Is Too Much Pride a Problem [Kyo, Nao]

At no point had Kyo expected that Nao would go easy on him, and that was really the only reason he was able to defend against her. He knew there wasn't actually much chance to simply block a strike like hers, unfortunately. Nao was many things, but weak was unilaterally not one of them. The years she had on him had not been for nothing, and he realized rather quickly that he could only rely on a single advantage over her.

That was, chiefly, the fact that he was significantly larger than her. As she threw a punch toward his face, he ducked and moved to throw a cross-counter, his much longer arm at least allowing his punch to reach her before hers met him.

Did Kyo actually expect that to work? No, likely not. She was quick enough to figure it out, he had to imagine. But he would still give this bout his all. That was a man's way.

"My fighting spirit, eh?"

Where had that gone? It seemed he was always externalizing it these days, acting calmer, more mature. Kyo had decided he would become a man worthy of inheriting the Sawachika household, after all. It was never set in stone who would inherit the family name, and he knew that all too well. Until father chose a successor, Kyo had every bit as much chance as anyone else, and he had to chase that.

Otherwise, he'd made a grave mistake for nothing.

Pulling back his arm as he felt the impact rattle through it, he frowned to himself, moving one foot back and using the other to meet her kick with one of his own. He already knew before any impact was even made that he'd come out the loser in that exchange, but so be it. There wasn't much alternative, was there? He'd take whatever injury came his way.

Ow, damn it. Even having known perfectly well that he'd come out on the losing side of this situation, and that she was by and away the stronger of the two of them, Kyo was still caught off guard by just how wide the gap between them actually was, both from the impact and from her following up.

He had no choice but to step back again, guarding himself carefully as Nao went on the offensive, but he couldn't realistically keep up with that, and had to simply block what she threw at him while definitely taking more than a few hits.

"Well I'm not beating you up any time soon, sis."

That wasn't an admission of defeat, just a statement of fact. Kyo might have been bold, and confident to a firm degree, but that didn't mean he was stupid. He knew when he was outclassed.

Anything that Kyo might have said on that matter was rather quickly silenced by the fact that Nao had pummeled him into the dirt, and now he was squarely on the ground. Well, that'd been roughly what he expected from a match like this. Not that he didn't appreciate it, of course. For all their hotheadedness, every Sawachika knew that every great work took a long while.

"I want to see the same thing. I'd be a failure if I didn't, you know."

He stood up again, the same subdued fire still burning in his gaze. Kyo appreciated what Nao was doing, from the bottom of his heart. Most likely wouldn't have, but Kyo was looking forward. He knew his elder sister was entirely genuine, that she only wanted the best for him. So it seemed only natural that he should be honest and forthright with her, too.

"I intend to inherit the Sawachika, sister. And I won't stop until I've become someone that can do that with pride."

Kyo had readied to answer Nao's question, but as he did, he realized that he didn't have any response for her. What had driven him? To be a man, naturally. To be an icon of everything worth being proud of, to live as he considered ideal. But why? What was his reason? It wasn't as if that was pragmatic. He didn't live with any single, explicit goal in his life, so why did he live this way?

Because he'd seen father live this way, he supposed. And he'd wanted to be just like him.

"I don't want to just be proud of myself, or the Sawachika name. I want everything I do, every word I say, to make other people understand who we are! And I want them to be inspired to live a life as driven as ours!"

He took up his stance once more, still fully aware that Nao would beat him in this bout no matter how many times he attempted to face her. But Kyo would face her either way, not because he expected something out of it, but because that was what a man did. Because it would be cowardly to do anything else.

""I won't walk the way other people do. I'll show them to walk like me!"