Marked By The Tengu (For Bare)

[Deus001]

The Ito clan would never go on the defence if they could at all help it, when you were faced with multiple opponents at once you had to stay on the move and continue your assault. If placed on your back foot you had to rally and try to find a way to get back into the pace of the battle, this was exactly the sort of situation that Haruka was finding herself in. The Ito girl didn't falter though there, she had been battered in the past and Haruka could handle the rigours of combat even on the defence.

Still Haruka knew she'd need to be careful there, the girl kept her arms and guard at the ready. Finlay's strikes were pretty well refined, it was clearly honed from many a scrap on the street. Haruka had her fair share of that besides the intense full contact scraps she had with her clan and gym-goers, so she could attest to being able to hold her own in that regard but clearly not to the same extent. Yet the fire in her eyes was still clearly present.

Finlay's jabs would come in swift, Haruka got clocked by the first one there. The girl's head reeled back there as she couldn't help emit a loud grunting noise but thankfully her arms were up close enough to ward off a further attempt there, this was bad. Haruka could feel her vision blur from that noggin strike, she wavered a bit but made to try and mount some form of a retort thanks to her clan's doctrine in the form of a front stomach kick to try and at least dissuade Finlay from a full frontal followup, the blow was linear though and might be sidestepped if the tell was seen in time though~

[Bare]

Finlay wasn't backing down against Haruka at all, her skill so far definitely impressing him, not that he was surprised after learning her history. Even so he wanted to push her farther so that she could push him further. Iron sharpens iron was how the saying went, and he wanted Haruka at her razor's edge to make himself even better. Throwing a series of jabs to start their next exchange off Finlay looked to pepper the girl with blows to disorient and throw her off, but despite the speed and relative strength of each jab only one made it past her defense and clocked her on the cheek.

Even despite the jab seeming to rock Haruka fairly well the girl still held a decent degree of sense about her. No doubt a testament of Haruka's heritage and self described brutal training that enabled her to keep herself together despite the effects that punch must have had on her. Really impressive wasn't enough to describe Haruka, especially after their first bout he had to admit he underestimated her greatly, and now he was just excited to see what the younger girl would do next as he pushed forward towards her.

Reeling in his arm he prepared to deliver another strike to her face, this one with significantly greater strength than before. But just as he thought she was prepared for him this time, and before he could connect he would be subject to a solid kick directly to his gut. "Ngh!" Grunting in pain the blonde would get forced back and be left breathless, holding his stomach for a moment in pain, vulnerable for the moment, providing Haruka the time necessary to potentially press this advantage!

[Deus001]

Haruka had been on the back foot more than once in time with her gi on, her fellow clanmates would give her no quarter in spars once she'd been deemed competent enough to hold her own. If anything being placed on the backfoot just made Haruka want to be more aggressive. She might have an extroverted oddball to those who knew her, but just under the surface was the scion of a clan that had stained their hands with blood since the feudal era.

And Haruka was no different from the rest of them despite their attempts to make her into a more legitimate front for them, because she hungered just as much as they did in their blood.....

Still her counterattack borne out of some desperation to regain her lost footing paid off there as Finlay seemed to get caught clean by it, the Ito heiress smelt blood in the water once again. Her nostrils flaring in anticipation as she quickly made to pivot her leg away from the lad, to get it back on the ground as she would then bounce off both her legs and leap at Finlay. Whereupon Haruka would attempt to wrap her arms around his neck and try to drive some knees into his gut there, just to get his chest all softened up and let her momentum carry on through!

[Bare]

Finlay having been brought up on rather rough streets was no stranger to taking hits, it was simply gonna happen, especially in his line of work. But certain hits were far more effective than others. In this case, it didn't matter how tough you were, a kick to the stomach would always have an effect, especially when you didn't have the chance to brace. What made this particular kick worse however was the person delivering it since, even as a desperate measure, Haruka's legs were extremely strong and could deliver a good bit of force.

Forced back from the blow and left with his guard down as a result there wasn't much that Finlay could do when he looked up and saw the Ito heiress leaping into the air towards him! 'Crap!' He thought to himself feeling her smaller body land against his own, arms wrapping around his neck before another knee collided with his stomach. "Gah!" Groaning in pain and buckling forward Finlay tried to put up some form of defense as he raised his arms and placed them on his foe's hips, trying to shove her away from him for some room to breathe.

[Deus001]

Haruka when she applied her clan arts was nothing if not tenacious, even when she was placed on her backfoot the Ito girl could be expected to still try at various acts of aggression. The clan were expected to be one against more than one opponent, hence why aggression was needed else you'd be quickly subdued and taken to the ground. While Haruka was more than capable of rolling on the mat with folks the Ito clan favoured the bold and direct approach whenever they could and this spar was no different, Haruka's eyes narrowed to slits as she detected that her kick had struck gold there. She'd need to press this chance while the iron was hot!

Gritting her teeth and shifting her legs Haruka made to get some extra knee strikes going on, when suddenly there was a loud knock on the rooftop door behind them! "Haruka dear! I was told there's noise up there, have you been feeding birds again?!"" at hearing this the Ito girl froze mid strike as she clung to Finlay there. Glancing at the side from where the voice was and then back to the lad, quietly panting as she scrambled to think of something.........

She'd slip off from Finlay there and turn to the closed door and say "Uhhh y-yeah! Sorry I forgot we had a ban on that last week since that time.....I'll get ready to head down shortly sorry boss!" the Ito heiress sweated bullets as she prayed the door wouldn't be opened and have the boss see what was really going on..........

Eventually the voice would say "Alright well can it for now. We're making to close the place for some maintenance so get down there quick as you can alright." before the footsteps moved away. Haruka's steely demeanour seemed to vanish there as she wiped the sweat from her forehead with a sigh of relief there as she then looked at Finlay with a slight smile on her face, having clearly enjoyed their little bout~

[Bare]

It had been a long time since Finlay had been in a proper fist fight outside of a ring. So in a way this whole impromptu spar was like a blast from the past in the best way possible for him and he was greatly looking forward to more, and especially the conclusion of it. Of course he didn't quite like the double knees into his chest that nearly knocked the wind from him. Instinctively he wrapped an arm around her legs and was preparing to push her off to try and salvage his current situation somewhat, otherwise he knew that she may be able to completely overwhelm him.

However before he could do so or before Haruka could press her advantage they were both interrupted by a loud knock of the door and a equally loud voice echoing out from there. Turning and looking in that direction even he had to admit that they looked rather scandalous in their current position, and he had to count his lucky stars that Haruka's apparent boss hadn't actually opened the door and was simply speaking through it. Still despite the awkwardness that came in the pause from her, she eventually did manage to respond and get him to back off.

Letting the smaller woman down from the position she had been in he would scratch the back of his awkwardly. Yeah the mood had definitely been killed by that interruption and it was now apparent that they had to cut their spar short. "So... guess we'll call it a draw for now." He said awkwardly before holding his hand out to Haruka for a handshake. [color=#FF80p0]"But I am very much gonna want a proper rematch... in a ring."[/color] Finlay told the woman, staring right into her eyes with a determined expression.

[Deus001]

Well Haruka wasn't one to really show fear, if anything she usually saw danger as a fun time. But her boss? She legit scared the Ito heiress sometimes, it was fortunate indeed that Finlay didn't run afoul of her lest the lad's courage be possibly tested there. Still Haruka breathed a sigh of relief that she'd not enter, granted the crime princess had an excuse cooked up ever since Finlay had picked out that gi earlier citing it choreographed routines for a college project or something along those lines. Still the martial instincts of Haruka had been put away now as she had a friendly smile on her face once again.

"Hmmmmm~ Possibly, I'd have to make sure my folks don't know, that's why I made Lady Tengu after all. But we'll need to get back in there for sure because after all.........you drew the attention of the otherworldly trickster......human~" Haruka said as she coyly put a finger to her lips in contemplation as she leaned forward in front of the lad, a shine in her eye at the prospect of it all~ Still ironically enough a bunch of pigeons would perch on the nearby railings. "Oh shoo off feather-face." Haruka turned and muttered to them with a scowl.

The girl then turned back to Finlay and said "Anyway I'd best change back......" Haruka flung off her gi top and bottoms and swiftly got her hoodie and casual clothes back on, "I think we'd best call it a day there Finlay-san, we can use the fire escape there. Won't have to get past Ms Battleaxe......." pointing to the classic set of stairs to the side. The girl tiptoed on the metal, making sure not to make noise as she'd motion for the man to follow her.......

Once they were clear Haruka would turn and say "Alright......I'm gonna head home......later Finlay." with that she'd get on her tip toes and plant a quick kiss to his cheek before sprinting away, turning to briefly wave before darting out of sight in the nearby alleyways~........