L.A.W. - League of Anime Wrestling

The anticipation before the battle always annoyed Hana. This is partially why she sometimes disliked being in the main event of small time MMA cards. 5-7 matches had to happen before she finally got her turn to fight, finally got her turn to prove herself as a winner. With wrestling, as she discovered over the last year, this feeliing was even worse. Matches happened, and potentially, nothing was resolved in them, be it because one of the competitors snapped and got themselves disqualified, or their friend interfered on their behalf. Then again, this was probably why wrestling was a weekly sport, there was more time and chances for someone to prove themselves as the best, to prove themselves as better than their opponent.

Hana applied her face paint an hour before her debut, and still had to wait 10 minutes before hand.

"...Hana, are you here?"

The locker room was so quiet, it made Hana jump:

"Huh? M-Ms. Gaste--", Hana tried to greet her...mentor? Occasional trainer? She wasn't exactly sure what to call Clara Gaster.

"Come on, please...none of that. I am not your boss or a trainer. Especially now that you made it to LAW and we are collegues. Just Clara is fine", the Shadow Lord smiled at the greenette

"Yeah...collegue is fine...", Hana mentally said to herself, while nodding to Clara's words.

"Why are you here? You are not on the card tonight..."

"Just...wanted to check up on you. Yes, yes...", Hana opened her mouth to object: "I just said that I am not your superior, but I still have a duty of care over someone I scouted...", Clara would explain, with an awkward smile on her face.

"I'm fine...really. This isn't the first time I am psyching myself up for a fight. MMA is similar...ish..."

There was an awkward silence that hung between the two women, before finally Clara decided to break it:

"So um...I rewatched your matches before tonight...you...really go all out, huh?"

This was an awkward point. Clara was known for bending the rules, but never to the point of breaking them. At worst, she went for a cheap win once or twice:

"This...um...I...um...I don't...hm...", Hana stammered, but Clara would shake her head:

"No no no. I am not telling you to not do that. I already tried controlling one lady like that and ended up almost being thrown off a cruiseship for that. All I want to say is...don't...don't over do it. Don't aim to injure anyone."

Hana had flashbacks to her days, both as a vigilante, and making a living in the Japanese crime scene, before eventually managing to break clean:

"I promise on my life, I won't ever intentionally injure a soul that doesn't deserve it."

Clara herself had a quick flashback, to the Kimura lock she put on the Baroness, almost wanting to break her arm despite her archnemesis already submitting...but thinking better of it:

"That's good enough for me. Thank you"

"Ms. Hoshiki, you are up in 2 minutes. Please make your way to the Gorilla position.", a worker would say after appearing in the doorway to the locker room, before promptly leaving.

Hana got up, Clara patting her on the shoulder:

"Break a leg! Wait no, not--"

"I got it, Clara", Hana chuckled, grabbing her mask, and her barbed wire baseball bat as she made her way to the Gorilla Position...

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Spoiler

Spoiler

2 minutes later, Hana's theme hit, as the ogre-mask clad heavyweight made her way down the entrance ramp, a baseball bat in hand. Already, light boos developed for the greenette, her reputation as a brutal fighter and a villainous wrestler already preceding her to LAW. As she saw a crowd member motion in a thumbs down at her, Hana swerved towards them, staring at them from under her mask...before winding up her baseball bat wielding hand...

...and smashing it on top of the barricade in front of him, the man jolting from his seat!

Hana continued walking towards the ring, still hearing jeers her way, slightly louder now. The physical part of wrestling was important, but as she studied while wrestling in Japanese indies, she learned just how important the theatrics of the sport were to it.

As her theme reached it's climax, she climbed inside, taking off her mask to reveal her painted face, raising both it and her signature weapon before her theme quiet down.

Spoiler

She went to the corner closer to the hard cam, leaving her mask underneath it, pointing her bat at the camera man. She leaned her weapon against her corner, as the ref approached her:

"You need to get it to the outside or give it to me"

Hana's response was a simple: "No."

The ref let out a growl as she recieved the instruction on his earpiece to get in position for the next entrance: "I better see it outside before the bell rings"

Hana simply shrugged her shoulders as she awaited her foe's arrival...

Kelya stretched backstage in front of a mirror before heading out to the ring. The six foot & change brazillian woman looked exactly the She looked exactly the part she wanted to look, the sexy, powerful, middleweight on the border of being a heavyweight & could strike like lightning while grappling like a vice grip. There was plenty to be proud of in her physique, but the one flaw that she could not be missed. The brace on her right knee.

Spoiler

It came from an injury she earned in her first indie wrestling match, when a veteran, jealous of her mixed martial arts prowess took her out for months by injuring her knee. She’d rematch her later, forgiving her for what she did, until the knee was targeted again. Kelya enraged, endeavoured to hurt the woman before she could hurt her, something she accomplished by giving the woman a taste of her own medicine by injuring her knee instead.

Kelya never looked into what happened to the woman after the match, nor did she care to. She didn’t relish in knowing what she did, if anything she felt bad about it. But what she didn’t feel was a spec of regret. If her career in combat sports was to continue, she needed to keep her right knee from taking too much damage and the surest possible way was deterrence, In the form of making her opponents know that any deliberate targeting of it was to sign up to Kelya going out of her way to seriously hurt them.To emphasise the point, she always did her best to fight cleanly and fairly, as though of a combatant as she was, so they could really feel her getting far nastier when they made the mistake they ought never dare to make.

K.Z.K. could remember clearly how she felt, acting out this logic of vengeance. Though it was well true that she felt a little bit bad that it came to that after the fact, she could distinctly remember what she felt at times. The pained contortions of the face, the desperate screams, the frantic struggling. It felt good to be responsible for causing all that, from someone who unambiguously deserved it.

It was a feeling that it’d be a lie to say that she didn’t look forward to having an opportunity to experience every match. But she knew she couldn’t get that feeling by being openly brutal the moment that the match commenced. No, the exhilaration came specifically from the feeling that the recipient deserved it.

Perhaps one could call it a loophole, that essentially defeated the alleged purpose of this vengeance, but broadly speaking, she did her best to provoke attacks on her knee. Kicks were always a part of her arsenal, but why not go for kicks whose best counters put her right knee at some risk? Then if her opponent acted as they probably should, Kelya could punish them for it.

As she thought of this her theme began playing

K.Z.K. would run out from backstage, with seemingly boundless energy, spinning around, smiling and waving to the fans, before jumping up onto the ring canvas. Once there, she grabbed the top rope and leaned to the side, showing herself off. From there she dropped down to splits with absolute ease, before flexibly bending herself under & the bottom ring rope, pulling herself forward.

Now in the ring, she’d perform two clapping push ups before jumping up to her feet & twirling to her corner. She stretched her arms across the top ropes & stared daggers at her opponent for a few moments, with a hostile sneer, before throwing her head back with a smile. Throughout her entire athletic performance, the Brazilian woman had not looked at her opponent once, until that stare.

The woman she faced was a stout woman, technically a little above average height, but also clearly much heavier than her. She’d pose a challenge in grappling, overpowering her probably wasn’t an option. Speed & striking had to be her focus, which they usually were anyway. Hana would pose a worthy challenge, or so K.Z.K. hoped.

Despite her previous posturing, she stopped attempting to exude hostility in her direction as she left from the ring corner and headed to the centre of the ring. She replaced it with simple confidence & an outstretched hand for a handshake. The match needn’t start off with too much hostility.

Kelya made her way down the ramp, filled with seemingly boundless positivity, as Hana maintained eye contact on her taller, though lankier opponent. With the showcase of her athleticism and flexibility, the crowd reacted positively to the woman, as she got back up to her feet, and stared daggers at Hana. The greenette found that weird. Did she read up something on her earlier?

Keyla was from Brazil, and outside of small trouble with some bar patrons when she used to work as a bouncer, there is no way anyone from there would have any trouble with her. Hana simply maintained a serious expression on her face as KZK analyzed her…before stepping to the middle of the ring, and outstretching her hand.

Still holding her bat in hand, Hana approached Kelya, eyeing her hand…before pushing it lightly with her foot! The kick wouldn’t be painful, but Kelya would swiftly understand that Hana was not hear for a respectful contest, as she smirked at her rival.

Hana stepped back, and as the ref tried to warn her to get rid off her bat again, she finally tossed it out of the ring, raising her hands up to show that she had no foreign object in her grasp, showing that she was ready for the match…

It wasn't hard at all to tell that Hana had no intention of making this friendly exhibition match. If the way she started at her while Kelya came down the ramp wasn't enough to tell, refusing the handshake by kicking away her foot got the message across for absolute certain. This was, of course, no problem for Keyla Zoar-Kool.

She was more than used unfriendly fights. it was certainly the type of combat she was most used to, was best at & frankly most enjoyed. At no point throughout this match would she ever have to worry about pulling punches or watching out for her opponent's well being. What ever was within the boundaries' of the rules was justifiable. that'd make everything easier & of course, more fun.

The way Hana clung on to her bath throughout all of this also got another point across. Kelya may well be committed to not cheating, even if she'd fight with a not inconsiderable amount of brutality, but there was no reason to assume that Hana was. If anything, it was fair bet that her foe would cheat one way or another throughout the match, nevermind fighting dirty in general. That bat specifically, now ringside could also come into play later.

But that was later & now was now. The bel rung & Kelya's first move would be to attempt to use her long legs for a pair of swift kicks targeted at her foe's calves, too low to easily grab, even if meant being a little closer that would be required for a kick higher up.

For Hana, unless it was a spar, all fights were equal. All fights were to fight at their best, exploiting every advantage and disadvantage she could get in order to win, even if it meant bending the rules. If she couldn't fight to her best, she wouldn't improve. That's all there was to it. When her foe knew that as well, this was better not just for her...but for both of them. Hence, Hana's disrespectful kick would make sure her foe know the kind of fight the two of them would have...

DING DING DING!

With the ringing of the bell, the two women would approach each other. Kelya would kick at her calves, eliciting a hiss from the Ogre, launching a swift jab for her foe's face to drive her back!

Keyla's too kicks connected with relative ease, gaining a small but noticeable reaction of pain from her opponent. This was just about as much as she could have hoped for, so her opening attack of the match could be considered a success. It wasn't quite an unmitigated success, however, as Hana did manage to toss forward a jab at Keyla's face.

Had the Brazillian kept her hands up by her face, she might have been able to grab or swat the punch aside the punish the woman with a powerful counter punch. But, she hadn't, K.Z.K. 's hands remained low at her side, which mean't she had to jump-stumble backward to dodge the punch. Her first unforced error, so early in the match.

Luckily for the striker, Hana hadn't fully committed to the punch & had seemingly been more focused on forcing her back than actually hitting her. This allowed Keyla to just barely escape the punch, before bringing up fists up as they already should have been.

With her hands up, almost without thinking, the offense minded fighter tried to make up for her earlier mistake by immediately following the dodge with trying to slide back forward into a right handed counter jab aimed at Hana's face, aiming dead center at her nose, while maintaining a hostile sneer on her own face as she punched.

Unlike Hana's strike, Keyla aimed, to the brink of recklessness, to punch through her opponent, not create space. If the punch landed, she wouldn't wait for her foe to recover & would attempt to follow up with a left handed shovel punch aimed at Hana's liver.

Hana's punch would successfully drive back Keyla, making her take a step back! Immediately, Hana tried to press her attack onward, trying to make her opponent lose more ground to corner her to beat her down further...

...only for her next punch to be completely countered as Keyla's fist slipped past her arm and collided with her nose!

"GUAGH!!!"

Mike Tyson's famous quote flashed through Hana's head: "Everyone has a plan till they get punched in the head". True enough, the last plan Hana had went straight out of her mind, focusing instead on protecting herself. She lowered her hands to block and potential attacks to her body, managing to block a low body blow from her rival. Despite that, the body shot left the Ogre on the defensive!

That Keyla's punch to Hana's nose elicted a grunt was all the evidence she needed that it landed how she wanted it to.

The follow up, punch, aimed low at her opponent's liver, was not as successful. Hana's instinctual block mean't the Brazillian's fist met forearm. She pulled her hand back, flinging it as if trying to shake off pain.

Though Keyla's failed punch took that hand out of the picture for the moment, her oppoent was still on defense. In alignment with her typical strategy, she'd continue to try rendering her opponent unable to protect herself.

So she swung her right arm around uo high, trying grab the back of her opponent's head while pushing her head forward to pull her into a headbutt, aiming to daze Hana with more nose trauma. Almost simultaneously, she'd try to bring her right knee up hard into her opponent's gut, trying to slam the air out of her lungs.