Hard Reading [Katsugiya/Cecil]

This time...THIS time, he was going to do it. He didn't spot Patricia (thank god for posters, he'd know the name next time) around to drag him onto the dance machine so he could make a fool of himself, and he had a straight line to the machines he'd come to use in the first place.
Alright...time to have some fun this time - the type of fun he actually came for.
Cecil strides up to the machine, taking in the cabinet for CrimsonBurn. Sure, he had releases he could play at home...but it was nothing like playing fighting games at an arcade.
Slotting in his cash and picking out his character, he awaits a challenger. Maybe he'd have a decent win rate today.

It was a very chill day for Katsu.

He had nothing better to do and had some spare money that he begged his father to lend it to him. Katsu promised something that involved better grades at school and things of the sorts. Well, Katsu was having a hard time, but hey, ADHD wasn't as cool as an author made it looked to be. Who said that? Albert Einstein. Katsu wasn't lying. He saw it on Wikipedia.

There at the arcade, he went with a fighting game, where there was already a challenger on the cabinet. Lucky him. Taking the place in the adequate cabinet, he cracked his fingers like he was some sort of pro.

Hmm. He might have a chance at this. He didn't recognise the guy as one of the better players that tended to hang around all day and thrash people, or...really anyone that ended up hanging around this part of the arcade in general. As much as he didn't visit all the time, Cecil thought he had a fairly good idea about the crowd of this place.
Still, all he could do was wait and see.
As the guy started cracking his fingers, he groaned internally. That usually meant one of two things, and neither were really good for him. "Come on. Don't keep me waiting."
Whether he was about to have the fight of his life or the easiest knockout in about ever, he'd like to know sooner over later.

"Good game" Katsu said before picking a character. Hm. That was going to be a good match.

His opponent wasn't someone he really remembered having met before, but neverthless he wasn't going to make a class album, he was just going to have some fun at the arcade.

"You ready?" Katsu asked after his little ritual. Actually that helped our favourite Japanese with a possible case of albinism calm down and he enjoyed cracking his fingers every now and then. Why? He has no control over his life, that's why.

Did-
Was he GG'd before the match had even started?
He didn't care who he was dealing with, they were going down one way or another.
HARD.
"I'm more then ready. Let's see if you are."

Characters picked, stage selected...

REBEL, 1!
ACTION!

Cecil backed off to get some space, and readied to rain down hell.

Katsu was ready. He was born ready. After his oponent strafed back to get space, Katsu dashed at him, using the dash + light strike combo, which was the quickest one he could possibly do at that situation, before jumping and using the heavy strike button in the downward attack. His movements were nothing all that impressive, but it was somewhat common for him to start using that combination. Heck, Katsu was almost the owner of the copyright for that combo!

They were fast to come in with it, but it was pretty simple to block just by holding back and staying standing. Before they hit the ground, he was quick to throw out a quick anti-air, following up with a launcher and taking off into the air for the basic projectile combo that served as one of his current bread and butters.
Nothing too special, but it did a nice chunk of damage, and he didn't have much meter yet.
As he sent them back down, he landed a distance away and waited to see what they'd do after hitting the ground.

Luckily even though Katsu sustained a rather reasonable amount of damage, it also gave him a good amount of meter so he could throw a special. Neat. After getting back on his feet, the japanese already knew what to do.

Katsu then dashed and threw the first special: three fireballs that went one after the another, in sequence, with a delay time of one of those in game seconds, all of them big enough to inviabilize jumping and crawling as means of escape.

They were spending meter already? It might be a nice way to keep a lot of the cast off as you reset if you really needed it, but this was the wrong character for that kind of strategy.
With another swift input, a sawblade sprouted from the ground at the opposite side of the screen and started moving towards his opponent, while he recovered from the move soon enough to block the fireballs that came after.
"If you think I'll just eat a raw super, you have another thing coming."

Knowing that the sawblade was coming for him, Katsu did not miss the chance: he dashed then again againshis oponente and pressed down + strong strike, the international combo for "Guard Break", before jumping and using the air dash move to go backwards, enough to be effectively behind the saw and avoid it completely... or so was the plan. Either way, Katsu was having tons of fun with that match.

On the plus side, blocking those had gotten some nice meter. On the other, his opponent was more attentive than he'd hoped, and he'd just managed to eat a Guard Crush while he was still in blockstun.
At the least, he was lucky enough they didn't try and convert the hit. They'd backed off to avoid the summoned sawblade...but it disappeared long before the point it would have actually threatened to hit if he'd actually stayed close.
And with the overly great caution, that was enough to let him send a pair of projectiles at his back and connect with an air grab.
This was about to get fun no matter how he responded from what he'd seen.

Katsu blocked the projectiles, which had given him some meter. That was good. As for the grab, he tried to block in air, but he was grabbed and thrown at the floor, which had left him at around 50~60% of his HP bar. He took way too much damage and now he had to play defensive.

Then, instead of dashing, Katsu kept the guard up, waiting for his opponent to go after him.

He...really didn't know what to make of this guy. He just didn't seem to be doing anything, turtling away as his only response.
Ah well.
He still had most of his health. His meter was looking just beautiful right now. And if that guy just wanted to stand there and block...
"Playing aggressive's the only way you get anywhere, you know." Cecil got the distance so freely allowed and unleashed projectile hell, content to pile on chip damage and blockstun until the timer ran out.
And, well, if he got caught by something trying to do something, all the better.
"So, you just planning on sitting there? Because if you're going to GG me before we've even started, you can at least do something to back up a comment that arrogant."

Katsu does not respond, just keeping his block, lowering his health and getting more meter. That's beautiful. After he made his movement, he dashed forward using a combo comprised of five light strikes with a strong strike as the finisher, then dashing backwards and throwing his sword while enveloped in flames, then releasing his first special using all of the meter he accumulated up to now. It was being a fun match after all. That guy was really good.

Well...this was only going to go one way.
He blocks the incoming blows, and as he spots the wind-up for the toss, he knows he pretty much has them at this point...especially after all the chip they just took, geez.
A jump and an airdash carries him over the thrown sword, and as his opponent burns the meter on a super, he uses one of his own - sending a giant blade crashing down to hit him nigh instantly, and interrupt the move he was just starting up.