Kazuko's Story: Moving On
Chapter 3: VS Walakea
Welcome to Battles Beneath the Stars, a webserial styled like the guide and script of a non existent fighting game. If you’re new to this story, be sure to start at the prologue, from there each character’s story branches into its own version of events, so you won’t need to read anyone else’s story to follow this one. And if you just want other parts of the newsletter you can adjust which segments you receive here.
Kazuko has made it to the third round, but her opponent, Quiahuitl, left her with some rather cutting remarks on her people.
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Open on Grand Festival Hub
Kazuko and Feriel are together, Feriel is talking.
Feriel: Kazuko, are you okay? You look distracted.
Kazuko: Oh, yeah I was. I don’t really want to say what I was thinking about though.
Feriel: Well… there is a lot to consider. I’m shocked I’ve made it this far. And from what I can tell so is everyone else. I overheard one person say both of us getting this far is the biggest surprise of the tournament.
Kazuko: I know people underestimate my tribe a lot. We’re not as impressive as other peoples.
Feriel: Your tribe has a village that moves across the sea like a boat, that’s impressive. I had never heard of a place that could move like that. It’d be incredible to see it for myself one day.
Kazuko: Thank you. But, the elders don’t let outsiders in, or people to leave if they’re not on their pilgrimage. And what they say goes.
Feriel: Oh. Let’s enjoy our time together then, and do our best in the next round. I’d walk with you to the arena, but I have to meet someone. We should meet afterwards though.
Kazuko: Of course. There’s so much to do here, I don’t want to miss any of it.
Feriel walks away.
Kazuko: When I go back, I’ll never see anything or anyone here again…
Exploration Start
The path to the next fight has a good number of platforms to hop on, all at varying heights. Don’t worry about them too much however, the main path is clear. Though you’ll need to jump a bit to find everyone you can eavesdrop on, and who’d want to miss the gossip?
Soft-spoken Lunan Noble: I like this city, but I don’t think I could live here long term.
Outgoing Dravalan Noble: I might be able to, but I’d miss everyone back home.
Regretful Gambler: One more bad guess and I may lose my home. But after four wrong gambles this next one is bound to pay off.
Casual Arena Fan: I might watch fights more if they were like this more often. But I guess they can’t have fighters come from all over the world all the time.
Exploration End
Kazuko continues walking to the arena, then stops. A cephal woman is on the path ahead.
Kazuko: (That’s strange, I know I’ve seen her before.)
Kazuko walks up to the woman.
Kazuko: Excuse me, have we met before?
Familiar Woman: Oh, you’re that Corkoa girl in the tournament. It’s been a while since I’ve seen one of the tribe.
Kazuko: You’re Corkoa too? But you look like you’re from here.
Familiar Woman: I used to be Corkoa. But on my pilgrimage I realized I didn’t want to go back. And I came to learn I wasn’t the only one who felt that way.
Kazuko: What! How could you not come back?!
Familiar Woman: Some met people they didn’t want to abandon, others found talents deemed useless in our village were valued elsewhere. And it’s no accident nobody ever told us this was possible.
Kazuko: But what about the tribe? The people who were waiting for you?
Familiar Woman: “If they don’t return, they didn’t deserve to return.” That’s what they still say, isn’t it?
Kazuko: Well I do deserve to return, and I’m about to go prove it.
Kazuko storms off to the arena
Transition to Yazen
The stage is located in the canals of a city with snow falling in the background. A large flat roofed pyramid is the standout landmark. The fighting takes place on a gondola with a roofed section in the back. Kazuko and Walakea stand at the center.
Kazuko: (He reminds me of one of the elders. Why does that make me feel so… whatever I’m feeling?)
Walakea: You look angry. Normally I would let my opponent make this mistake, but since you’re young, focus. A calm heart wins the truest victories.
Kazuko takes a breath.
Kazuko: Thank you. May we have a good battle.
Battle Start
This is another fighter who will be doing their best to get right in your face, and now the stage is smaller. You’ll need to make the most of what you learned fighting Quiahuitl, think of this as a harder version of that fight.
The stage is constantly moving at a slow speed, so be aware that if you jump the boat will move beneath you. Don’t bother setting traps on the platforms extending from the buildings that the boat goes by, they’re too easy to avoid for the enemy.
However, if you do get a trap set down on the stage it’s easy to get Walakea into it with the limited space. Easier said than done of course, you may want to forgo traps to focus on direct attacks.
Now is the time to talk about your super moves, because starting here the opponents are using them too. You have Fatal Wind, a poison inflicting projectile, and Abyssal Gate, an especially powerful trap. Abyssal Gate takes time to use, time you likely won’t have, so stick with using Fatal Wind when you have an opening.
For Walakea’s supers, Metal Upper is an anti-air, but you don’t have much to do in the air anyway so don’t worry about it too much. Eight Pronged Assault on the other hand is a tricky move that forces you to change the direction you block attacks in midway through.
Being on a stage with ring outs the threat of having sides switched is nothing to underestimate. And this also means that if all else fails, you can hang out at the edge and try to force a ring out.
Battle End
Kazuko and Walakea are back at their round start positions.
Walakea: It’s strange, looking at this city makes me think of my own village. Even after all this time I remember it clearly.
Kazuko: You left your village? Did something happen?
Walakea: No, it was simply time to depart, to become something I couldn’t if I stayed in place. It would have been pleasant to remain there, but also stagnant. I have no regrets with everything I’ve experienced beyond my homeland.
Kazuko: I see. Sometimes you have to leave things behind… I’ll be thinking about that.
Chapter END
Note from the Author: Apologies for the delay in posting, I finally have a home after a week spent as an unwilling nomad and the work related to that took up my time. This was all supposed to have happened while I was on hiatus so that there wouldn’t be any form of delay. It’s strange how often misfortune in my life seems thematically relevant to what’s going on in Battles Beneath the Stars.
| Prologue/Introduction | Table of Contents | Profiles | Non-Gamer Primer |