Mephisto VS Naomi [Platinum Heart Tournament]

Who could have imagined a woman such as herself— clumsy, unrefined, and borderline narcoleptic—would be able to advance as easily as she did. She hadn't even begun to take the match seriously, yet she had won so easily. Maybe she had just been lucky; that had to be it. Her performance was nothing special and likely one of the lamest fights in the first round. There was a small break before Naomi would be thrust into her next match, a perfect time to get some shut-eye. The issue is, that once she fell asleep, she didn't wake up, and yet her opponent was ready for her. Try as they might to wake her up, it would simply not work. So in order for the match to proceed, they would toss her in anyways, whether prepared or not. That is why the blue-haired woman would be found unconscious lying two feet deep into the bed of snow before her opponent. They'd teleported the combatants in as they were, and apparently not even that had been able to wake her from her slumber. Her body was covered in glistening snow particles caused by the fall into the slush, and it slowly melted on her skin as a result of her body heat. Her steady breaths came out as visible white vapor, the chilled temperatures condensing the exhalation the moment it left her mouth.

Despite the area's climate, Naomi seemed unfettered by the cold, not so much as a shiver emitting from her body. That was surprising for someone who was wearing a tank top and simple jeans. There was a jacket tied around her waist, but that didn't do much good on her hips. She was oblivious to her surroundings, believing in her dreams that she was sleeping on a cloud. With a contented sigh, she rolled over onto her side and clasped her hands together under her head as a makeshift pillow. A smile grew on her face as she found this position most comfortable. The lack of respect for her match and her opponent was obvious, and once again... just like her previous match... they were given the right away to throw in a first attack without reprisal. Naomi was vulnerable, with no active defenses, nor was she playing any tricks. She was legitimately sleeping the match's beginnings away. This was to be an easy advantage for her opponent, right? Well, that is what it was supposed to be, but anyone having seen her previous match would now know better. Even when vulnerable, what attack could be possibly made to actually take that advantage? Anastasia's efforts proved pointless, so would not also this one's? Her opponent, Mephisto, would need to make the most of this chance for it to actually have an effect on the woman called Naomi Miyake. She truly was harder than she looked... and that was a surprising fact about one who appeared so soft and squishy.

It was nice to see the spirit of chivalry was still alive, a medieval concept that poked its head out every so often even in this day and age. It was just too bad that the courtesy would be beyond Naomi's notice, as she didn't care either way. Had the man taken the advantage, she'd have thought no less of him. His actions here will certainly not grant him any favors either—she was too sleepy a person to care. And in a tournament as grand as this one? Perhaps it would have been better to gain any ground that possibly could gained when the prize was so great. Apparently the man was not going to give up his pride as a fighter in order to achieve victory, without knowing whether or not the lost advantage would matter or not. Naomi would stir ever slightly at his words, though they were lost in the sharp winds on the chilly mountainside. It was more that she was conscious of the person next to her being awake and brimming with energy. Her eyes fluttered open, green emeralds peering through her narrowed eyelids at the black hole looking down at her. ''Hm...~?'' she hummed softly, not very moved by the likeness of death looming above her like a thunderhead; a coming storm. She let out a big yawn and stretched her limbs out as far as they could go, showing she had a much larger body than a woman should. She created new imprints in the snow, and seemed very relaxed in the face of danger. The risk of an attack coming any moment was not at the forefront of her mind at all, and it did not spur her to move any faster. It wasn't a lack of respect—this was just Naomi's pace. ''Oh... Hello~''

Eventually she rose up from the snow with a big smile on her face, her eyes closed as she didn't intend to use her vision much for anything. Her hair sparkled vibrantly from the various snow particles that were now littered throughout it. It looks like she'd collected quite a few snowflakes on her way up, and was oblivious to the fact even as they melted directly on the skin of her arms. Well, she was awake now, or at least seemed like it. Her opponent would jump back away from her quickly, getting into position a good distance away from Naomi. The rustling of fabrics sounded through the atmosphere as the wind blew at his cloak, and though Naomi did not see her opponent, she could tell where he was based on that sound. In fact, she was able to see him and the area around them in great detail through sheer sound, the echoes and the vibrations creating an image within her mind. Using that information, she'd be able to navigate just as easily as with sight. ''Okaaaaaay~... Here comes my first attack~!'' she announced loudly, but still in her lazy drawl. Not one to lie, she began dashing through the snow, at no such exceptional speed. Her velocity was closer to an amateur track runner who was hardly trying, slowed further by the deep snow. In a graceless manner, she would eventually close the distance between them and throw her first punch.

While her speed left something to be desired, her strength would be a ridiculous contrast to that. It didn't quite look as terrifying as it actually was while she was throwing it, but if he allowed Naomi's simple jab to hit him in the chest where she aimed, he'd find more than enough force behind it to cry over. To prove this fact, the indirect forces of Naomi's fist at the apex of its strike would carry through the air and smash into the angled mountain face behind him with devastating effects. Snow would be blasted up into the air in a flurry as the stone underneath shattered. The cracks from the impact were far and widespread, further than either of them could see with their eyes... the collateral damage caused by Naomi would come into play later in the fight as the damage reached the mountain's peak. Not now, but soon, the snow would be disturbed enough to start rolling down the mountain in an avalanche. Until then, the echoing of stones being unsettled would be heard in the background, all because Naomi threw a lazy punch aimed in the general direction of the mountain. Now that, was strength.

Naomi knew she missed the punch, given the fact that she felt nothing but a chilly breeze caress her bare arm, and heard the inevitable crunch-crunch of padded feet in the snow bank, indicating that her foe had moved out of the way of the apathetic punch. It was too bad, too, as Naomi was hoping to cripple him with the first blow so she could go on back to sleeping. After all, she was in this for the sake of her sister's and not for her self. The drive to fight was not her own; only passed down to her. She wanted to refuse, but she knew her sisters were scary people, and besides, she did love them. Perhaps they would give her extra praising if she did well in the tournament, so at least that was something to look forward to. As she thought about these things, her focus seemed to waver and she didn't immediately react correctly to the fact that she missed. Rather, she stood there with her arm outstretched for a moment, still facing where her opponent had been, but was not at the moment. Her ears perked up, clearly noticing the unpleasant cracking and snapping of stone in the mountain. She was distracted by the noise, leaving her wide open for the counter-attack that came at her side. While her attention was elsewhere, this Mephisto figure threw an equally uninspired kick at her hip, moreso to get a reaction out of her than to harm her. It was like the doctor's reflex test, where they tapped your knee with a little hammer and timed how long it took for you to flinch from it. Naomi had never been able to take the test properly...

As his foot collided with her body, it was stopped on a dime, incapable of moving the woman's body a centimeter. Imagine the hardest, densest material you could think of, and it was like Mephisto was smacking his shoe into a solid wall of that. The kinetic forces of the attack seemed to bounce right back into his foot and send it back where it came from, as if her body simply rejected the notion of being moved, despite all rules and laws of physics. There was no physical evidence that he had even hit her in the first place, not so much as a bruise under that clothing of hers. The softness she appeared to possess was a fallacy—she was unrealistically durable. But even so, she at least reacted to it, if not a little bit slowly. About a second after the kick registered in Naomi's mind, she let out a whine of discontent—not pain, discontent—and held her side with one of her hands, rubbing it gently to soothe it. Her eyes were still closed but her face was more than dramatic, mouth wide open and brows angled outwards to approximate the expression of a crying child... This was the only indication that Mephisto's kick had done anything to the woman, though to be honest her tantrum was a little overdone. What was even more over-the-top was the riposte she offered back to him.

Using her free arm, she recklessly swung it down at him from overhead, chopping at not part of him in particular, just his entire being in general. Her limb flew down unceremoniously, but with quite a bit more speed than before. In fact, despite it still not being incredibly fast, it was a surprising difference from her first attack. Naomi's true speed was still a question mark here, and her opponent had to be careful about it lest he be caught off guard. Getting struck by this thing would be as equally devastating as had he been by the punch; Naomi was a one-punch woman, as some would call her, referring to the classic manga about a certain one-punch man. She had the power to end people in one attack, if it hit of course. To reflect the damage that would be caused, the mountainside would play the role of a test dummy here. The kinetic waves of Naomi's chop continued downward, blowing past the soft layer of snow and smashing the stone down underneath. The shockwave rode down the slope, digging a wide crevice on the way to the bottom. The landscape was changing by Naomi's hand, as in mere moments the indirect force of her attack had created a canyon in the mountain, wide enough and deep enough to swallow a person whole and kill them with the drop.

Even worse, it looked like the mountain had decided it'd had enough, and it announced its anger with a deep but loud rumbling coming from near the peak of the mountain. As a direct result of Naomi's disturbances, an avalanche had begun, and a tidal wave of snow began to fall down the mountain, large enough to swallow them both whole. There would be time before it reached them, but it would be dangerous when it did as more than just snow was rolling along with the tide... Trees were collapsing and joining the charge like spearmen, and large boulders could be seen in the midst too. Naomi was not so oblivious to not notice the avalanche, but she didn't seem incredibly concerned by it. She was still more upset at being kicked in the hip, and hoped that her chop had buried Mephisto into the mountain's maw. If it didn't, well then, she was more than adept with her echolocation and spiritual sense to discover his position.

Naomi didn't feel anything when her fist plowed into his arm. She heard the snapping and cracking as her knuckles dug into him, but there was hardly a difference between punching the air and punching this man. This wasn't due to any lack of feeling, but because he could hardly offer up any resistance to Naomi's overwhelming strength. This body was made of wet tissue paper, and had she been fully into the fight, he'd no doubt be destroyed just like wet tissue power for decided to take the hit directly. It was good for him now that he took the hit to get a judge for the danger of her fists, rather than later on when she might have been putting her all into it. He'd know now to prefer evasion to defending against her, at least if he was smart enough to adapt to his opponent. The blue-haired woman felt a adolescent satisfaction when she heard the noises of his arm being crippled, and his body being smashed into the newly-formed crevice. ''Ha~!'' she cried joyfully, though the noise was mostly overtaken by the rumbling of the avalanche as it closed in on their location.

Naomi was unmoved by the rush of snow and debris crashing into her like a tsunami, but even so it still was able to overtake her and cover her in a thick blanket of frost. The canyon was also filled to the brim by snow as well, burying him utterly underground. For a time after the avalanche passed, the only sound in the area was the gusting winds, as tranquility settled over the battlefield for a moment. The natural disaster passed further down the mountain, becoming quieter the further it went. It was only a few seconds later, but the spot where Naomi was standing suddenly exploded with physical currents, as the woman blasted all of the snow on top of her away from her in a plume of white. She emerged with a loud 'pwah!' escaping her mouth, before pulling herself up from the hole she was in. She heard—but did not see—her opponent also escaping his wintery grave. The sounds of snow whirlpooling downward as if something was consuming it; the constant sssshhhhhhhhhh of something rising out of the ivory sea... Naomi could sense a great power from Mephisto, allowing him to escape his glacial prison, but she did not know exactly what it was.

Naomi was about to think of some way to strike him down from his lofty position, but she was far too lax and he got to her first. She was distracted by his confusing power, allowing Mephisto to shift directly behind her with incredible speed. Naomi began to react to it, twisting her body around already swinging one arm back at him... but he again proved too fast for her at the moment. With a resounding clang, a large blade smacked into her shoulder, giving off sparks when it struck like her skin was made of metal, but there was no armor worn by her... The weapon was definitely striking her skin, and she would let out a scream of agony as if he had sliced into her, but once again his attack failed to penetrate her outer layer. The only evidence this time was that one of the straps on her vest snapped apart and fell apart, loosening her clothes. This strange defense of Naomi's would no doubt be perplexing to Mephisto, preventing him from causing any actual damage to her but still managing to cause her pain as though he'd succeeded with his attacks... there was a mystery about it.

Irregardless, there was the fact that Naomi was still in mid-swing with her arm. Even though he connected with his slash, it did nothing in the way of stopping the riposte that Naomi had already initiated. In a way, it could be perceived as though she purposely took the attack to have a greater chance of landing her own. He had performed a heavy offensive attack and was standing well within range of the woman's limb. A fraction of a second after one attack came the other, and as Naomi had proven, hers would be much more effective in damaging her opponent. She'd smash into his ribs like a pack of several trains at once, powerfully enough to crush his innards and send him flying straight off the side of this mountain, with nothing but the wind beneath his feet. He had to be fearful of even just barely dodging Naomi's haymaker, for even if she missed him by a couple feet, the excessive forces would carry through the air and hit him anyways, producing the same results. That was her strength; on a level where even the wind pressure from it was devastating.

She was not finished either, even after throwing out an attack such as that. She went on the offensive again, relying not on the sound of the vibrations as his barrier sucked them up, but instead on the brimming energy coming from that barrier. She situated her entire body towards him, wherever he was at this point, and leapt forward. Once again, her speed shot up another level as her body became a blur in flight; she was airborne above him with her arms clasped above her head. ''Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa~!!!'' she whined out, half from the pain and half from the battle rush. Aiming for no part of him in particular, she swung her arms down like a hammer to send his body shooting downward like a meteor. This strength would nail him deep down into the mountain again, and split the mountain into four quarters from the top down. An ear-rending crack permeated the air as the kinetic shockwaves parted the earth. This was the sign of a battle with Naomi truly beginning; no landscape could stand the stress of her attacks for long. She was a terrestrial danger, the world her sandbox, and this mountain would not be standing by the time this fight was over.

Naomi landed safely in the snow somewhere near the epicenter of the destruction, standing dangerously close to the cliff where over it was a deep dark chasm. If Mephisto was struck, he'd be cemented into the stone at the furthest depths of this abyss, with rocks beginning to tumble down on top of him. Doubtless a direct hit would cause savage damage of its own, perhaps knocking him out or rendering him incapable of movement. Otherwise, this crevice would still be caused by the indirect forces of her swing, a new permanent feature in their arena.

Naomi overheard the crumbling of stone from the valley's walls, and was drawn close to the edge of the chasm to investigate. Her eyes opened for once, peering down into that darkness below to look for any sign of life. The question on her mind was simple: ''Did I win~?... Is it okay to go back to sleep...?'' She bent over slightly, trying to get a better view from this vantage. Her foot came so close to the edge that it caused chips of rock and snow to dislodge beneath her feet and carom down the cliffside. Naomi was cautious enough to not fall down with it while still getting as close a look as possible. The problem was that it was just not going to happen. At the depth Mephisto was at, it was pitch black; nothing to be seen by the woman's poor vision. For a while, there was no indication that her opponent was still alive. There was a chance that if she got closer she'd be able to read whether there was a pulse underneath the rubble or not, though she figured that whatever was refereeing the fight would announce a result either way.

By the time Naomi came to that conclusion—her process of deduction was rather slow—she was in for a surprise gift from Mephisto. She sensed the disturbance of energies too late; an infernal column of light burst from the tomb of gravel straight at the face of the blue-haired woman, as she was looking into it. The next thing she knew, her vision had gone to red as a searing pain swathed the senses of every inch of her face. The blast of energy also turned the once solid ground she was standing on to molten rock, causing her feet to sink down into it and the bottom hems of her jeans to catch fire. She stood up straight, crying out in shock and pain. Her hands raced to her face to clutch it; the skin was entirely flushed red, steaming like a patty fresh off the grill. Her hair had the same wisps of smoke stemming off of it, but still... the demon's attack was unable to cause any substantial damage to his opponent, much less disintegrate her. The cerulean filaments attached to her scalp happened to share this seeming immunity to destruction, as part of her body. The way Naomi reacted suggested that his attacks were affecting her somehow, but there lacked proof otherwise. Was she truly indestructible, or was it something else?

''AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!'' she screeched in her high-pitched voice, radiating agony as she coddled her soft face in her hands. Her mind was filled with the pain she felt, and after that, she was no longer thinking any thoughts of slumber, despite how slumber was so prevalent in her life. Her opponent had been right to think that with each passing moment, she was shaking off her lethargy, unlocking more of her power due to becoming more conscious. The blast to the face was quite the wake-up call, so now Mephisto finally had the pleasure of a fair fight. Up until that point, he was playing around with a woman coming out of a nap, scuttling around on her feet and throwing paltry slaps. Up until that point, Naomi had given him more than enough chance to take any advantages he could while she was still revving up. He was such a chivalrous man, truly, to hold his punches back for her. Now he'd get a fair fight, and let's hope that such an achievement was worth it in the end. Naomi was awake.

Her mind no longer lagged behind her senses: When Mephisto materialized beside her, she was fully aware of his being. Through the cracks between her fingers, one eye was open, gazing straight at him with a rich glow that hadn't been there before. As he went in for the swing, Naomi was already pulling one foot out of the molten muck while the other ground firmly into the first solid thing it could find to hold her in place. The bridge of her foot crashed into his blade, and did not give way to the cutting power whatsoever. Her movement had been a blur of light, for the entirety of her skin from below the knee and down was dressed in fire caused by the lava. Still, Naomi's flesh beneath the blaze was in perfect condition, failing to smolder away. The dance of Mephisto's blade was interrupted turn and turn again, as the woman managed to intercept each slash with her one-legged barrage of kicks, creating a light show between them with the speeds they moved at. Her overbearing strength carried over into her legs just as much as they did her arms, and Mephisto had to be feeling it through his sword at every clash. When he swung his sword, it would be smacked away with a greater force. The recoil was drastic, and would send the weapon flying out of his hands if he didn't have a tight grip on the hilt. Similarly, if his weapon was of poor quality, Naomi's strikes would break piece after piece off of the blade as her power wore it down.

At the very least, Naomi would cause the trajectory of his sword to go careening off to the side every time she kicked it, making each swing take longer than the next. making her opponent struggle to bring the weapon back at her while fighting against the forces she was outputting. In the meanwhile, sparks and cinders were flying in all directions, as Naomi's feet were on fire and Mephisto's blade was infused with a powerful heat. The air began to distort from the heavy temperatures, and it looked as though a star was birthing the more heated their exchange became. At one point, a series of events fell into place; the brightness would be overbearing, slightly blinding the views of those who relied on eyesight, and a large enough opening would be produced by the kickback that Naomi could finally counterattack. There, Naomi was not hesitant. Her body torqued to the other side, the arm opposite to her foot now racing up at his chest as the other foot boosted her out of the flowing lava. A speed faster than any other velocity she'd displayed before sent her fist like a rocket towards the center of his chest. Her skin glowed, not with fire, but with an emerald aura radiating the woman's natural energy type, Chi.

It was unknown as to how this unnamed technique would affect Naomi's attack, but one fact was clear as day: Whatever it was, it was unmistakably potent, thick with energy, as though it were an ultimate ability. If it struck home, it would blow a hole through him, and unleash a devastating wave of energy all at once. While unnamed, it was this attack that had earned Naomi the title of One-Punch Woman by those who knew her. It was an attack that was able to instantly deplete an opponent's stamina and energy from one hundred percent to zero percent, and render them incapable of fighting without fail... so long as it hit. Naomi's glowing fist raced at him, and there was truly not much distance to cover. She sped through the hellfire, eating the heat and not caring if he managed to bring his sword back at her, because her attack would hit in that case. Mephisto had options, but because of the sword's length distance between them originally and opening created, these options were highly limited. What would he do?