Alkaid v. Satomi

Note: This ruling has been revised in light of the discovery that Alkaid does not actually possess Seedling Fern.

RULING

There has been a requested ruling on Alkaid's attempted hit on Satomi by stabbing with bone spikes.

Alkaid's attempt at using generic bone spikes to kill Satomi is valid and the hit connects. Alkaid has already successfully connected her hug against Satomi and his use of a precog save to to block it is invalid. Alkaid's hug was connected in the previous round as Juniper Uchiha was not present to block/intercept the hug. This was because she was not posted as having left Konoha (in accordance with the rules requiring characters to exit the gates so as to allow a fair chance of interruption). Juniper cannot spawn next to Sato and then block the hug and since he did nothing to stop it himself then the hug was successfully connected.

Alkaid's next action was to attempt to kill Satomi by ejecting her bones at him at point blank range. Satomi responds to this attempt by using a precog to prevent the hung and dodge the attack. However, Satomi's use of the precog save is invalid.

It is important to note that here that Satomi's precognitive save usage is not invalid because of the "seeing vs analysis" debate that was had in the discord. Others have argued and I agree that the language on analyzing for precog is a bit vague in terms of what is expected of players. Does merely writing that your character sees an opponent constitute enough for analysis or must there be a meatier description and/or noting it at the end of one's post. I do not think that the rules are sufficiently clear as to say the former is out of the question. Satomi's mentioning of seeing Alkaid is enough to function as a "charge" for his precog saves. Had this been the key issue with Satomi's use of the precog save then it would have been perfectly fine.

The main issue with Satomi's use of his precog saves is that its too late. Satomi attempts to precog Alkaid's hug which has already connected. The time to precog and pre-empt the hug was when he posted Juniper blocking it. But because he failed to take action himself in that post, the hug will connect.

This means that in his previous post Satomi had to avoid the attack after the hug was successfully performed.

Satomi wrote:As soon as she tried to hug him, Satomi would use his right hand to slap the outstretched right arm of Alkaid and activate his jutsu on her there. All before they fully embraced.

Then his body would simply turn into a swirl nothingness. There was a strong surge of power in his right eye as he activated his Mangekyou Sharingan's Kamui. The bones erupting from her body hit nothing as Satomi disappeared from the world and reappeared in the Kamui Dimension.

Satomi's actions regarding slapping the outstretched hand cannot occur as she has already hugged him. His activation of the jutsu is a bit vague. All we have to go on that's in the post was that it was Added Light Weight Rock which requires a seal that was not used. It is also specified these actions take place before the hug. Alkaid's post makes it quite clear that her attack occurs immediately after the hug connects.

Alkaid wrote:The moment her arms wrapped around his large frame and her body was pressed up against him she acted.   *snikt*  without a word of warning multiply bones would erupt from her chest at high speed.  Considering she was literally right on top of him at point blank range he would have no chance to react before her s-grade quality spike tore straight thought his armor as if it was made of tissue paper and bore straight through his flesh.

The hug has already connected and so Sato's prior actions cannot interrupt the bone stab or protect Satomi from its effects. His activation of the Mangekyou Sharingan and then activation of Kamui is not instantaneous and cannot occur fast enough for him to escape. While dojutsu activation is rather quick as is activation of Kamui it cannot occur so fast as to avoid such a high speed point blank range attack. To say otherwise would be to turn Kamui into a permanent Destiny LB point.

Satomi's vital organs will be stabbed and he will instantly black out from the pain with death shortly following mere moments afterwards unless a LB point is used or some other intervening act makes it not so.

The Seedling Fern attack Alkaid uses thereafter however will fail as she does not have Ninjutsu and therefore does not know it.

Should Satomi elect to use his LB point then he will incur no damage and the bone spikes will not hit nor harm him. This will appear to the NPCs standing nearby as if he is just being hugged by Alkaid as there will be nothing to indicate he has been attacked. Therefore no attacks may be connected by the NPCs in such an event.

Should Satomi not elect to use his LB point, he will be able to connect his attacks against Alkaid with his NPCs in his post. This is because the the bones will pierce his armour thereby making a loud and discernible noise capable of indicating the presence of conflict. They will be triggered into high alert and will initiate and successfully connect the attacks that were described against Alkaid. Given that there are only two ANBU Assault shinobi according to Satomi's earlier post then that means the following:

Icho will hit Alkaid with the Fire Release: Great Dragon Fire Technique. Alkaid will not experience pain due to her S-Rank Constitution but she will incur 2nd degree burns on her flesh. She will also fall into a 50 meter pit due to Moving Earth Core (presumably with Satomi joining her) and be under the influence of the relevant False Surroundings Jutsu. This will not happen if Alkaid uses an LB point or some other intervening act happens.

The other guard with launch his Great Dragon Fire into the sky and given that Satomi only has two guards the other assault NPC actions mentioned are void.

RULING

There has been a requested ruling on Alkaid's attempted hit on Satomi by stabbing with bone spikes (again).

Alkaid's attempt at using Dance of Larch to kill Satomi is valid and the hit connects.

I agree with Alkaid's characterization of Susanoo that it does not form at the point of the user's skin and expands outwards. Instead it materializes around the user's body and thus any person grappling the user would not be thrown off or otherwise unable to connect a close contact physical hit. Alkaid references A's body slamming of Sasuke with the first stage of susanoo active. Both the manga and anime source clearly reflect that characterization. Satomi's mention of Madara's Susanoo use is not persuasive because it references a far higher level of Susanoo and involves a technique rather than physical grappling which makes it further removed from the further instance.

Satomi's attempt to connect an escape by jumping backwards is also invalid. His initial post reads as follows:

As he was activating Susanoo (Which can be done without MS activated so that's clear) his head jerked backwards as he began to retreat backwards as fast as he could, jump skipping backwards till he gained a few meters away.

Alkaid is hugging Satomi tightly at a full tier higher in Strength than his own. She is also fairly shorter than he is standing at 5'6 in comparison to his 6'3. Jumping backwards will not result in Alkaid automatically losing her grip as her last post re-affirms that she is still hugging him. Satomi would jump backwards and he'd just be jumping with Alkaid still on him. He lacks the strength or the coordination to break the hug by simply jumping backwards. Jerking his head back will do little to nothing as Alkaid's head is at chest height and her bones can easily reach into his head from her position (Kaguya bones are rather long and Satomi cannot move his head so far back as to completely place it outside of harms way). Satomi's most recent post of trying to pull Alkaid off of him doesn't work either.

Satomi used both hands to push her off of him very quickly.

This is very untimely. The time to do this would have been in his previous post. Even then, the difference in strength, coordination, and leverage (Alkaid being smaller) makes it unlikely that he'd be able to pull her off of him before she gets off her close range and fast paced attack. Thus, Satomi's claim of avoiding the attack on the basis of those actions are too little and too late. The attempt at Kamui (which is timed as happening simultaneous with these actions) as previously stated will not occur before Alkaid double-taps him with Dance of the Larch. To allow otherwise would be to make Kamui auto-dodge level (if someone cannot connect a hit against someone with unactivated Sharingan at point blank range under what circumstances could they connect an attack?).

Alkaid also mentions explicitly in her post the bones aim for his brain and eyes. The fact that his eyes are gored out of his head and completely destroyed means he cannot Kamui to the hospital and the fact that his brain was targeted means that his death is nigh instantaneous. Painless, but nigh instantaneous. S-Rank Quality bones vs S-Rank Constitution will still result in maiming as per the stat's description. Unfortunately for Satomi maiming the brain in such a manner (along with numerous other sensitive and vital organs) will result in death. Satomi will therefore die near instantly unless an LB point is used or unless some other intervening factor makes it not so.