On Tue, 5 Nov 96 13:44:44 -0600 Travis Butler wrote:
: > Noriko leaped back to give herself more space. *No, can't do
: >that...he's more dangerous at far range. Got to get inside his strike
: >zone!* She flung herself into the center of the storm of bokken thrusts,
: >blocking each as best as she could. *The attacker is most vulnerable when
: >executing his attack...if I can only get through...* A blow slipped
: >through Noriko's defenses, but the strike lacked its full force at such
: >close range. Another one got through, this time hitting near Noriko's
: >wound. She bit her lip and pressed on, not bothering to resist the tears
: >of pain that rolled down her cheeks. More and more blows buffeted Noriko,
: >but they had considerably less power than Kuno's individual strikes.
:
: Frito: I dunno. Sounds kinda fishy to me.
: > "Jerk! Jerk!! Jerk!!!" Noriko shouted, thrusting forward with her
: >pen past Kuno's bokken and scoring a solid blow to his body. Kuno gasped
: >from the blow, the wind knocked out of him. He stumbled back, allowing
: >Noriko to hook her foot behind his ankle, causing him to fall. Noriko
: >struck once more with her pen as he fell on his behind, and kicked him
: >once in the head for good measure. Kuno lay on the sidewalk, obviously
: >out of action. "That's for calling me a mockery of journalism," Noriko
: >gasped, out of breath and in tremendous pain. *I guess the pen really
: >_is_ mightier than the sword...oh no! My appointment with Ranma!* Noriko
: >thought. She began to limp slowly towards Ucchan's. *I hope he's still
: >there...*
:
: Windir: I suppose this was the only feasible way of engendering her
: victory, but it still seems implausible. Although Kuno is defeated by the
: regular cast on a regular basis... one must remember that to the rest of
: the school, he is a formidable force; not one person challenged him when
: he set his conditions for dating Akane. To have her defeat him in a
: straight martial arts battle seems odd. I would recommend either an
: attack more strongly based on intelligence -- pitting her strength
: against his weakness -- or <sigh> a deus ex machina, something that
: distracted him and left her an opening.
Wasn't that *exactly* what he did? I liked this fighting scene
especially because Noriko won not through superior proficiency
(like Ranma) but through intelligence and analysis.
It's simple physics: The far end of a swinging bokken will
inflict more damage than any other point. Noriko realized that
Kunou was far to strong a fighter for her to hope beating him
conventionally, so she figured out how to circumvent his
strengths. Instead of staying where he expected her to stay - at
the outer reaches of his bokken range, where he would eventually
be able to land a few devestating blows - she moved in, where he
was sure to hit her, *but* the blows would not incapacitate her
immediately due to decreased leverage, so she could take him out.
She decided to do the unthinkable and take the damage, because she
had analysed his strength and weakness and could weigh her chances
of success against the losses she would have to sustain. An
intelligence-based victory, if I ever saw one.
It's kinda like sticking your fingers into the barrel of a
shotgun: "Yes, I know that my fingers are gonna look like charcoal
- but it's *your* face that's gonna look like swiss cheese." (I'm
not quite sure if that would actually work or was just a bluff,
but when I saw that scene in a film, I laughed so hard that I gave
the film an additional +5 bonus points on coolness.)
: > Looong fight scene! I am not a particularly big fan of lengthy fight
: >scenes in fanfiction, thinking them rather tiresome after a while. Still,
: >the scene with Noriko and Kuno ended up being quite a large section. What
: >do you think? Riveting? A yawner? More detail, less?
:
: Windir: I would retain the same level of detail -- I doubt you could
: achieve the effect you wish without it -- but I would, as we noted above,
: find a somewhat more realistic way for her to beat him. Someone with
: Noriko's stated lack of experience should *not* be able to charge head-on
: into his attack and emerge successfully, I would believe.
As you noted yourself, she emerged successful, but by no means
unscathed - and the author knew and acknowledged this. I liked it
a lot.
Sebastian (So when's the next part out, huh?)