Yuki Kazikura vs. Angelina Tarrant

[CaptainL]

At first, with the pain in her back consuming her, Yuki didn't even think about what she had just done. Her spine was the more pressing issue; she reached back to nurse at it even as it creaked and shuddered with every move she made. But a moment later, it hit Yuki that the pain in her back had forced her to abandon her efforts right when she was about to bring this match to a victory she had fought for with tooth and nail. Victory was right within her grasp, and she had thrown it away.

"No-!" The words that left Yuki's mouth at the same time her jaw dropped in a gasp were picked up by the ringside microphones. She couldn't believe this. She'd already defied not just the odds, but what she believed to even be possible more than once in this match. She'd soaked up damage like a sponge absorbed water, and still she had found it in her to shrug it all off and to keep moving along. It was her sheer determination that was driving her onward, long after her body should have broken down on her - all hinging on the thought that she could win this match, and not just that, but that she was almost achieving it. If Yuki was lasting this long in the face of it all, she should have been able to take things just a step further, and carry through to the end of the match. She should have been able to win. By all accounts, this would only be possible if she was invincible, and if she was invincible, she had to win! But now, everything had come screeching to a halt, at the very last second!

Hearing Angelina cry out in pain, Yuki began to turn, looking back over her shoulder. That was the last mistake she could make in this match. At the very moment her eyes settled on the redhead, Angelina struck. Her leg swung upward in an arc, and Yuki barely even had any time for her eyes to go wide in shock before the blow landed. Her head snapped backward against the force of the impact, her hair billowing out around her like a cloud of black strands. Driven by the momentum of the strike, Yuki twirled around in a pirouette, one foot leaving the ground and her skirt fluttering up around her waist. Her arms swung out at her sides, flailing through the air, just before her balance gave out and she dropped off her feet. Her eyes were rolled up in her head, and her limbs were splayed out around her. She didn't move; only the slow rise and fall of her chest gave any indication that she was even alive. At last, the fatigue had caught up to her.

[Monsy]

Bad luck smack duck. This chick chose to lose.
Angelina felt it. The trembles and the shakes. It was on a silver fuckin’ platter and she coughed it up because of her own tolerance. What happened next was all but earned and rightfully deserved. If they couldn’t dig deep enough. If they wanted to throw away the prize for fucking temporary back issues. Then it was just never meant to be. Angelina didn’t take it as a miracle. It was gold in an open chest. No one can reach Yuki as she lined herself up for the Marauder’s lethal blow. The Unconscious had called and Yuki Kazikura picked up.

Sweet little marionette. Damn could they spin. Like something out of Swan Lake.
Angelina’s gassed knees wore heavy after the blow. She sunk her weight and whipped. It was like a metal bat, and it sang true that it felt almost soft. She stumbled after it, wobbling until catching herself on the ropes, sweating another bucket to pull herself back upright. When she peered back, her eyes gaped, “Holy fuckin’--” She blinked once, twice, “--shit… No fuckin’ way, yo…”

Get her. NOW.
Angelina came off the ropes as uneasy as she started on them. Stumbling. The wobble of a newborn lamb. She collapsed halfway, on all fours, scrambled, tugging her limbs like hoisted by twine to drag through puffed breaths and impending collapse onto her side. One stride became two. Knee, hand, knee, hand. It was just a few goddamn feet over a few seconds but did she ever feel like all her bones could disintegrate when rest looked so fuckin’ close. One more forced push beyond the grave and Angelina threw herself across their chest. Her body flopped and sprawled over like a slinky. She reached underneath a leg, hoisted, finger-lock gripped. Even with that tug, the limb can only be barely raised off the ground. Angelina closed her eyes, lips curled in and breath held.

“...ONE!”
“TWO!”

[CaptainL]

The moment Angelina's blow had landed, all the fight had been knocked out of Yuki. She sputtered along with the last gasps of a dying engine, but when her body moved, it was only by virtue of gravity pulling her limp limbs along. Her body felt laden down with weights, and everything was a blur; the world around her had gone so fuzzy as to be indistinguishable, and the noise of the arena had died down to an incessant, droning hum. Yuki had all but gone out on her one foot, and she had nowhere else to go but down, collapsing in a heap. Her head rolled against the mat, her dark hair spiraling out around it in sweat-soaked curls, and her jaw lolled open, with a trickle of saliva running down to pool on the canvas beneath her.

Angelina struggled to so much as stand; the match had used up every bit of strength they thought they had, and even most of their reserves. By all accounts, she shouldn't even have been able to move. Her body should have broken down on her just trying. But none of that mattered - at least she could move. Yuki was beyond even that. She had no way of fighting back, or even of moving a muscle, when Angelina got on top of her and hooked her leg. By all accounts, Yuki should have already finished her off with the Warrior Sacrifice - if that hit, she wouldn't have a chance of getting up. But it didn't hit. It was only by a stroke of luck that the redhead had been able to escape at all. But Yuki's back simply couldn't bear the strain of her weight. And now...she was about to pay the price.

"THREE!!"

Yuki didn't get up. With that, the bell rang. At long last, after a grueling back-and-forth struggle, Angelina was left as the winner - or, perhaps, merely as the last woman standing.

[Monsy]

Immeasurable weight dropped on her shoulders once that bell hit.
DING.
DING.
DING.
Angelina lay like a snake. The leg was dropped. Her sweat-drenched forehead was dipped on the canvas on the other side. She breathed like a spent workhorse. Now everything, just, hurt. Not the kind of heart that she wanted to just sleep off. The kind you got nerve blockers for. When she pushed off, her back was just jello, slumping forward like a slinky. The official stepped to Angelina’s side, bent over, and picked up her wrist.

“And your winner -- Angelina Taaaarrannnnt!”

The arena was quiet, but soon had its fray of cheers and jeers as the voices mixed together into one loud sound-soup. Angelina was dangling for the first few seconds, having to find her wobbly feet and stand on her own power. It almost looked like they picked a drunk off the ground. And when they let go, she’d almost fall on her face again -- if not for a saving left foot. Angelina looked up, running her hands through her wet hair and staring without a blink for a few seconds. “Holy shit--” Then came to look over-shoulder, down at Yuki Kazikura. First, it was an open-mouth shock, then, pursed lips -- finally, smug as a cat. She broke into girly giggles with bobbing shoulders, and a hand on her mouth as she slowly turned around to face Yuki. “BOOM!!” Angelina hopped once in a full spin, her legs folded up until she kicked her own butt. A fist punched the hair and she landed uneasy, holding her head and closing an eye. Still loopy-- “That was the real fuckin’ deal, but--.”

Her hands came together, putting on one side of her face and closing her eyes for just a second. Shit needed a quick two-second cool moment. One for the camera reel and memento that will SO surf online. A view of the fuckin’ Marauder mocking a sleeping gesture over her hardest-fought victory to date. “Nighty-night, Yuki-toots.” She teetered over to her broken skateboard, balancing on one foot and picking up the pieces, rolling out the ring, stumbling until her side slammed the barricade. The pieces were handed off to those whose butts stayed in these seats to watch this gnarly war. It was a good trade. Now she could grab the barricade and walk herself around, eventually letting go to take the ramp, doing a long and slow hobble until she disappeared backstage.

[CaptainL]

After a match so long, hard, and grueling, even Angelina seemed surprised she had come away from it victorious. She was only seconds away from a sure defeat, one that by all means should have brought her crashing to the ground in a daze. But when Yuki's back had been stretched, bent, and tormented as much as it had, in so many ways, the girl's body didn't have the integrity it needed to go through with the job - and just like that, she crumbled. And now, the match was over.

When Yuki, eventually, came to, she almost didn't believe what was happening, either. She didn't know where she was, or what was going on. The roar of the crowd around her had died down into a dull drone, one that was only barely audible above the ringing in her ears. The world still spun and teetered, like she was sitting on a carousel. It felt as though she had woken from a dream, and she was still trying to remember what was real. As she slowly sat up, slumping to a seated position, she rose her fingers to her temples to rub at them in an attempt to clear the cobwebs - only to immediately recoil in a wince when the pressure was enough to send a shock through her system, awakening all her aches and pains. But, as dazed as Yuki was, there was one thing that she could understand, loud and clear. She had lost.

She sighed, looking down. It wasn't supposed to happen this way. She was here to prove that she wasn't a joke. She was here to prove that for all the misfortune she'd known in the past, she truly was a real, capable wrestler at heart, and she wasn't going to let anyone keep her down. Even though the match had gone far beyond anyone's expectations, putting her through greater and greater torments and stretching the limits of what could even be done in the squared circle, what had kept Yuki going was that one, burning desire - to show the world that she still had it, that whatever failures she'd faced before wouldn't hold her back, and that she would overcome them all. But even that wasn't enough. By some twist of fate, everything conspired to deny her the win, when she was the most excited to see it come to pass, and when she needed it the most. It was as though the universe itself couldn't let Yuki win.

She had to bite at her lip, just to quell the urges to let fall the tears that were building in her eyes. Her fists clenched as her body tensed in frustration. It wasn't fair. It wasn't right. She'd trained hard, she'd kept pushing herself all for this moment. So why, when she had done everything she possibly could, wasn't it enough? How could she possibly surpass what she'd been through, and done, on this night?

The ringside crew stepped into the ring, each taking Yuki under one arm and carrying her toward the exit. But Yuki never looked back at them. Her gaze was fixed on the floor beneath her, and her attention was lost in her thoughts. Where would she go from here? Where could she go from here?

Winner by Pinfall: Angelina Tarrant