* Karasu walks in, hands on his pockets, shades on, and all. * Hope is in the training room. She's punching a punching bag as hard as she can. * Karasu follows the noise. He watches hope from a few feet away from the door. * Hope continues to pound. "Can I help you?" You're troubled. It's not good. No shit. * Karasu takes a few steps forwards. * Karasu keeps watching, only a few feet away. Is that all you wanted to say? * Hope continues to pound. She looks exausted and the punches don't seem close to as effective, but she's still hitting. You're tiring out. You ought to rest a bit. Don't care. I've got to get stronger. You're not getting stronger. You're wasting effort. I can get you a bottle of liquid if you want, or you can wait until your strength is replenished. But if you keep this up, you won't be ready. * Hope punches the bag one more time and stands there, fist still touching the bag. "What am I supposed to do then?" * Karasu turns to the side. "You wanted a match with me earlier, correct?" Heh. Yeah. I wanted to see if I was really as weak as I thought I was. Looks like I was. You beat that guy in one hit. It was a mistake on my part. I overestimated her. The resulting anger that built up around her teammates from that made it harder for the rest of you. But if that's in the past. If you truely think yourself to be so weak, fight me. If you lose, fight me again. We'll do it until you win, and further if you so wish. You don't have to baby me. Is that how you see it? You'd be wrong. * Hope turns towards Karasu. "What do you mean then? WHAT? You're so damn powerful... Why the hell are you so powerful?" You're wrong again. You've all underestimated my abilities because of a few lucky shots. Heh. Lucky shots. Everyone seems to have lucky shots but me. Just like everyone seems to have magic. I had thought Kai would defeat me when we first fought. It was only by chance that I made that comeback. * Karasu frowns. "You don't want magic." You're right. I don't. It's unnatural strength. Which is why I'm gonna get stronger. I'm gonna get so strong, not even the strongest magic can beat me. * Karasu nods. So. Fight me. * Hope turns around and gets into a tired fighting stance. "Fine. You wanna fight. We'll fight." Not before you drink the potion. Fine. Get me the potion. We'll fight, but on equal terms. And no holding back. * Karasu nods and goes to do that. He returns with a bottle of the stuff shortly. * Karasu hands the bottle to Hope. "Here. Drink." * Hope grabs the bottle and chugs, ignoring the nasty taste. Are you ready? * Hope gets into a fighting stance. "Yes. Let's fight." * Karasu nods and actually falls into a fighting stance. "Good. Then show me all you've got." [Subfight... Win by Submission!]