade managed to just barely cut him across the chest causing Ryota to scowl slightly as he'd neglected to switch to one of his older shirts before heading down here. As Carmine took a swipe at his legs Ryota leapt forward using al the strength he could muster so quickly to do a front flip over Carmine. Luckily Carmine had dropped to one knee making it significantly easier to achieve such a thing despite the gravity.

"As for my business with Samael, he decided he wanted to tell me that I needed to return to the Demon Realm to clean up my father's mess. I told him that I already had every intention of doing so." Ryota said as he landed, he would then take a quick swipe at Carmine's back before switching up to a defensive stance. He didn't quite like keeping his deal with Samael a secret however unless pushed on the subject he would do so considering Carmine's apparent distaste for the man, something Ryota couldn't quite blame him for.

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As Ryota leapt over him, Carmine attempted a wide-arc slash as he turned to face the man. The slash went completely wide, however, and he took Ryota's quick slice solidly. He staggered a bit as he stood up, and lunged into the clash blades with the man again.

As he pressed his blade against Ryota's in a show of strength, he got his face close to the Captain's.

"I need to know that you're not working with him. Not after what he's been doing to my planet."

He drove his knee up in an attempted nutshot.

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"Trust me when I say I'd never deal with that man for any longer than necessary. I'm rather glad I had the chance to see him now as now I no longer need to deal with him. I'm not sure if I've told you Carmine but I intend to take over my home, the Demon Realm. I'd prefer to find out how many of the 'better' Makaioshin are the type I want on my side. Samael is one of the one's that I'd prefer to just keep out of anything, I'm not entirely sure he can be on any side other than his own." Ryota said with a sigh as he pushed back against Carmine's blade. For some reason it felt.. too easy.. As if Carmine wasn't using his full power. Sure Samael had provided him with a power boost but from what the man had said it was supposed to be something akin to his Aura.

Ryota sighed as he pushed against Carmine's blade, he didn't like the level of interest Carmine was showing in Samael, if he pursued the man there was a fair chance that Samael could call in the 'favor' the deal had made it clear that Ryota wouldn't be forced to kill any of his allies but that wouldn't prevent the man from calling him in to simply keep Carmine at bay or take him out with non-lethal force. As Ryota returned his attention to the fight he jsut barely managed to catch slight of Carmine's knee and on instinct shot his hand out to block the knee. Ryota cringed slightly as Carmine's knee smashed into his hand but let out a sigh of relief over the fact that he'd avoided far more damage. "I don't care how many times you try that It's not happening." RYota said with a scowl as he sent a kick at Carmine's ribs.

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Carmine took the kick to the ribs full-force. His 'armor' did little to protect him, as it was intended for training purposes rather than defensive purposes. He staggered back slightly and raised his blade.

"Can't blame me for trying, Captain. And I'm glad to hear you're not fond of Samael. If there were ever a guy I'd call evil, it'd be him."

He dashed forward, executing a three-directional cross slash at Ryota's chest, followed by a kick to the solarplexus. Ryota would clearly be able to see that the force put into the kick would normally have put Carmine's foot at face level - something was holding him back.

"As far as taking over the Demon Realm goes...better the devil you know. I'm behind you on that one, man."

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Ryota raised an eyebrow slightly as he was able to reletively easily block Carmine's slash, it almost seemed like Carmine wasn't moving as fast as he should be, not even counting the lag that would follow from the enhanced gravity. Luckily for Carmine however as Ryota's mind was preoccupied with why Carmine didn't seem to be fighting at full power he left himself open for the kick causing Ryota to stumble back slightly as he let out a grunt of pain. Like Carmine's speed the power behind the kick seemed a bit hampered though even still it was enough to cause a fair amount of damage.

As Ryota recovered form the kick he chuckled at Carmine's choice of words. "Oh trust me, my father is most likely another that would fall within your definition of 'evil' as I mentioned he worked with Samael for a number of years. But he also encourages the general chaotic style of the Demon Realm he just lets them become bloodthirsty monsters rather than organizing the Realm into ANYTHING reasonable." Ryota said while attacking Carmine with a flurry of sword strikes, as he spoke and attacked however Ryota neglected to note that he was letting his anger at the state of the Demon Realm affect him as he was attacking far more viciously than he'd normally do so while fighting Carmine.

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"Good."

And then the barrage of attacks were declared, and Carmine took the majority of them. He made clear and distinct moves to defend, but Ryota was just going too quickly. He'd hoped the gravity might even the odds a bit, but it was clear that he needed to find himself a new edge, and that edge wouldn't be his blade.

He also began to worry about Ryota's sudden fervor. He'd seen the man properly angry before and he didn't want to repeat the event.

"Hey Ryota, do you want to know why I installed these big bug-eyes on my helmet?"

He flourished his blade and hopped back slightly, and the eyes flashed brightly, like the sun.

"PHOTON FLARE!"

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Ryota let out a shout of annoyance as Carmine activated his photon flare and effectively blinded him, once upon a time he could hav eeasily just flipped his eyepatch up and just held back the 'Eye' from activating however now that he'd unlocked the technique once again doing so would be far more difficult then need be and he had no intention of just activating the technique, it would make the fight end far sooner than he wanted it to as even if Carmine could match his full power he knew from experience that Carmine would not last long at full power and his Eye would in and of itself be rather taxing though outlasting wouldn't be that big of a problem it would leave him without any energy for quite a while.

"I hate you so much.." Ryota said with a sigh as he removed his hand from his eye and took up a defensive position intending to try and wait out the temporary blindness, the fact that the blindness severely hindered his abilities to create rifts was incredibly annoying but regardless he still technically COULD, it just meant that he'd need to open a rift to a random part of the Galleon. A Fun little roulette that he'd probably have to try out once Carmine made his move.

Considering his previous experiences with Carmine's use of the Photon Flash Ryota was waiting on the sound of Carmine preparing his Typhoon Kick with any luck Carmine would make some sort of sound beforehand and give him a chance to cut open a rift.

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Carmine was about to jump back into the battle, to attack Ryota while he was blind, but the weight of the gravity and his armor staggered him, and for a moment he nearly fell over. He needed to relax, to calm down. He needed the moment to center himself.

But he could also take the moment to gain an advantage. Sure, it wasn't an advantage that would be obvious, and it might not even be an immediate advantage. He took a deep breath and reached out with his ki. He closed his eyes and felt the flow of energy in the room, hindered by the gravity but still there. He felt his own flow, and then he felt Ryota's. And then he found the Captain's center.

"You'd think you'd wear sunglasses to our fights, Captain."

He crouched low and raised his blade defensively.

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"Yeah I think I might just need to invest in a a pair." Ryota said with a chuckle as he kept up his defensive position, he'd heard Carmine stumble and because of how on edge he was he he'd actually almost cut open a rift but when head heard Carmine moving back to his original position he'd managed to stop himself.

The room was almost eerily silent, the one thing Ryota definitely hated was that because Carmine was an android he couldn't sense any energy coming off of the man so he wasn't even sure if Carmine was just standing there making him look like an ass for still keeping up his defense or if Carmine was just charging up some sort of super technique.

He was incredibly surprised that Carmine had not yet used his Typhoon kick, it was incredibly common for him to take any chance to nail that technique considering how devastating it could be when the opponent could not properly defend.

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Carmine looked on as the Captain took longer to recover than expected. He knew he could sit and wait, let the Captain come to him, fight defensively, but was that really the best call? Certainly by now the man was listening, waiting for some indicator of Carmine's position.

So he summoned his strength, crouched low, and dove forward in a tumbling roll. His armor made quite a clamor against the floor, but it would not be footsteps - Ryota would have no clue what stance Carmine came up in, which as it turned out was a very low stance. Then, the Android raised his sword arm up, so the hilt was high and to the right, and gave his wrist a flick, the shock ringing the bells attached to the pommel. His strike, however, would really come from the lower left as Carmine fluidly moved his arm into position and executed a diagonal cross-slash upward along Ryota's torso.