Yuki Kazikura vs. Satsuki Hayano - POW Match

[FreestylePoet]

Move and countermove, a dangerous dance on the edge that had reached a fever-pitched climax before hitting an apparent denouement. But Satsuki knew that this was anything but. While the action had slowed, it was only in preparation for what was yet to come. Satsuki couldn't rest on her laurels. She couldn't let up. Not here. Not now.

So the Queen of Clubs stood her ground. She breathed heavily, eyes narrowed as she waited for Yuki to stand. Whether she did so out of a desire to meet her opponent on equal ground or out of a refusal of her body to press the advantage, even Satsuki herself couldn't tell. Either way, one thing was clear: This last pass would be their last. At the end of it, one woman would be left standing, and the other would wallow in defeat.

Finally, Yuki rose to her feet. Satsuki's nostrils flared as she tensed her muscles in response. She'd been waiting for this moment, had she? And now it was here, right in front of her -- or more accurately, in between the two of them. Only one could win the day, and if Yuki was so eager to make it her...

"Come and take it, then."

With one more grunt, Satsuki flew at her foe! Her limbs whirled into action once more, summoning a buzzsaw of punches, kicks, chops, and knees, each connected by a flip or twirl! Every part of her body was flung at Yuki Kazikura -- at her body, at her head, at her arms and legs. Anything she could see. All she needed to do was tag Yuki once, just once and this match would tip decisively in her favor!

[CaptainL]

Looking at the two women in the ring right now, it was evident that their respective strategies couldn't be further apart. They knew they were down to the closing moments of the match, yet each of them had decided to pursue it in very different ways. Yuki was making slow, determined strides, her eyes never leaving Satsuki as she closed in on her. Every motion she made was focused on advancing her goals; there was no room for mistakes or for hesitation. There was just one last move she needed to make, and she already knew exactly what it would be - it would all be a matter of setting it up. Satsuki, on the other hand, had thrown her entire body into a whirlwind of motion. It seemed as though there wasn't a part of her that wasn't flying at any given moment; her dance had turned into a frantic and erratic seizure. Yuki had one good shot lined up, and she was focused on making it. Satsuki, meanwhile, just wanted to hit Yuki once - and she wanted to maximize her chances of doing so. It would all come down to if Yuki could stay out of danger long enough to make her move!

The dark-haired girl's eyes went wide as she saw the blur of motion coming closer to her, barely able to keep her attention on one part of Satsuki before another part demanded her focus. In the state they were both in, there was no way she could afford taking another hit - but avoiding a hit would be another matter entirely! Her movements were out of instinct, with no time to think - every time Satsuki leaped forward to close the distance, Yuki turned out of the way, hopping away from kicks and deflecting punches off her forearms. Every time she avoided one strike, she was forced to ready another parry. She didn't even have time to readjust whatever position she fell into - letting her attention off the Queen of Clubs would be certain death. For every blow she threw, Yuki had to be ready to dodge.

Sooner or later, though, when she was expending as much energy as she was just to keep herself in motion, Satsuki was bound to make a mistake. Yuki was watching for that exact moment, waiting for the second she fell behind in the rhythm of her moves, when she slowed down, when she left herself open to strike. The exact second Satsuki's midsection looked unguarded, Yuki would be ready. Just then, her whole body snapped forward. She shoved herself off the balls of her feet to lunge closer to Satsuki, her arm pulled back at the elbow to cock her fist. And then, it flew, aimed to stab directly into Satsuki's stomach with a powerful uppercut!

[FreestylePoet]

Satsuki's limbs spun into a flurry as she looked to land the decisive blow that would end this match. Without a moment spared for defense or readjustment, Satsuki put every ounce of effort into this all-out assault. Her lungs burned, her muscles groaned. Sweat flicked from her skin with every twist and turn. Still, every blow either glanced off Yuki's guard or whiffed altogether.

Sooner or later, though, this would have to pay off. Not even the Dynamite Schoolgirl could survive being on the back foot for so long. Satsuki had to bank on that. She lunged forward, firing off a haymaker with her right. Then that arm curled in, and she advanced once more to jab her right elbow out. Her left leg flashed out for a high kick, and she leapt! Spinning through the air to deliver one more heel kick with her right. But each blow met only air, and when she landed, Satsuki could only snarl in frustration.

As it turned out, that was the fatal moment. That off beat, that half-measure where she let her foot off the gas, was all Yuki needed. Satsuki coiled, readying for another pounce. But just as she made to launch forward, Yuki did the same! The younger girl surged ahead, her arm quickly rising, and--!

"NGUUUH!"

Yuki's uppercut struck true! Satsuki felt her abdomen crumple around Yuki's fist. The blow reverberated from her core all throughout her body, sending aftershocks of searing pain even after the initial contact. Her lungs spasmed from the bottom-up, wrangling the very air from her form and sending spittle flying. Satsuki made to respond, but the tornado of her limbs fell silent. She willed her body to move, but it refused to listen. Arms and legs alike were limp, and the punch buried in her gut was the only thing keeping her standing.

Satsuki's eyes went wide. She was helpless.

[CaptainL]

Satsuki was moving so quickly she had become a blur - and Yuki had to pick up her own pace to match, out of necessity alone. If she stopped for even a moment, even if just to breathe, she was doomed. The action in the ring had grown so frantic that the cameras could barely keep up with it. Ordinarily, even someone as agile as Yuki wouldn't have been able to force this out of her weary and aching body. But the alternative was to concede the match - this match, which was supposed to be her comeback, her moment of vindication. If there was any match Yuki couldn't afford to lose, this was it!

When Satsuki's fist came near, Yuki swerved to the side, the pink-haired girl's knuckles missing her by inches. She brought herself back to where she was a moment ago, only to dodge again to the opposite side to swing out of the way of the incoming elbow. She had to jump back to avoid Satsuki's leg as it kicked up in the air, and when the gambler went twirling around to the side, Yuki ducked down to roll forward and underneath her kick. Her heart was pounding faster and faster; she knew that with each move she dodged, she was inching closer and closer to where she would be able to land the knockout blow. And then, as Yuki turned back around to look up from where she'd landed on her knees, seeing Satsuki panting for breath...she saw it. This, at last, was her chance - and she wasn't going to waste it!

Satsuki's pained moans mixed with a shout of defiance from Yuki as the upward rise of her body crested with her fist shooting forward, burying itself into Satsuki's unprotected midsection. The Queen of Clubs was practically thrown into the air from the force of the impact, lifting her off her feet. For a few short seconds, everything went still - the nonstop, back-and-forth action that had dominated this stretch of the match finally ground to a halt. Yuki, at last, had time to breathe. When she did, she could see that Satsuki was stunned, vulnerable, ready for her to finish her off. For those few short seconds, she didn't believe it - that after all her struggles, she could have finally seen a long-awaited triumph. But then, she realized, that was what she had been seeking this whole time. She had to own it!

Yuki began to draw back her fist, allowing Satsuki to slump forward. When she did, she squeezed her legs shut around her head, locking her between her thighs. Then, finding strength born out of her determination, her sheer desire to make her success a reality, Yuki's hands ran beneath Satsuki's arms, and she lifted her higher - holding her over her head, her arms stretched out at the sides. Yuki was setting up a crucifix powerbomb...but there was more to it than that. It was the Warrior Sacrifice - the finishing move of Aoi Fukiwara; the former Lightweight Champon, the woman Yuki looked up to, and the woman who had become her trainer in the days leading up to this match. And as she ran forward, Yuki was prepared to use it to slam Satsuki right onto her neck and shoulders!

Spoiler

[FreestylePoet]

Yuki's fist made tissue paper of Satsuki's torso. It was like a black hole had opened up in her abdomen, sucking every muscle and organ into its vacuum. She stood still. Stock-still in the center of the ring, unable to retort. All she could hear was her own breaths. Hollow, raspy, useless breaths.

The stone in her gut was the only thing keeping her standing, and when it was withdrawn, so too did Satsuki fall. She crumpled to her knees, clutching her wounded core and wincing. "Hhh…" Air hissed out of her like a popped tire. Before she could even think about a second attempt at standing, she felt Yuki's legs clamp around her head. Satsuki's arms were next to feel the looming coil of her foe's limbs.

The next thing she knew, her world blurred. Gone was the safety of the ground, and gone was the use of her limbs. Her arms and legs were splayed akimbo, leaving Satsuki helpless in the air!

"Wha… What're you doing?" she gasped. For a woman who toyed so close to the edge, it was another thing entirely to fall over it. "Wait! St-stop!"

"STOOOOP!"

And fall she did, as Yuki drove Satsuki into the ground! Like a tentpole on sheet ice, she spiked into the canvas and found it unyielding. Satsuki glanced off, leaving the force of the collision to go through her rather than through the ground! Every limb flailed at the moment of impact. Her shoulders crunched in, her spine compressed like a tin can. The quake took root in her neck before blasting through her entire body.

By the end of it all, Satsuki was in shambles. She flopped onto the ring floor, one arm bent at the elbow and thrown above and the other palm-down out wide. She laid on the canvas like a gurney, eyes absent despite the dozens of lights dancing before her.

[CaptainL]

Everything had gone perfectly - Yuki couldn't possibly have asked for a better finish. She had Satsuki in the right position, flowing through every motion to get her there as though it came just as easily to her as breathing. It was the culmination of all the effort she'd put forth in this match, all of her momentum building up to greater and greater heights until it all came explosively outward in one final blow. It was a new move for Yuki, but one that told a story - seeing her use it, everyone in the crowd knew exactly where she had come from, what she had been up to, and what her purpose was for the future. And most importantly...when it brought Satsuki down, it was going to keep her that way.

As the aftershocks of her landing ran through her, Yuki rolled to a seated position on the canvas. Her chest rose and fell with haggard pants as she shook herself out, propping herself up on her hands and shaking loose and sweat-soaked hair away from her eyes. Her heart was pounding in her chest, knowing the excitement of all she had done, and all it meant. It almost felt like a dream; she had grown so accustomed to failure and disappointment that her mind told her to second-guess even the most glorious of victories. But this...no, this was real. Yuki knew that. The fatigue in her body as the intensity of the match caught up to her said as much. The raucous cheers she heard coming down from the crowd, more eager than ever to celebrate a long-awaited triumph, as she stepped out of her own head and back into the real world said as much. And when she saw Satsuki limp and sprawled in front of her...Yuki knew what she had to do.

She might have been tired and sore, but the excitement of this moment was enough to breathe new life into her. There was only one thing left to truly make this perfect, and Yuki was going to make that a reality! In a flash she took off, throwing herself forward to pounce on top of Satsuki in a blur of black and yellow, as though she was just as fresh as the moment the match started. Before anyone knew it, Satsuki's leg was caught. And now everyone was counting!

"ONE!!

TWO!!!"

[FreestylePoet]

Like the sea from distance, the canvas swallowed her whole, and Satsuki's mind was a maelstrom. Nothing stood still, nothing laid quiet. The world blurred in spots and stretched in others. Lights and rafters crested and fell, swaying in her field of vision like buoys on a wave. And a deep warbling crooned to her as if from a conch cupped by her ear.

A muffled cry of "ONE!!" yanked her from the depths, and Satsuki gasped. It felt like the moment after a narrow survival in a shooter game, with a sudden sucking back to normal audio and odd grape jelly disappearing from the margins of the screen. Only there was no miraculous recovery this time, no promise to get back in the fight. Even though she'd already surfaced, an anchor still chained her to the ocean floor. Satsuki's leg was already caught, and Yuki was atop her.

"TWO!!" the world yelled. Crowd and referee alike, and damned if Yuki's soul didn't feel like it was counting too. Satsuki tensed, her own spirit taking over on autopilot even if every iota of her body screamed to make it stop. She grimaced.

Her eyes shot to meet Yuki's, flickering from one to the other and back again, then zooming out to take in her countenance at large. What was the Dynamite Schoolgirl thinking, feeling in this moment -- on the precipice of victory, one that had been yanked and stolen away countless times? Was her body acting on pure adrenaline, spurred by this final climax? If Satsuki had sprung out one last time, would the fighter in Yuki endure?

In a word... did Yuki deserve it? Satsuki's eyes narrowed, seeking the answers hidden within their sisters. Then they widened. Realization.

The Queen of Clubs sighed. Smirked. Nodded. And let herself fall limp. One final time, the referee's hand fell.

"THREE!!!"

"YUKI KAZIKURA......"

"WINS!"

[CaptainL]

Every single second that passed made Yuki's heart beat faster and faster. The tension in the air was so thick, she felt as though the slightest of motions would have caused her to faint. Her breaths quickened into pants, and she could feel the cold sweat run down her brow. All around her, everything faded into a blur - the lights of the arena, the cheers of the fans even as those cheers were growing into a deafening roar. There was only Yuki and her thoughts, and the count of the referee, growing closer and closer with each passing count to that fated moment - that all-too-precious three-count. Nothing else mattered.

This didn't seem like it was supposed to happen. Even now, everything felt like a dream. Yuki was outmatched - she was on a streak of devastating losses, defeats that set her back every time no matter how much she struggled to break away from her image. She was up against an opponent who seemed to command power with every move - who had a sway that went far beyond this ring, beyond anything Yuki could comprehend. Even in this match, Satsuki had kept her guessing - she was unpredictable, and even the moments Yuki thought could be turned to her advantage were nothing more than a setup to an even more devastating blow, which left the analytical mind that had been one of her greatest assets lagging behind. She had struggled at the outset of this match, taking damage that could well put any wrestler on the back foot. It felt like a miracle that Yuki had managed to turn things around in the first place - that she had gotten to pin Satsuki was an even greater one. And yet, it was happening.

When the count hit two, the dark-haired girl sucked in a breath and held it in her lungs; she didn't even want to breathe before the moment passed. One more count to go. This would decide everything. Yuki knew that with her body in the state it was in, her muscles sore and her limbs heavy, there was no way she could keep this up for long. If Satsuki escaped, then the match would already be over. She had hit Satsuki with everything she had, and she had managed to keep her down this far - when it had seemed like she was constantly in motion. This had been her last-ditch effort. And yet, when she'd tried all she had before, it had still failed her in the end. There was always that nagging thought, that lingering doubt, that told Yuki this would be no different.

It was all up to this. One more second that would make all the difference.

And then...it came.

Three. The call of her name. The ring of the bell. And the burst of cheers that followed.

Yuki let go of Satsuki, stepping back and getting to her feet. Her sweat-soaked skin glistened in the lights, and whole body seemed to lurch with each haggard breath she took. Teetering uneasily on a shaky balance, she looked all around her, her eyes glassy and out of focus - as though she was trying to determine if this was real. If this was happening. If the miracle she had always been waiting for...had finally come.

But it never came. She never woke up. There was no reversal, no intrusion, nothing to bring the wind out of her sails at the last moment.

Yuki...had won.

"...YES!!!"

At long last, the face that had been so stoic and unfeeling broke into a smile. She hopped back, thrusting a fist in the air as she jumped up and cheered with an energy that surprised even her after the grueling match. It was unusual for Yuki to get this excited about anything. But this was the culmination of something that had been going on much, much longer - and at last, it had come to its end. Now, when the fans cheered for Yuki's comeback, she cheered right along with them.

[FreestylePoet]

The bell rang, and Satsuki was left to lie in her coffin. The world pulled its gaze off her and onto their champion -- if not for the League quite yet, then certainly for this evening. Every sound was another stake through Satsuki's heart. Even now, her neck had craned itself, lifting her pink-capped head ever so slightly off the canvas as if her body refused to accept total defeat. As if that subconscious millimeter was a lifeline back into the fight.

But it wasn't. The bout had been decided, and the Queen of Clubs found herself on the losing end. As bitterly disappointed as she was in the outcome, though, the road to get here was... thrilling, to say the least. To have fought someone so skilled for so long... it was almost what she wanted. Outcomes like this were to be expected when tempting fate, and if there was anything that the Queen of Clubs was known for, it was exactly that. Now, Satsuki -- and her heart -- could rest.

She sat up. "Hey. Let's..." Another swell from the audience cut her off, and Satsuki found herself smiling. She'd lost the right to decide the next step, hadn't she? It was only right that Yuki should bask in one reward for as long as she wanted before turning to her other one.

Eventually, when the cheering and screaming and lavishing had died to a more manageable din, the pinkette stood. Every bit of her body begged her not to, but she did it anyway. Satsuki limped over to her former opponent, then clapped a hand onto Yuki's shoulder. When the Dynamite Schoolgirl turned around, she would be met with a wry, almost forlorn smile.

"We should head back."

[CaptainL]

The match might have ended, but Yuki's pounding heart hadn't slowed a bit. She could hardly believe it had happened. Could it really be that now, after so long of trying and trying to change her fate after she was seemingly doomed to be met with failure and disappointment at every turn no matter how hard she tried, Yuki was finally able to succeed? It felt too good to be true - but in her heart, Yuki knew that it was. She heard the fans cheering for her, their applause echoing through the arena like thunder. She knew that every one of them had the same thoughts she did - every one of them had watched and waited for a moment like this, praying at every one of her matches that this might be the one to turn everything around; the one that would prove she did have it in her to succeed. She had been vindicated on this day, and so was everyone who believed in her. When she looked from one side of the arena to the other, seeing all the signs waving, all the fans jumping up and down in celebration, it made a tingling sensation run down Yuki's spine. She might have just been through a match that had tested her to the limits of her strength, and yet, when she heard everyone cheering her on, the adrenaline rush overtaking her made her feel like she was ready to run a marathon. If all of them were this happy, she deserved to be happy, too.

Lost in her own thoughts, Yuki had almost lost track of what was happening in the ring. But she wasn't alone here. Satsuki was also coming down from the rush that had been this match's explosive climax. When Yuki felt her hand rest on her shoulder, she slowly turned to face her, raising an eyebrow curiously. How was Satsuki going to respond? Was she going to be disappointed that she'd lost? Or, considering how she had all but begged Yuki to bring forth her best efforts, and to give her a battle worth taking pride in...would she be impressed with what she'd done?

When Yuki saw the smile on Satsuki's face, her body eased as she felt the relief of knowing there were no hard feelings between them wash over her. The woman who had once commanded such fear and hesitation in her was now smiling to her calmly - like an old friend, almost. And Yuki could even find it in her to look back at her, and when their eyes met, she smiled just a little wider. Through it all, Yuki and Satsuki had come to know each other a little better. They'd seen what they were capable of - and what they could bring out of each other. And they had nothing but respect to show.

But both of them were tired. Both of them had worked hard. Now, it was time for the two of them to retire. When Yuki heard Satsuki's offer, she nodded her head in agreement. She had her time to shine - now, it was her chance to celebrate it.

Winner by Pinfall: Yuki Kazikura
Continued here