Kiri Boxing Gym [O]

[Molokai]

SPOILER: Click to show

Upright Stance
Rank: "E"
Skill: TaiJutsu
Effect: A Basic upright stance used in boxing.
Special: ---
Drawback: ---
Description: Picture To adopt an Upright Stance, you should stand with your legs roughly shoulder-width apart. Your back foot should be about half a step behind your front foot. If your dominant boxing hand is your right hand, your left foot will lead. Lift your right heel off the ground by about 3 inches and point both feet inward (although do not exaggerate this movement). If you lift your heel too far off the ground, or turn your feet too far inward, you will become unbalanced. As a test, imagine someone pushing you from any direction. In a properly balanced stance, you should be able to maintain an upright position and not fall to the ground or sway from side to side. To increase the stability of your stance, keep your knees and hips slightly bent but make sure your back is straight. Your lead fist (which will be your left fist if your dominant boxing hand is your right hand) should be positioned vertically at eye level, approximately six inches away from your face. Your right fist should be positioned next to your chin, with your elbow held against your ribcage. This is good defensive positioning and will effectively protect your body. Whilst watching televised boxing matches, you may have noticed the boxers tapping their cheeks with their hands. This repetitive action acts as a reminder to keep fists up at all times and is especially important as the match progresses and energy levels drop. To further protect yourself from blows from your opponent, keep your chin pressed against your chest. Punches to the jaw often cause knock-outs, so it is essential to keep this stance throughout the boxing match.
Limit: Must learn in a gym that teaches Bokushingu (Boxing)

0/5

Taisen wandered in to the crummy-looking building that had the sounds of punching coming from within and decided he liked what he found. The one who was clearly in charge asked him if he was here to box, so he shrugged and admitted that he guessed so.

Straight to business with these guys, they immediately told him everything that he needed to do if he wanted to be apart of the gym, and Taisen promptly acquiesced to all of them. Losing the boots and leather bodysuit, he adopted too-small shorts, a XXL t-shirt that was too tight around the chest, and was pleased to find they offered shoes that covered his heels.

Again ushered into wraps and gloves, one of the coaches took him aside and gave him a quick inspection of what he knew. Which was nothing. Alright, stance first. Feet about this far apart, toes pointed in just this way, hands here, elbows there, tuck your chin, dance monkey, dance. You'd think after so many years of fighting for a living this would come more easily. Taisen was tempted to demonstrate how he put his fist through walls without all this fancy footwork and stance shit, but eventually he figured it out and decided there was really no need.

[Corvus]

+5

[Molokai]

SPOILER: Click to show

Semi-Crouch
Rank: "E"
Skill: TaiJutsu
Effect: A semi-crouched stance used in boxing.
Special: ---
Drawback: ---
Description: Picture You may choose to fight from a crouch (or semi-crouch) position during a boxing match. If you choose this option, lean forward rather than maintaining an upright position, whilst making sure your feet are kept close together. The most important thing to remember when adopting a balanced boxing stance is to relax. If you start to become tense, your balance will be negatively affected and you will be more likely to receive a harmful blow from your opponent. Your neck and back should never feel under any pressure. If your neck and back do feel tense, you may be leaning your shoulders too far forward and not rotating your hips in line with them. If you want to increase the range of your punches, try positioning your front foot ahead of your head. To see the difference that this new stance can make, stand in front of a punch bag whilst keeping your back foot steady and in the normal position. Punch forward slowly and keep your punch at its full extension. After this, move your lead foot in front of your head and repeat the punching movement. Stop the punch at its full extension and you should be able to notice the increased range now available to you. When practicing this variation, keep the other elements of the orthodox stance, such as the position of the elbows and chin, the same.
Limit: Must learn in a gym that teaches Bokushingu (Boxing)

0/5

One more stance and you're ready to learn to punch. So says the boxing trainer so big Taisen was impressed, not big like muscley, but big like spherical. From the upright stance, he was saying, Taisen should bring his hands closer to his head and dig his chin into his chest more. From there, he was supposed to bring his feet in closer together, but not too close.

Remember, if your neck or back feels strained, you're not relaxed. And if you're not relaxed, you're likely to take a big punch. All of these little nuances of how to stand gave Taisen a feeling somewhere between impatience and embarrassment. At first, it was annoying that he had to constantly watch what his body was doing, but eventually he realized that everyone in the room was doing it all perfectly without thinking about it.

That's where the embarrassment came in. Fighting came easily, but he seemed to have a problem standing in a particular way. But he picked it up soon enough. With a bit of footwork practice, he got to the point where his hands and shoulders stayed in that position on their own. Coach Al was quite impressed by this, as a matter of fact. Most people couldn't get it right away, and had a tendency to drop the stance as soon as they stopped thinking about it. Guess all those years of pit fighting had made his body pick up muscle memory easily.

[KARKAT]

Learned~<3

[Molokai]

SPOILER: Click to show

The Jab
Rank: "D"
Skill: TaiJutsu
Effect: A quick, straight punch thrown with the lead hand from the guard position.
Special: ---
Drawback: ---
Description: Picture Stand with your feet hip distance apart. Step your right foot back 18-24 inches with the weight of your right leg on the ball of your foot (right heel is somewhat elevated and the knees are slightly bent). Bring your right fist close to your right cheek bone and your left fist slightly in front of it about jaw height. Pull your elbows in towards your ribs so that they line up somewhat below your fists. Push off of the ball of the right foot, bend the left knee slightly and start to extend the left hand in a pushing type motion (there should be a subtle rotation as your left hand goes forward your right shoulder moves back). You may also rotate the fist so that when it reaches the desired destination your left palm will be facing down. Retract the left hand as fast as you extended it and return to the original position. Remember before punching relax the hand, snap it forward and clinch before making contact. Do your best to strike with the first two knuckles and keep your wrist in neutral position upon impact. Aim six to eight inches beyond your target. Extend the arm only about 90-95 percent. Keep your chin tucked down toward your chest--this protects your jaw from exposure to being hit. Bring your hand back as fast as you throw it. Move your head on an angle as you throw the punch.
Limit: Must learn in a gym that teaches Bokushingu (Boxing), Must know Upright Stance or Semi-Crouch

0/10

Taisen knew how to punch. Of course he knew how to punch. If he were so inclined, he could punch a hole in the goddamn wall. So who was this rotund bastard to tell him that he wasn't punching correctly? So smug was this coach type fellow that he challenged Taisen to try to hit him, which was of course met with absolutely no hesitation. Just before Taisen sent his coach flying through the rear wall and splattering his hefty innards all over the street, he was suddenly met with a surprisingly red gloved hand compressing into his face. Blinking at the freak accident, he wound up again and was met with a similar result. Something about the increasingly self-satisfied look on the coach's face suggested that perhaps he had something to do with it, but Taisen wasn't quite ready to accept the possibility.

The third time this same thing happened, Taisen finally accepted that he was in fact being punched in the face every time he moved, and thus submitted to being taught how to punch. Coach says get in your stance. Stance taken. Alright, now just extend your left hand as fast as you can and bring it back just as fast. Ready? Go. Out went Taisen's fist just as fast as he could make it move, which was pretty damn fast considering how long he had been at the whole punching thing, but Coach was apparently not pleased with this. Naturally, he informed Taisen of this displeasure by bringing his fast and heavy fist firmly against the side of Taisen's head. The problem, so the Coach claimed, was that he dropped his hand as the end of his punch, which exposed his chin. The remedy for this, Coach says, is to stop doing it.

Try again, Coach says, and so try again is what Taisen does. Coach was still not happy with him, even though he kept his chin buried behind his shoulder and didn't get knocked out just for trying. But why, coach? "Step forward with your front foot," says coach, "but make sure your back foot stays in the same place." So, Taisen stepped his foot to a very precise zone he set for himself and whipped forth his most vicious jab. Again he did so, just to show how fast he could do it and how much mastery he had over the whole thing. Coach Al was most definitely not impressed. Stopping just short of fully calling Taisen stupid, Coach suggested that perhaps the step and the punch should occur at about the same time, since after all he didn't say anything about step and then punch.

Alright, this time Taisen was definitely going to get this shit right. You'd think after being strong enough to level the area of two football fields in seconds with his bare hands that punches would be a bit easier to figure out. Apparently brute strength didn't help him out with all this technique stuff he'd never really been good at. Hopefully channeling all of his strength with a bit of this finesse would actually increase his power. Kinda like taking the force of an explosion and pointing it all in one direction or something. Anyway, when he finally mastered all this stepping and chin guarding and various little complexities that the coach kept reminding him of with swift little smacks, he managed to send the entire weight of the heavy bag swinging into the ceiling. Which, not unexpectedly, raced back down and put him on his ass. But at least he got the punch down.

[Corvus]

Add it

[Molokai]

SPOILER: Click to show

The Cross/The Straight
Rank: "D"
Skill: TaiJutsu
Effect: A powerful, straight punch thrown with the rear hand.
Special: ---
Drawback: ---
Description: Picture Determine which hand is your strong hand. Although you can throw a straight hand punch with either your left or right hand, it will be most effective if you use your strongest hand. Most right-handed fighters have a stronger right hand, while left-handed fighters have stronger left hands. Get into a basic boxing stance. Keep your feet shoulder-width apart with your knees slightly bent. If you are right-handed, your left shoulder should be pointed toward the other fighter and your right shoulder should be back. The opposite is true if you are left-handed. Keep both hands up. They should hover just under the chin, with your forearms in front of your body. This will protect you from the opponent's punches. Begin the straight hand punch from the foot. Push off your back foot and pivot toward your opponent, twisting your foot, leg, torso and shoulders. Concentrate on bringing power up from your leg, hips, trunk and shoulders and channeling it into your fist as you twist your body. If you don't pivot your body, your punch will be much weaker than if you use the correct form. Aim for the other fighter's face. Punch out in a straight line and extend the arm out all the way. At the point of impact, your feet and body should be facing the other fighter. Snap your hand back to your chin as you twist your body back to the beginning position. Remember to keep your left hand up throughout the punch so you have a guard up to protect you from a counterpunch.
Limit: Must learn in a gym that teaches Bokushingu (Boxing), Must know Upright Stance or Semi-Crouch

Excellent left hand punch, very much power and speed despite it being considered a weaker strike, but now it was time for the power play. If he could learn to throw his weight as well as his strength into a punch without taking forever to wind up or leaving himself open, he'd be a dangerous individual.So, that's exactly what coach set out to teach him. As a test, he was told to simply hit the bag with his right hand how he normally would, which Taisen was all too glad to do since he knew the bag wouldn't be hitting him back once he did it wrong. Unsurprisingly, Coach was not impressed by the display and started first by concentrating on how wrong Taisen's feet were. First things first, he needed to stay in his stance otherwise he'd be all off-balance, and getting knocked on one's ass spelled almost certain death on a real battlefield.

From the stance, he was instructed to pivot his entire body, starting at the floor. That means that he wasn't supposed to just push his arm out and muscle it. Pivot everything. Shoulders, hips, even the back foot all had to be invested in this punch. So, he was told to try that, don't punch quite yet, just try to get the pivoting motion right. Imagine this, imagine the energy of the hit starting at the ground and moving through the body to end at the fist. Push off the ground with the back foot, and twist the hips and shoulders as the fist erupts from it's cocked-and-loaded position next to the jaw. All of this was visualized and demonstrated again and again and again by Coach Al until Taisen started to wonder who he was trying to convince. Apparently just remembering that Taisen was standing there, Coach asked him to try what he had just been shown.

Unsurprisingly to Al, but coming as a complete shock to Taisen, the technique of the punch increased his power exponentially and did, in fact, threaten to break the bag off of it's chain. Clearly, Al thought, this guy was going to wind up costing a lot to train. But there was still a small problem with the technique, although Al couldn't quite put his finger on it just yet. He told Taisen to keep going with the same right hand, with perhaps a bit less power so he didn't put the gym out of business, so that he could figure out what was wrong. So punch again Taisen did, and again Al saw the problem, but for some reason it escaped him. Again with the punch, now only causing the bag to swing around rather than try to burst through the back wall, and Al was fairly confident he finally saw what the problem was.

"You're dropping your hands," Al says, "before each hit, you drop your hands and lean into it, and after you allow your right hand to sort of fall down." The key, according to Coach Al, was to keep the hands up and the head protected at all times, even during a punch. So he drilled it with Taisen, making him take it slowly so that he could see what he had to do and slowly increasing speed as his mastery improved. He told Taisen to look down the barrel of his arm as the punch went out, as that would ensure his chin was tucked behind his shoulder. To demonstrate this, he gently tapped the sides of Taisen's head every time his hand went out to show what parts needed to be covered. It was easy enough, and he steadily started doing it as a habit. Al threw in a one-two combo to see if Taisen still remembered the jab, and when it was showed that he still did, Al moved on to the next.

[Beltran]

Learned

[Molokai]

SPOILER: Click to show

The Hook
Rank: "D"
Skill: TaiJutsu
Effect: A semi-circular punch thrown with the lead hand or rear hand to the side of the opponent's head.
Special: ---
Drawback: ---
Description: Picture Shift your weight subtly forward by slightly bending your front leg while elevating your lead elbow to about shoulder height. Push off your front leg to shift your weight more towards the back leg while rotating your torso in the same direction with your lead hand heading towards a specific target. For the purpose of this intro we'll aim face high. That rotation and shifting motion should be accompanied by a whipping or thrusting of the hips. If you have your left leg forward and are throwing a lead hand hook (left hand hook) your hips should thrust from left to right while executing this punch. The punch should reach its mark with tremendous force. This will happen by throwing it fast and aiming to land your fist 6 to 8 inches beyond your target. Your fist can either be positioned to have your palm facing you or the ground. Return to your original stance. Do your best to hit your target with your first two knuckles.
Limit: Must learn in a gym that teaches Bokushingu (Boxing), Must know Upright Stance or Semi-Crouch

0/10

And now for the fancy stuff. The first two punches involved a helluva lot of work to effectively punch in a straight goddamn line. This one, though, whoo! Talk about complicated. Coach Al demonstrated one of these "hook" things, showing that with clever footwork and a bit of finesse, one was actually able to make a punch curve around things and hit the side of an opponent's head. This was definitely a groundbreaking development, since Taisen had NEVER thought of throwing a punch in any direction other than straight. To show his surprise that such a thing was possible, he punched the bag by simply bringing his arm in at an angle. Was he surprised when Al told him he was doing it wrong? Not in the slightest. In fact, he wasn't even put off when Al suggested he hadn't been paying attention.

In his quest to correct Taisen's fighting style that had worked for him and kept him alive his entire life, Al first corrected his arm position. He said to form a frame with the arm, keep the fist with the palm facing inward, demonstrating how much more strength that had than facing the palm down. Taisen did admit that that ninety-degree frame idea did seem a bit more solid than his straight-armed wild man swing, but he still wasn't quite convinced that this was anything other than punching from the side. Still, Al made Taisen practice going from the boxing stance to the frame until it was like second nature to the newbie before moving on to the finer points of the expert technique. The finer points being doing the exact same thing with his left hand.

But there was also the matter of his footwork, which was perpetually a problem since Taisen had never really considered his feet to be worth anything more than keeping his head off the ground. "With the right-hand hook," Al continually insisted as Taisen struggled valiantly with the concept of the whole thing, "you're supposed to twist your back foot in the direction of the punch. You know, throw your whole body into it. You've got a lot of body to throw into it, so I'd better see some damage once you get this right." Taisen again considered demonstrating how he could level this building by yelling really loud, but decided instead just to go along with what Al was saying. If channeling his huge power in this way further increased his strength, it was totally worth it.

So, Taisen made the hooky-arm-shape-thing with his arm, twisted his shoulders and his hips, and pivoted his back foot, all to form the punch instead of muscling it with just his arm. This was all fine and dandy, since the bag did the customary wild flailing that it did whenever Taisen got a punch right, and Al promptly challenged him to try it with his left hand. Stupidly, because for some reason the thought of doing it differently never occurred to him, Taisen pivoted his back foot while swinging his left hand. Needless to say, this didn't work. Al said nothing, just buried his face in his hand while Taisen readjusted himself and pretended like he was totally kidding the first time. Whipping his arm around, twisting his shoulders and pivoting his front foot, Taisen blasted the bag in the other direction, earning nods of approval from the Coach.

[Corvus]

+10

[Molokai]

SPOILER: Click to show

The Uppercut
Rank: "D"
Skill: TaiJutsu
Effect: A vertical, rising punch thrown with the lead hand or rear hand.
Special: ---
Drawback: ---
Description: Picture To throw a right uppercut, start in the classic boxing stance with the back (right) knee bent. Lower the right shoulder to drop the right side of the body in a semi-crouch position. Remember to keep the left fist up by the chin to protect the head. Now as you rotate the hips forward, push the ball of the back foot, (the right foot), and punch the right fist up towards the target. The right side of the back and the right shoulder will follow through with the rotation of the hips. The hips finish being squared to the front. The right arm always stays close to the body and moves upward in a semi-circle. To throw the left uppercut from the classic boxing stance, start with squared off hips, left knee bent and the left shoulder lowered. The body weight is then transferred to the ball of the left foot as the punch is delivered with a bent arm at a right angle and the hips will rotate into the classic boxing stance. Do your best to hit your target with your first two knuckles. Remember to bend the both of the knees and lean the body forward. Bring the first close to the side and remember to have the knuckles facing down. Extend the bent knees at full force Use the momentum and the body to thrust the fist upward.
Limit: Must learn in a gym that teaches Bokushingu (Boxing), Must know Upright Stance or Semi-Crouch

0/10

Even fancier this time. If Taisen thought hitting someone from the side while standing in front of them was complicated, this next move Al pushed on him was goddamn rocket science. According to the rotund boxing maestro of the ring, this one involved taking one's fist and making it go upwards to cause damage. This, of course, implied that it had to start from below, which was rather difficult for someone of Taisen's height. But Al wasn't convinced by this story, and insisted on making Taisen do it anyway. He showed how to start from the basic stance, stick out a few jabs to warm the opponent up, then drop down, bring the hand forward, make a frame, and explode upward while driving the fist. "This," he said, "can be used to go right in between your opponent's hands and pass their guard."

Al seemed to be some kind of goddamn fortune teller or future seer or something, because he fearlessly asked the super strong Kamyuja to try the uppercut on him. Full speed. No worries. Did he know that Taisen was literally capable of knocking his head off? Apparently this possibility didn't worry him. So, Taisen decided he would show the brave man the error of his ways. Winding up for the uppercut, he was again surprised by a fist in his face knocking him on his ass. Al explained, just as he was expected to do, exactly what Taisen had been doing wrong when he tried to hit the zen master of the boxing ring. First things first, like all the wrong things Taisen had so far done, was he dropped his hands just before starting to move, which invited the fist right into his jaw.

So, making a conscious effort to keep his damn hands up this time, Taisen dipped and brought his hand up as fast and powerfully as he could. Al was, you guessed it, not impressed. He told Taisen that he telegraphed too much. That, as much of the form as he seemed determined to do perfectly, he still made it painfully obvious what he was on his way to do, which didn't sit well with the coach at all. Taisen invented his own method on the spot and decided to see if Al approved. First, Taisen led with a jab to the face, then dipped down as his hand was coming back and turned the momentum upwards to mask the motion of his uppercut or something. Al approved somewhat of this, but said that for the purpose of the technique itself he would have to master doing it by itself.

So, Taisen aimed for doing the movement as subtly as he could muster. Naturally, this wasn't very easy since subtlety wasn't one of his strong points, but he was determined to master it one way or another. Instead of dropping his entire body and springing up, Taisen did a clever little shifting of his shoulder position and dropped one down while covering the motion with his left side. Only then did he blast forward and allow his hand to erupt upwards in a blaze of muscular glory and newbie boxing prowess, sending the helpless bag hurtling and flailing on its chain with an immense amount of forceful awesomeness. The strike was so divinely amazing it can only be described with poetic-sounding run-on sentences resembling many silly books the writer has read. The uppercut was that awesome.

[Corvus]

+10

[Molokai]

SPOILER: Click to show

Heightened Perception
Rank: "C", "B", "A", "S"
Skill: Supplementary
Effect: By analyzing and keeping an eye on the opponent's shoulder and foot work the user is able to predict movements and grab a feel of when attacks are going to come by making the Boxer a more proficient fighter.
Special: ---
Drawback: The user is only capable of predicting movements’ one rank below then what they have learned. The user is only capable of predicting movements that are TaiJutsu Based. Any other type of movements cannot be predicted.
Description: The way this technique works is that the user observes certain points of areas of the opponent's body such as the shoulders, thighs, and hips. Since attacks are focused on these points they are capable of making educational guesses towards points of contact that may occur within these certain points. This type of technique is a study where the user is capable of watching an opponent's movements for a brief moment of time predicting TaiJutsu techniques. When the user first learns this technique they are capable of predicting techniques of "D" Rank capability. When the user learns the "B" Rank version of this technique they are only capable of predicting techniques of "C" Rank capability. When the user learns the "A" Rank version of this technique they are only capable of predicting techniques of "B" Rank capability. When the user learns the "S" Rank version of this technique they are only capable of predicting techniques of "A" Rank capability.
Limit: Must learn in a gym that teaches Bokushingu (Boxing), Must know all Basics

0/10

And now for the real reason Taisen had gone to the boxing gym and put up with Coach Al smacking him around like he'd never been in a fight before; to learn how to avoid getting smacked around. Coach Al heard Taisen's request to learn the secrets of predicting taijutsu movement, and put him in with a smaller guy who'd been going there for a little while. "He's not that good," Coach said, "once you can predict his punches, I'll give you a bit more of a challenge. Remember, don't hit him back, we need him in one piece." Taisen took that last comment as a compliment and jumped in the ring. Once the bell rang, it was on like donkey kong, and Taisen dove right in and didn't do a damn thing. He maintained his stance, did a bit of footwork, and ate a jab promptly after.

This kid knew how to stick a jab, and keep sticking it out there to keep Taisen at a distance and set him up for the big right hand that also caught the larger man. Taisen's experience rolling with punches prevented damage from being taken and kept him in mostly the same spot, but he knew that every time he got hit he was doing it wrong. He kept his eyes on the kid's shoulders, waiting for the telltale nudge forward that suggested a punch was coming soon. For some reason, though, he didn't really comprehend the shoulder movement until after the blow had already landed. This happened again and again and again until the kid apparently started feeling quite confident about the whole thing and started getting sloppy.

Once he started getting sloppy, Taisen found what he was looking for. The boy telegraphed his punches more, allowing Taisen to put his hands up to guard from the hit. After that was repeated a few times, the kid got wise to Taisen's new game and switched it up. Now he threw combos. Once Taisen covered up to protect himself, the kid would throw more blows at the exposed parts of his body, and since Taisen had blinded himself with his hands there was nothing he could do about it. Again with this exchange until Taisen decided getting hit kinda sucked and decided to then switch his own game up. Now, when the left punch came, Taisen dipped to the right, keeping his eyes on his opponent and readying himself for the next hit in the combo.

This idea became more difficult to sustain once the kid started getting fancy with those hooks and uppercuts Taisen had trouble with before. But Taisen considered himself to be a clever individual, and endeavored to find more clever ways to duck and dodge the fancy shots. From the hooks, he realized that if he ducked and rolled a little, they would swoop harmlessly over his head and miss him completely. A bit more finesse and he simply dropped his head and avoided them. The uppercuts were even easier to escape from, and he eventually figured out that the best way to dodge those was to just dip his body back and let them skim harmlessly past his nose. Every so often, he'd miscalculate and dip straight into the next punch, but he figured he'd work out that kink eventually.

[Corvus]

+10

[Molokai]

SPOILER: Click to show

Heightened Perception
Rank: "C", "B", "A", "S"
Skill: Supplementary
Effect: By analyzing and keeping an eye on the opponent's shoulder and foot work the user is able to predict movements and grab a feel of when attacks are going to come by making the Boxer a more proficient fighter.
Special: ---
Drawback: The user is only capable of predicting movements’ one rank below then what they have learned. The user is only capable of predicting movements that are TaiJutsu Based. Any other type of movements cannot be predicted.
Description: The way this technique works is that the user observes certain points of areas of the opponent's body such as the shoulders, thighs, and hips. Since attacks are focused on these points they are capable of making educational guesses towards points of contact that may occur within these certain points. This type of technique is a study where the user is capable of watching an opponent's movements for a brief moment of time predicting TaiJutsu techniques. When the user first learns this technique they are capable of predicting techniques of "D" Rank capability. When the user learns the "B" Rank version of this technique they are only capable of predicting techniques of "C" Rank capability. When the user learns the "A" Rank version of this technique they are only capable of predicting techniques of "B" Rank capability. When the user learns the "S" Rank version of this technique they are only capable of predicting techniques of "A" Rank capability.
Limit: Must learn in a gym that teaches Bokushingu (Boxing), Must know all Basics

0/60

Taisen had to run off from training early because he had just been named Mizukage. Al wasn't impressed by this excuse and made Taisen get his ass right back in the ring as soon as he walked through the door. In the time he had been gone, the kid he sparred earlier seemed to have gotten better, which means Taisen was about to eat a lot more punches before he figured out how to dodge everything again. Even more concerning was how Al was now in the boy's corner, and whispered something into his ear before the bell rang and they had at it. A jab came at Taisen's head, he attempted to dip it as he had before, and still managed to get caught on the edge of his cheek. The kid was faster. Much faster. Which meant that the next punch that came at him was going to hurt a little.

The boy threw a combo that Taisen was unaware of. Or, rather, that he didn't become aware of until he tasted leather and figured what the cause must have been. As he slipped the jab, the kid moved so fast that Taisen ducked right into the oncoming fist, jarring his jaw but not quite scoring a damaging blow. Despite the newfound speed of the boy, he still didn't have enough power to do any damage to the experienced brawler. Which, by the way, Taisen was just fine with. He could still feel it when he got hit, but since the boy wasn't capable of pounding him into a coma it would be a learning experience. A learning experience that was apparently going to go slowly, as the very same combo that was threw just a moment ago caught him again.

Only this time was different. Different in the way that it didn't stop as soon as the pain came. Catching his larger opponent with such a solid punch emboldened the boy, inspiring him to continue his combo and try to put Taisen on the ropes. So, immediately after the cross came and caught him above his eye, along came a hook that rippled through his face and rocked his jaw. Staggering, more from the surprise and force than from the possibility of being knocked out, Taisen took two steps toward the ropes before another hit came. This one was an uppercut, using Taisen's own momentum to increase the force and send him stumbling back in the other direction. Somewhere in the background, Al was yelling at him about how wrong he was doing it, but in the foreground there was a boxing kid who wanted nothing more than to keep hitting him.

And keep hitting him he did. Taisen managed to regain enough of his composure to smoothly duck the next attack, and even more smoothly duck the one after that. The boy, finally realizing that Taisen was on to him, stopped his combo and took a few steps back to reconnoiter his strategy. Another combo would work fine, the tank-like kage was used to having a shield and thus avoiding techniques was a foreign concept to him, so he decided to have at it again. As he started to move in, Taisen knew what was about to come and prepared himself for it. But he wasn't as prepared as he thought he was. Instead of leading with the jab like he was expected to, the boy fully dove in with a cross, but somehow he didn't quite catch what he was looking for. Despite the surprise, Taisen still slipped it quite stylishly. This is not so hard.

[N A T S U M I]

+10

[Molokai]

10/60

Ducking and weaving like a pro, Taisen quickly figured out the boy's pattern and was able to time his attacks like a masterful conductor. The problem, he noticed, was that the boy committed to every single one of his attacks, meaning that once he started moving he would keep going in that direction until stopped. This made it super easy to slip and move as soon as he noticed the motion. But, like all opponents Taisen has ever faced, the boy read his mind and switched his game up yet again. Or, perhaps his mind hadn't been read so much as this was part of a clever plan that was coincidentally put into place just as Taisen started to get comfortable with how things were going. Whatever the cause, the boy stopped committing to every single one of his punches as soon as Taisen noticed that that's what he was doing, thus catching Taisen right on the bridge of the nose.

That is to say, suddenly the boy threw a jab, which was easily ducked, faked a right and threw a left hook. Taisen, wholly and completely expecting the right hand to come flying at his smug countenance, ducked dramatically to get out of its perceived way. Little did he know that he was yet again ducking right into the oncoming punch. Lead hooks have a tendency to have knockout power, and it was that power that rocked Taisen through his teeth. It seemed to both surprise and slightly irritate the boy that this knockout-force punch didn't knock Taisen out, but that was a feat almost nobody could achieve. As a brawler, Taisen had been punched, kicked, and bludgeoned over every part of his body very, very many times. It would take a demi-god to put him to sleep in the way the boy now sought to.

But that didn't change the fact that Taisen had fallen for the little trick and momentarily had his face reshaped to resemble the mold the gloves were made from. It was funny, though, because immediately after, the very same combo thrown in reverse did the exact same thing. Taisen had always considered himself a fast learner, but getting smacked around by skilled boxers apparently slowed his mental processes down a little bit. Either that, or he wasn't all that smart to begin with. Neither would surprise him, but if it was the latter he'd have to keep it quiet; nobody wants a dumb kage. Another question that came to his mind for just a moment before it was punched out of him was why in the world he's busying himself thinking of anything other than the fist coming at his face.

This question paradoxically fell into the same category of question he was questioning about, and thus he was promptly punched in the face. But somewhere in the battered pile of brain that still rattled within his head, he had somehow found out what to look for when deciding between faked and real punches. If he were to try to explain it verbally to someone, he would likely fail dramatically, but in his own mind the vague images and sensations all added up together. He demonstrated this by not flinching one bit when the next feint came by, then weaving like a boss when the real punch came along and doing a badass spin away as a third addition to the combo came speeding his way. What a weird process of learning, get pounded on for a few rounds without really learning anything, then suddenly know exactly how everything works. Probably wouldn't work if he ever decided to take up swordplay, though.

[Molokai]

??/60

Alright, let's see how long we can go without getting socked in the goddamn face this round. One punch; dodged. Two punch; slipped. Fake punch; fallen for. Fourth punch; bloody nose. Reverse progress, how nice. How in the world is it possible to go up and down in skill between individual rounds? Who knows? Maybe it'd be different if he actually tried punching back. Or maybe it'd just get worse. There really was no way to tell, but Taisen wasn't interested in winning this fight so much as he was interested in predicting when the next attack would come by. But, of course, that wasn't going as planned. When it was all basic and easy, he picked it up like a master jacks player, but as soon as it started getting just a little bit finessey, everything he thought he knew went out the window.

Finesse wasn't really his thing, and all this ducking and weaving seemed a lot less effective than putting a shield between the two of them or simply punching the boy's head off before he tried to do the same. But somewhere floating around in Taisen's mind was the vague possibility that prediction would help him in combat some day. Like, when his second sense failed him and he somehow didn't have his shield while facing some guy with a sword. Then he'd be able to see attacks coming by and dodge the shit out of them until he got close enough to punch the guy with the sword. That last part might wind up being a bit iffy, but at least the concept was solid enough to walk on. Metaphorically, of course.

The whole time this inner monologue had been taking place about why the hell he was even in this smelly gym, Taisen had been getting tossed about the ring like a human-shaped punching bag. Or, at least that's what he assumed since he hadn't really been paying attention and kept finding himself in different parts. It was unfathomable to him that he was predicting and avoiding attacks that he honestly didn't even perceive as coming at him. But tuning in momentarily to Al's extremely enthusiastic shouting from his corner, Taisen found that he really had been avoiding and evading the whole time he was considering whether he even wanted to be doing this. It was nice to know that his subconscious had more sense of how to get the hell out of the way than his conscious mind did.

Was zoning out really the secret to successfully not eating leather with a hundred pounds of flesh and bone behind it? If so, watching the boy's shoulders and hips like Al kept insisting he do to predict the next movement would really be a waste of his time. In fact, he might stop to consider whether or not he left the oven on before he left, then remember that he didn't actually have an oven and spent all of his eating time in various restaurants around town, none of which really took notice of his status as Mizukage. Except, of course, for those few who thought it was a bit strange that a man in a nice suit would be eating at such a dive. Suddenly, a question popped into his head; What is this taste that reminds me of blood and leather? Apparently he had gotten punched again. But this time Al himself was in the ring.

[KARKAT]

+20

[Molokai]

30/60

If Taisen was getting his ass kicked by the kid from earlier, against Al his ass was being cut off, gift wrapped with a bow, put on a silver platter, baked for forty-seven minutes, and presented as a centerpiece at a fancy gala-event of pain. Every punch from the big guy had the speed of a pissed off hummingbird with the power of a pissed off tsunami of elephants. The combination of these two things was very nearly enough to actually knock Taisen out, but again it wasn't quite enough. The slavery school of hard knocks meant that even Al's elite fisticuffs weren't quite enough to put him down, but were more than enough to make him realize that paying attention was the only damn way to avoid the pain by evading the punches.

Even though each individual punch wasn't enough to completely put him to sleep, the culmination of many, many, many smacks upside the head was slowly pushing him towards a level of delirious known as a technical knock out. A technical knockout, which was explained to him only after he had officially been declared in that state, was when someone's been knocked around so much that they become incapable of intelligently defending themselves or using the bathroom on their own. Once Taisen had remembered which way was up and caught his breath a bit, he was tossed right back in and told to keep dodging and that he's still not allowed to hit back. Taisen suspected this was just an excuse to hit him a lot, but wasn't about to voice this suspicion for fear of getting hit a lot more.

But wait, there's hope. Taisen was watching Al very closely and starting to figure out the association between particular shoulder movements and the subsequent pain in his facial region. The time between the shoulder thing and the pain is so small that he doesn't even try to calculate it, and instead just assumes that when Al's shoulder moves his face was about to hurt more. This one movement seemed to lead to a straight-on pain from the general left side of Al and suggested that Al was jabbing, and he vaguely remembered that the best way to avoid a jab was to dip toward his own left. So, after taking a few of the other kinds of punches and having no idea where they hell they came from, he finally saw and recognized the jab movement and dipped to the left. Even though he never saw the fist move, he didn't feel the pain, so he knew he had ducked it.

Then, going out on a wild limb to stab at the dark, he decided to dip back in the other direction. Al moved his other shoulder at that point, and once again Taisen noticed a distinct lack of any new pain. There was no elation that came with successful evasion, just Al becoming more clever and finding better ways to bring on the pain. So after two successful dodges, Taisen was rewarded with no less than ten blows to various parts of his head and body, all of which he tried and failed to predict and avoid. But, in terms of progress, he now knew what a jab and what a cross were preceded by, and generally was able to slip out of the way of those ones. Every so often they would come by while he was reeling from a previous hit, and other times Al used his dodging to make him lean right into the next hit. But, at least it was progress.