Waruda's Intelligent Elite

[Center][FONT=Arial][SIZE=10][COLOR=#F45F65]Kiriko[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/center]

[Center][FONT=Arial][SIZE=8][COLOR=#F45F65]Elite Stats:[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/center]

Height: Peach
Weight: Wii Fit Trainer
Ground Speed:
Air Speed:

Statwise, Kiriko isn't particularly impressive... at least she's more durable than her build would suggest, I suppose.  Her speed is nothing particularly good on either front, but she's not painfully sluggish, at least.  Her traction is pretty slippery, but her jumps are nice and high, while she has a decidedly average fall speed.

[Center][FONT=Arial][SIZE=8][COLOR=#F45F65]Special Mechanic: Unconsciousness Gauge[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/center]

Kiriko would love nothing more than to get her opponents under the knife and at her mercy... unfortunately, they keep FIGHTING!  The nerve... ah, anyway, when Kiriko is in a match, all combatants will have a small meter that appears over their heads.  It starts off empty, naturally, and actually will only appear whenever it's at a non-zero value.  This is that fighter's Unconsciousness Gauge, or UG from here on out.  Some of Kiriko's moves don't deal much knockback, but they fill the victim's UG.  When it maxes out, they'll drop to the ground, falling Unconscious!  Basically, they'll enter their prone animation, with circling birdies overhead!  In fact, said birdies even look different for some characters... for example, Kirby and Yoshi have little roasted chickens.  But I digress.  An Unconscious fighter stays that way for a little less than a second and a half, and they can mash buttons to get up earlier.  Once they rise, their UG will empty out until it hits about 10% full.  The UG naturally empties rather slowly over time, so Kiriko will need to apply pressure repeatedly to actually knock a foe Unconscious.  Oh!  And for future reference, if a UG maxes out in air, the victim won't pass out until they land.

Oh, noticed that I said "all combatants" have a UG, huh?  Yep, Kiriko herself has one too.  When struck with an attack that deals less than tumbling knockback, it increases a bit.  When it maxes out, she suffers the exact same consequences as her foes... so, uh, don't get slapped around too much, okay?

Some of Kiriko's moves have special effects on Unconscious fighters... and perhaps more importantly, she can use her Specials while Unconscious herself.

[Center][FONT=Arial][SIZE=8][COLOR=#F45F65]Intelligent Specials:[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/center]

[Center][FONT=Arial][SIZE=6][COLOR=#F45F65]Neutral Special: Final Surgery[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/center]

Brandishing her scalpel for an awkward bit of startup, Kiriko smirks before throwing the implement forward, then has a moment of endlag as she pulls a new one from within her coat.  The scalpel lazily flies forward, ignoring gravity, at about, oh, the speed of a Clay Shoot disc; it has about 3/4 Final Destination range before proofing out of existence.  Should it hit a foe, they'll take 9% and flinching, plus their UG will fill by about 10%.  As an aesthetic bonus, it stays embedded in their body for about two seconds.  This detail, uh... doesn't actually serve any purpose.  This isn't exactly a spammable projectile, but it's decent, at any rate.  Having a ranged way to increase UG is pretty handy.

There's a nasty little secret to this move... when a fighter's UG hits about... let's say 85% full, it'll begin blinking purple.  Once a fighter hits this stage, Kiriko's NSpec gains a variant triggered by HOLDING B for a moment.  With more startup than usual, she poses dramatically before tossing the scalpel with a flourish.  The scalpel, wreathed in purple energy, will now relentlessly pursue the unlucky foe sitting at critical UG levels at about Gannon's dash speed.  Its tracking is infallible, but it poofs out of existence after about 3 seconds of pursuit.  Should it connect, the scalpel deals a lessened 5%... but instantly maxes the UG, knocking the victim Unconscious.  If it connected in the air, they'll wait till they land to pass out, as usual.  Kiriko can only have one scalpel pursuing a foe, but if multiple happen to be at critical UG, she can of course have a scalpel chasing each one.  She can tap B to simply throw a scalpel normally, and these won't be enough to max a critical UG alone.  Must be that weird purple energy...

There's one last trick to this... if Kiriko herself is at critical UG, her "hold B" variant can be used... to stab herself in the back of the head with her scalpel, dealing 5% self damage and knocking herself Unconscious!  There may well be a use for this, mainly to empty your UG faster or to enter the status while in a safe location.

Using this while Unconscious gives the move more startup than normal, but it otherwise behaves as normal, albeit with the projectile flying closer to the ground than usual.  She can even use the critical variant if a foe is in that butter zone!  Of course... knocking a foe Unconscious while you yourself are down is probably not going to be optimal unless you happen to be on a team... but hey, maybe you just feel extra petty; I'm not gonna judge.

[Center][FONT=Arial][SIZE=6][COLOR=#F45F65]Side Special: RX[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/center]

Waving a hand almost dismissively, Kiriko tosses a red-and-white pill about twice as big as a Capsule forward; this has fairly quick lag on either side.  The pill spins around as it flies forward about as quickly as Link's Boomerang, and it has infinite range; it also ignores gravity, just like the scalpel.  On hitting a foe, the pill deals 10% and moderate knockback... nothing amazing, but it's a decent projectile at any rate.  Kiriko can have 3 of these babies out at once.

...what?  Okay, okay, you got me: there's more to this.  See, if any attack by someone other than Kiriko strikes a pill, they'll rupture the gel coating, causing the medicine to spill out!  ...by which I mean the pill explodes into a circular spread shot of red and blue energy bullets.  Must be one of those homeopathic remedies...  When a pill is ruptured, it'll burst into 6 energy bullets, each a bit smaller than a Megabuster pellet.  They'll burst out in a circular pattern, traveling about a platform from the pill's point of collision; two go straight left and right, then the other 4 fly in each diagonal direction.  3 of the bullets will always be blue, the others red.  Their distribution, however, is random.  The color DOES in fact matter!  See, blue bullets deal 9% and moderately high knockback... but EMPTY the UG by about 20%.  Conversely, red bullets deal 14% and light knockback, but FILL the UG by 20%.  Do you eat more damage and UG, but less knockback, or do you accept the knockback to mitigate your damage and shake off some UG...?  That's your decision.  Either way, Kiriko gets mileage off the bullets.  Oh?  Foes not taking their medicine properly?  Well teach em a lesson: Kiriko's scalpel toss can split pills open just like an enemy attack.  Buuut, none of her other moves can.  Sorry, that's just how it goes.

When she's Unconscious, Kiriko weakly holds the pill above her, then crushes it, causing the same 6-bullet spread a ruptured pill normally fires.  Because she's so low to the ground, though, the lower two bullets probably won't accomplish much.

[Center][FONT=Arial][SIZE=6][COLOR=#F45F65]Down Special: Self-Medicate[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/center]

Kiriko rummages in a coat pocket, a thought bubble appearing over her head.  This is very similar to Bonus Fruit mechanically, with the contents of the bubble changing depending on "charge," but the cycle loops endlessly.  Oddly, Kiriko cycles through her choices very rapidly at first, gently slowing down the longer she's allowed to loop.  In fact, it can actually be a little tricky to pick exactly what you want at first, unless you memorize the order... anyway, what are these choices anyway?  Well, simple: they're various pills the mad nurse is carrying on her.  Once she's made a selection by tapping B again, Kiriko retrieves the chosen pharmaceutical and unceremoniously pops it into her mouth, with it immediately taking effect.  What effects are there? Well, we'll get to that in a minute!  First, though, we should probably talk about side effects...

...yeah, side effects.  What?  You can't just pop unlabeled pills and not expect side effects!  Geez, some people... oh, uh, right.  Anyway.  Kiriko's pills come in two categories: stimulants and suppressants.  You can tell which category a pill falls in by her thought bubble; it changes color to indicate the side effect of the current choice.  Blue for suppressant, red for stimulant.  There are 6 total pills, three per category.  Now then, the side effects themselves are pretty simple.  Suppressants make it easier for Kiriko to fall Unconscious... meaning they reduce the maximum length of her UG by about 10%.  Conversely, stimulants make it harder to knock her Unconscious, increasing the UG's max length by 10%, capping at about 150%.  These changes aren't permanent; they go away when she's KO'd.  Other than that, though, she'll be grappling with a changed UG.  Generally speaking, suppressants offer Kiriko a buff, whereas stimulants are a debuff outside of their UG effect.  Pill effects last about 4 seconds.  Kiriko can only have one pill active at a time; inputting DSpec again does nothing.  ...what, expecting a way to cancel the current effect?  You just took weird medicine!  You can't just snap your fingers and take that back!  Geez.  Anyway, uh, onto the pills themselves...

First up is an appealing red-and-white striped deal not unlike a peppermint.  This one's a suppressant, so it'll shorten your UG.  That said, it gives Kiriko a nice little pep to her step, increasing her ground and air speed by a handful of units for 4 seconds.  It's almost like a sugar rush!  ...wait a second, is this ACTUALLY just a peppermint?

Next is a rather more understated, greenish capsule.  This one is a stimulant, so it'll lengthen the UG... but that also means it's a bit unsavory.  More specifically, this bitter pill will slow Kiriko's ground and air speeds by a few units.  Not enough to make her outright BAD, but enough to be noticeable, at any rate.  ...hm?  Why yes, this is just a lazy reversal of the last pill.