He's the Undefeated of the East

Sieg stood outside the Star Gate Branch, looking up at the building. She gripped her Blau deck tightly in her hand. After suffering repeated one-sided defeats, she came to conclusion that one mentor wasn't enough. A conclusion Cero himself had been trying to push her to accept sooner, but her own idealization of the man prevented her from doing so. But now, she was here. The Branch Director was supposed to be the strongest Nova Grappler player in the world. Who better to learn the ways of the deck from?

With one last deep breath to prepare herself, Sieg stepped through the doors of the branch. As she did, she wondered what type of training Hideyoshi employed. He seemed... More sane than Cero, so she wasn't expecting the incredibly harsh and intense training regiments he employed. No air conditioning in a volcano, man-made or not, is just too cruel to be considered training.

As the young Sieg entered the Stargate Branch building the sound of cheering was audible. It sounded like a large crowd was cheering someone on but from inside the large dome where the bulk of the fights in the building were carried out. The doors to the planetarium like room were wide open and in the lobby there was what seemed to be a mountain of cushioning and air bags. After a moment the cheers would heighten as something seemed to zip past faster than the eye could catch and directly into the cushioning. It took whatever it was a good minute or two to emerge. It was a person... but in a very thickly padded body suit, almost like one to train police dogs.

"You okay out there?!" a voice called as a figure ran through the doorway with chants of 'Yo-shi! Yo-shi!' sounding from within. Out came the Branch Director himself who jumped to the ground floor instead of taking the several flights of stairs and walking over to the person who'd been sent flying. The man seemed dazed but excited and overall okay.

"Man you've really got guts. But boy did that feel good. Can't remember the last time I got to let loose like that." Hideyoshi said while patting the man the on the back. It was still unclear to any outside observer what had happened.

"Y-yeah... y-you really are the s-strongest" the man said still shaken up from the improbable event that had just occurred.

"Well I dunno about that but thank you for the compliment!" Yoshi continued with a hearty laugh. It was then he took note of Sieg standing in the doorway.

"Why hello miss. Almost missed you there among the fun we were having. Welcome to Stargate! The real party's inside."

While she couldn't see the man go flying, Sieg could tell something had gone by.  In a moment, her thoughts that this place might be some degree of normal were dashed away.  When she saw the man emerge from the padding and heard the chanting of "Yo-shi!  Yo-shi!" within the room he'd been flung from, Sieg felt an odd familiarity between what was happening here and the Branch she spent most of her time at.  For better or worse, despite what was going on, the Branch Director himself seemed much more sane than Cero himself.  If it had been Cero, there would've been some sort of monologue about the importance of power or something, and as entertaining as they could be, the message never really changed.

"The...  real party?" Sieg asked, though she was pretty sure she knew what was going on.  After a moment of consideration, she got an idea.  "Are you taking challengers?" While Sieg knew she stood no chance against the Branch Director, who she figured was close to Cero in strength based on what just happened, she wanted to see first-hand how big the gap was between how she was now and one of the strongest individuals in the world.

"Challengers?" came the puzzled reply from Hideyoshi. He looked back to the man he had sent flying who seemed to still be getting his bearings and then back to Sieg. The girl looked fairly young and thus not particularly sturdy. "Miss, I don't think you want what's going on here. Maybe in a few years when you've bulked up some and..." he said taking a moment to consider the situation. A child, in the Star Gate Branch, the branch of which he was the Branch Director, this was an Association building, the Vanguard Association building. "Ohhhhh, you mean like cardfights!" he said patting a fist down into the palm of his other hand. The man laughed again, this time at his own confusion. He'd been in such a martial arts mode he'd nearly forgotten what was supposed to be going on.

"Well at the moment the Branch is wanting me to show them some self-defense stuff. And... well a bit of showing off here and there." he said while a hand rubbed the back of his head. It was probably more having him show off than he wanted to admit. "You're welcome to come on in if martial arts is your thing. Even if it's not I'd bet you'd be good at it." he said, his positive energy remaining fairly constant. His last statement seemed odd. Perhaps it was just a statement he gave to everyone or did he know something about Sieg that would make her fit for this. Something seemed to be resonating with his soul. This girl... could she be? The idea of another fighter like Hikari appearing so soon into the branch's run was more than he could handle.

"No, I meant both!" It was rare to have a chance to test herself physically outside of the Dragon Empire Branch. "I'm stronger than I look!" Certainly, the physical training methods of Dragon Empire were harsh enough to make Sieg the pinnacle of thirteen year old girls, but she was also still just thirteen. Though, her energy seemed to diminish a bit when it sounded like Yoshi was busy. Still, she wasn't going to leave empty handed.

"Oh... Well, I can stay to watch if you can't accept my challenge right now..."

Yoshi's feeling about the girl seemed reinforced at first as she claimed she sought challenges in the physical and card varieties. Perhaps she was indeed stronger than she looked as she said. Together these sentiments seemed indicative of that certain special fire that only the few chosen fighters could emit. He was almost ready to make the call that this was a Nova Grappler player he stood before but then something seemed to dampen her mood. That was enough to throw his sense for these things off just enough to make him hold off on saying anything about it.

"Well I'll tell ya what. We can make it a bit of a competition. Let you test yourself against some of the other kids here and me too of course. Then once the branch has had their fill of me we'll see what we can do about the fight." he said with a smile. Voices from the main room of the branch came calling for his return to which he called back saying he was coming. "Right this way miss." he said motioning to the set of stairs he'd neglected to take on his way down from the room.

The two would enter into the spherical room with cheers and applause going like mad for the Branch Director's feat. The fighters who'd gathered today had been busy bothering Yoshi-sensei to show his stuff for a few days and he had finally conceded. So for the moment there was very little actual cardfighting going. Regardless the room was still a stunning sight. The display along the walls was currently of a galaxy outside of the Milky Way. The lasers had finally been installed and were shining about in ever-changing colors.

"Alright everyone, your turn to shown off!" he called out as he snapped his fingers. Staff members began wheeling in several devices and set ups onto the main floor of the spherical room. "Time for a bit of a competition. We've got punching machines, treadmills and a long jump pit. We're gonna see who's the strongest, the fastest and the farthest jumper! You'll get a couple tries at each, let's give it your all!" he said riling up the crowd. He then turned to Sieg. "You're welcome to join in. I bet you can show most of 'em up." he said with a thumbs up and a smile. If she really was a Nova player this would show it.

"Competition?" The words caught Sieg's attention, making her perk up once again. While she wasn't really sure what this competition was going to involve, she followed Hideyoshi up the stairs to the room above. As the applause rang out and the devices for the competition were brought out.

Sieg took a deep breath and nodded. The first thing she went to was the treadmill, starting on a low speed and working her way up bit by bit to her top speed, maxing out just under 35km/h. It was a high speed, especially for a thirteen year old girl, but very much within the limits of ordinary human ability. Her next stop was the long jump. She took her stance, and sprinted forward at top speed before leaping as far as she could, landing at 6.3m, almost four times her own height. Now, it was time for the punching machine.

With another deep breath, Sieg stepped up to the machine, forcing herself to relax before taking a self-taught fighting stance. She swung, putting all the force she could manage behind her fist, and while it was a solid punch, it wasn't anywhere near as astounding as her other two results. Sieg didn't have the body weight or the technique to deliver a truly awesome punch. It was a little disheartening, but she'd expected this. With her results in, she stepped back and waited for the rest of the results from the other contestants.

The display of the various Star Gate fighters moving about to the various tests was about as amusing in practice as it had been in Yoshi's mind. There were many who weren't incredibly athletic yet were still trying their hardest to impress with a mixed bag of results. No matter how it went, the others seemed generally supportive and encouraging. The Branch Director kept his eyes on the guest who had seemed very eager to challenge him. He had his suspicions and his doubts and was sure this display would decide it one way or the other. Sieg was impressive in both the measures of speed and jumping distance. The latter especially caught his eye as a six meter jump was considered exceptional for a young adult woman and this girl couldn't be more than fifteen from Yoshi's estimates.

"Keep it up everyone!" he said as people moved about to the different stations. Several of the participants approached him asking him if he'd do the tests as well and he had to laugh and say he might do it after everyone else was finished if he was going to. Sieg then approached the punching machine. Her stance was nothing he'd seen but the cause was something he often encountered. She wasn't formally trained in martial arts so she had invented her own style for these sorts of things. But without proper posture, her small frame would fail to deliver much force with a punch. The girl seemed disappointed but as for Yoshi, he'd seen all he needed to. He walked over to Sieg with a smile on his face.

"You'll get more out of your punches if you know how to move your body. You dont have the raw muscle of most but if you use your body wisely you'll stick knock people flat on their back." he said as he took a stance with his feet even and about shoulder width apart, his knees slightly bent. He had his fists parallel to the floor with the backs of his hands towards the floor and they rested at about his waist. He then raised his right hand in a twisting motion to be level with his shoulder. He did this slowly so the girl could observe. "Once you have the proper technique down you practice and practice until it becomes second nature. And once you always do it right you speed it up and..." he said now throwing the punch at full speed. It was all so fast that his hand moved from his waist to full extension back to his waist. A gust of wind seemed to shoot out from the impact and travel a few feet before settling again.

"Well something like that. It probably sounds hard but it shouldn't be too bad for a Nova Grappler player." he said, his smile taking a sly flavor indicating his confidence in his discernment.