Dynamite Dive (Closed, Jazmine)

--- arisu ---

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"Yo! What's up?"

Arisu spun to face Jazmine with an immediate expression of relief and excitement. "You came! Thank you! I didn't know who else to look to for ideas, but since it was your demonstrations during the Payload exercise that taught me that this sorta stuff was even possible, I wanted to try to go to the source for assistance." She did her best to keep her enthusiasm reined in- Jazmine, or Ember, used a similar quirk but had amped it to such high octane and control that she couldn't help but be a little awed of all that the girl had accomplished with such a volatile quirk at her disposal.

"So- ah- I suppose it'd help to give you a little demonstration and explanation, right? So you know what we're working with?" Arisu's mind was racing, plucking the best exemplifiers of her own abilities to lay out for consideration. She knew that its applications were still relatively limited, so she decided it'd be best to lay them all out at once. She climbed into one of the empty rings, wanting some clear space to show her stuff, and started off by dashing towards the other side of the ring.

She wasn't particularly quick, but what was relatively impressive all things considered was her maneuvering ability. She snapped from a full tilt sprint to leaping into the air and turning 180 degrees before firing off a blast of black flames from locked arms that immediately sent her rocketing back the other direction, hitting the ground at full-on sprint speed back towards Jazmine. Another burst sent her flipping head over heels on a backwards arc fifteen feet into the air, before catching herself on the way down with a last gentle gout of flame. She still ended up stumbling backwards on the landing from leftover horizontal momentum, but it did a great job of showcasing where she was- a good understanding of the way the movement could work, but little finesse, high-speed application, or experience in being creative with it, much less using it offensively, all of which Jazmine excelled at.

Arisu jogged back to the edge of the ring and leaned on the ropes, crossing her arms in front of her. She wasn't winded, but there were faint dark lines starting to creep up her arms from her wrists. "Aheh... what do you think? Is that enough to get started, Jazmine-san?"

Arisu wasn't exactly privy to Jazmine's injuries or block from exertion- chances were that was going to get her a talking to, down the road as well. Rin wasn't likely to be very happy her less-than-well beloved got roped into some upstart new kid's acrobatics training...

--- arisu ---

- Motel Madness -

Intentionally or not, Jazmine had Arisu's number- flattery did wonders for the girl, and complimenting her drive to improve in the same breath that she deemed it not only admirable, but proper in contrast to the others in their school reframed her drive as a positive sign of dedication instead of an outpouring of her internal neuroses, which was how it felt a lot of the time. Maybe Jaz hadn't specifically been aiming to leave her erstwhile protege glowing- but she succeeded anyhow, and literally left Arisu bouncing on her heels in restrained excitement.

Arisu didn't have time to note Jazmine's bust, sizeable or not, while in the middle of her exhibition, but it was certainly easier to note once the blonde had her arms just beneath it, piquing Arisu's attention for precisely long enough to muse that she might actually have it worse than Arisu herself when it came to finding the right... "support" that was both in junior's sizes and the proper cup measurements. Then the thoughts were blown away in the training session's second glowing compliment, praising her on exploring her own foundations and being past the introductory stage and ready for application training.

In moments, Jazmine had exploded (literally) off the starting line and claimed the center of the ring, and demanded that Arisu show her what she had going in combat. The dark-haired girl nodded quickly and stepped up to the metaphorical plate, taking a boxer's guard before charging at Jazmine and winding up for a punch far, far too early, telegraphing the attack from here to kingdom come and starting to throw the blow so soon her arm would fully extend a good moment or two before her momentum would carry her close enough for the punch to strike. It looked utterly amateur. It looked like a novice mistake.
It stopped looking that way when it exploded!

Arisu's arm flared with blackfire and cascaded a thick gout of the stuff forward, simultaneously reversing her advance and launching her backwards while also sending a rush of the heatless, enervating substance in a violent rush towards Jazmine. In the split second where most would shift from expecting her to change direction to deciding she was going to maintain that backwards rush, she set off a second burst behind her, launching her up and over Jazmine's head if not otherwise interrupted. Her plan was to shoot over the taller girl and ricochet once more, coming back to deliver a quick punch between her shoulders from a fist wrapped in the dark, exhausting flames, before firing off one more propulsive blast into Jaz's back to throw her out of melee range again.

Of course, melee range meant diddly to Jazmine, but she'd asked Arisu to set up the most surprising attack she could, and a chain of ranged feints shifting melee and melee feints shifting ranged while constantly changing her momentum to prevent her location from becoming predictable seemed the best way to show what she'd developed so far. It'd worked wonders on Ken- but he was a new student like her, and Jazmine might well be less than impressed with the acrobatic display.

Whether she was successful or not, dark veins had started to creep up her forearms after that display- she had bigger reserves than most, to be sure, but she'd put her all into the last couple of displays and it was starting to push those dark veins up her arms, spreading their chill with them. If Jazmine's eyes were sharp, they might catch the flesh around those dark veins being a touch paler than usual from temperature loss as well.

--- arisu ---

- - -

Arisu landed with a grimace that faded only when Jazmine's compliment registered- and the followup was already playing in her mind ("but not good enough") when it left Jazmine's lips. The look on her face made it immediately clear that- despite frustration- she was already attempting to formulate a way around their mismatch. Jazmine could move more easily than her, had more experience, and- perhaps the most useful facet for defensive situations- completely denied the area she'd used to occupy every time she relocated. Any counterplay she had, she'd have to assume would be predicted- the attempt to follow-up from above had made that very clear. She also couldn't overpower Jazmine's quirk- while her own was capable of consuming energetic expulsions of similar strength, Jaz was on another level when it came to sheer firepower, a term rarely so apt as here.

She came up with a plan as Jaz brought her hand up with her fingers narrowed into a targeting device, essentially. Arisu's left arm flared and shoved her sideways, but not fast enough- the shockwave of the first explosion still nearly knocked Arisu off her feet, sending her stumbling clumsily forward in a rapid scramble to get her balance back. A little more blackfire propulsion and fast footwork kept her ahead of the next three, her ears still ringing from the first detonation and her thoughts with the knowledge that the only reasons she'd been able to escape had been Jazmine's restraint- had she unleashed a full-power blast as she'd seen her do in training, she'd have barely been out of ground zero and nowhere near clear of that blast radius.

The fifth explosion snapped out behind her, and Arisu replayed a couple tricks she'd already showed Jazmine- a rapid reversal, at just enough angle to cut out of view behind her own explosion, and an aerial catapult over the blast itself. This, she expected Jazmine to be able to react to. Her aerial arc was easily predicted, and shooting her down wouldn't be hard- but she wasn't done and had no intentions to be airborn long enough for that to happen.

Cocking both elbows back gave her upper arms the right angle for a dual flare of blackfire to rocket her immediately back towards the ground and propel her rapidly through the distance between herself and Jazmine and, hopefully, underneath any anti-air fire she let loose due to the first stage of her attempts to outplay the more experienced combatant. Both her hands shot open and sprayed the ground in front of her with a rushing gout of flame, which- she hoped- would either catch her off guard or drive her to relocate explosively all over again. If- as she thought was far more likely- Jazmine simply detonated her previous position and shifted backwards again- she gave herself a tiny delay for the worst of the shockwave to rock past her...

And propelled herself at top speed straight through the cloud of smoke towards where she thought Jazmine would be, fist cocked back for a flying straight punch, letting the lingering heat and flames scorch at her to buy her the opportunity to- possibly- land a single blow before Jazmine figured out enough about her strategies to simply counterplay everything... which she didn't think was going to take much longer.

The dark veins had passed her elbows at this point, as had the pervasive internal chill that was a more easily monitored signifier for how long she really had before she was out of juice. Arisu wouldn't be able to keep going at this rate for much longer whatsoever.

--- arisu ---

- - -

The strike of Arisu's rocket-powered punch surely wasn't weak, but it might take Jasmine further reflection to realize why the blow had affected her the way it had. Sure, her hand had been wrapped in black flames, but she hadn't felt anything like a burn- rather, the blow had been cold, and, when she had time to think on it, she might recognize the drop in her energy levels after the blow hit. If that effect could be delivered in melee, it would probably apply to someone who actually had to lash out in melee, too- a side effect the girl seemed aware of, if the consistent swirl of black fire across her arms was any indication. With that insight, and her growing respect for Arisu's tactical decisions, it might well occur to Jasmine how much more difficult fighting the girl would be for someone without either range or a weapon to allow them to strike without exposing themselves to... whatever that energy was.

When Jasmine wiped her mouth and straightened into a casual pose, Arisu finally dropped her arms and released the flames curling around her limbs. In their absence, the creeping black tracery of her veins was immediately evident, those lines nearly tucked beneath the shoulders of her top at this point. She let out a long, shaky breath as she wiggled her arms to ease the discomfort in them- using them for propulsion meant bracing her limbs in odd ways, and she thought she had an idea of the sort of stress Jasmine put on her own body to travel the way she did.

The praise left her grinning around slow, heavy breaths to recover herself, visibly delighted to have impressed Jasmine. "Thhh... hoo. Thank you! I've- spent a lot of time practicing different angles, trying to figure out what those abrupt momentum shifts... hoooffff... could do in a fight. It's- hard. I haven't been in many fights. Boxing practice, sure, but I don't often get the time to think "gee, how would rocket propulsion help me in this match", you know? It's... relieving to see it pay off. I really... really appreciate the compliment." She huffed again, shoved both hands up her face and pushed her hair back, blinking a few times. "Are you okay? You look okay. Some folks struggle really hard with Antipyre's effect, but you probably have really impressive energy reserves, with how draining your own power must be."

Another long breath. Arisu held it a heartbeat before speaking again. "Do- you think you could teach me to fight like you, then? I promise I'll put in the work. You won't have to baby sit me, just- coach me on the fine details. I want to be able to have the kind of impact you have on a fight. Hit the scene and just take control, shut down resistance, calm things down quickly, and your style of bombastic, rapid takedowns and stuff is exactly the sort of impression that could end fights before they start, you know?"

--- arisu ---

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