Yuki Kazikura vs. Satsuki Hayano - POW Match

[FreestylePoet]

The flurry came quickly. One, two, three, four blows in rapid succession, each with a more sinister purpose than the last. First to alarm her, then to hurt her, then to injure her, then to put her on the mat. With the deed done, Satsuki stood. The pink curtain of her matted bangs shaded her eyes as she stared daggers at her fallen foe. Still stepping forward, still raising her arm, still breathing heavily. Not having moved an inch.

She should have been proud. She should have been beaming at her sudden comeback from what seemed to be certain defeat. But the Queen of Clubs never missed a detail. And as fast as her wild attack was, it was impossible not to notice what laid in the widened brown eyes before her.

There was truth in her earlier rib: Why hadn't Kazikura been able to put her away? Even now, the way Yuki quivered on the mat was not quite that of a broken warrior. There was no guilty resignation, no struggle to stay alive. Nothing but an emotion that Satsuki didn't even want to name. She snarled at the half-realization. There was no way that Yuki Kazikura would be neutered by something so petty as...

Finally, Satsuki moved. She stepped over Yuki and took her up by the hair. Pulling her to a kneeling position upon the canvas. Then she rose her free arm and turned to the crowd like a gladiator awaiting the Emperor's final judgment. Displaying her helpless quarry to the audience, and all of them to Yuki in turn. All at once, the wall of people lining Korakuen Hall became a half-second avalanche as they shifted to the edge of their seats. Gasps became pleas as the many Yuki Kazikura fans in the audience urged their favorite on, then begged Satsuki to show mercy.

They rose in pitch and volume when Satsuki enclosed her fist. Once more, she looked down at Yuki. Her face screwed into a furious rage! "HrrrRRRAAAAH!!" A barbaric cry filled the space! And then that arm fell, aimed for a killing blow! The audience wailed as this last, brutal blow swung through the air, seemingly hell-bent on snuffing out Yuki's once-rising star for good! And right as it made to crack across the kneeling fighter's face...!

It stopped.

A hair's breadth away from Yuki's nose.

[CaptainL]

With one swift motion, Satsuki had thrown herself through the air, her body streaking by in a blur of pink and black as her limbs swung in all directions - and all of them found their mark against her opponent. With the force with which Satsuki threw her blows, just one solid hit would be enough to shake Yuki to her core. But when she was up against all three, she could hardly even keep herself up. Against such force, she could barely stand up, and she was thrown to the mat, going tumbling backward before she settled in a heap.

Her eyes were glazed over; her limbs were splayed out in all directions, too sore and heavy to move. Her chest rose and fell with slow pants. Yuki knew she needed more time to recover, but so too, she knew that Satsuki wasn't going to afford that to her. The world around her was spinning, and she could hardly keep her thoughts straight - but if Yuki knew one thing, it was that the worst was yet to come.

Now, as Satsuki drew closer, she stopped. Yuki shuddered. All she was doing was standing there, watching her, and yet, Yuki knew she was being judged. Every second that passed felt like an eternity she was being watched. Satsuki was a vulture circling overhead, waiting for the exact moment Yuki was at her weakest in order to strike. And, as the tension gripped her tighter and tighter, so too did the dark-haired girl's fists tighten and her breaths slow to a halt, the air hanging in her throat for when at last the moment would come where she would be cut down in her tracks.

When Satsuki finally moved - when she grabbed Yuki by the hair and yanked her up - everything seemed to flash forward in the blink of an eye. The world had ground down to a snail's pace, yet now they were careening down the highway at top speeds. Yuki let out a yelp as she was dragged to her knees, her teeth locked in a fearful grimace, her eyes squeezed shut - and then, as quickly as it started, it stopped.

Satsuki hung there, her arm aloft, with Yuki's raven tresses dangling from her other hand. And, as Yuki looked up, the blood began to drain away from her face. Now she was here, powerless, kneeling before Satsuki as she awaited her executioner to decide her fate. The crowd was growing louder and louder, and her heart thumped harder and harder in her chest. Everything seemed to be drawing closer and closer toward the final moment of truth. She just wished that Satsuki would get it over with, and not just leave her waiting.

But then, it happened. Satsuki's arm cut downward through the air, a hammer blow aimed straight for Yuki's head. She knew exactly what was coming, and yet, no matter how much time she might have had to ponder what would happen to her, the realization that it was all coming now, faster than she could ever anticipate or imagine, chilled her soul. She screamed in terror, her arms shooting up out of instinct to protect her head.

But just then...Satsuki's blow stopped.

As everything seemed to screech to a halt, Yuki began to come to her senses. She gasped for breath, sucking in gouts of air with every inhale and exhale as though she had nearly drowned, her body quivering each time. Then, as she blinked her eyes back open, she looked up, spreading her fingers and peering up at Satsuki, and her fist, hanging there motionlessly, as though they had been suspended in time. She had her chance. Yet she hadn't done it.

Only three words escaped Yuki's throat, shaky and half-whispered - a question that was hushed with terror. "...w-why...didn't you..?"

[FreestylePoet]

It was like the air had been sucked out of the room. The world held a collective gasp as the meteor of Satsuki's fist rained towards impact. Korakuen Hall fell into a horrified silence, and not a sound could be heard... Except for one shrill shriek of terror. It ran ragged up to the rafters, echoed through the hallowed halls of combat sport nirvana, and panged every heart with pained sympathy.

Every heart save one. For Satsuki Hayano, that pitiful scream took on a sharply unwelcome tenor. It pierced her eardrums like a dagger before reverberating within her skull. She turned it over and over and over and over in her mind. Praying that it meant something beyond the obvious. All it took, however, was one look past her frozen fist and into Yuki's stricken eye to confirm the worst. Looking into those eyes, everything fell into place. Every moment of hesitation, every step too slow, every hit that landed weaker than it should have. Theirs was no tet-a-tet between spirited equals, and when Satsuki pushed, there was no motivation behind her opponent's pull. No reflexive flinch. No defensive posturing.

No, Yuki Kazikura was recoiling in fear from her every advance.

Upon realizing this, Satsuki let her fist fall. It hung limply, just as her jaw started to do the same. Her face was nearly slack, save for the dilated pupils that all but bored a hole through the young joshi wrestler. The various muscles of her face twitched seemingly at random, but those contortions were the only movements she made for a long time. Eventually, she spoke. Muttered more than anything. "You... You're fighting scared." It would be imperceptible to anyone except for the two fighters in this ring.

"WHY?!?" Suddenly, she screamed in Yuki's face! Denial and disbelief and pure, unadulterated rage spewed from her lips. Spittle flew as Satsuki's windpipe went raw with the exertion. She turned away from her opponent and stormed to the other side of the ring. "No, no, no, no, NO!" Her head shook back and forth, and she gripped wildly at her own long pink locks, almost pulling them out by their roots as she doubled over in disgust. "NO!" And why shouldn't she be disgusted? This ring was supposed to be a crucible, where each of them would burn against the other until one was found wanting. But without Kazikura, there was no heat. The impurities of her soul became baked into the kiln itself.

Yes... this was her fault, wasn't it? Satsuki turned back to Yuki, malice painted on her face as she drew a shaky finger towards her. "You... You TOOK this from me!" And again she repeated that shriek: "WHY?" Then, throwing all caution and control of her voice to the wind, she ran again.

If Yuki had stood up, this dead sprint would end in a push kick to her gut! And if she hadn't, Satsuki would attempt to take the younger girl up in her arms! Either way, Satsuki would follow or take her former foe all the way to the ropes before pressing her against them. Her forearm would lock across Yuki's throat. Then she leaned in until they were almost nose to nose. Satsuki looked back and forth between both of Yuki's eyes, hoping against hope to find some glimmer of will behind them.

"Tell me," she said, her voice low and dripping with poorly-restrained hysterics. "Why have you done this? And what did you do with the real Yuki Kazikura?" There was no other explanation. This had to be some trick, some sham, because everything she'd heard about tonight -- about her... And more importantly... "The one I was promised."

[CaptainL]

In that moment, Yuki had convinced herself she had lost. At any moment, Satsuki would bring her fist down, and she would be struck down with it. Everything pointed to that - everything about the way they were arranged, the way the arena had gone silent, the way the tension that had permeated this match from the moment it began had built greater and greater to get to this very second. There was no way Yuki could get back up from this. There was no way she could survive. Satsuki had already won, and all she could do was to wait in sheer terror for the moment the blow would land.

And she would sit there, on her knees and in a cold sweat, her eyes wide and unblinking, the air stalled in her lungs, for that moment - a moment that never came.

The tension had shifted so much and so abruptly that when Satsuki's arm dropped limp at her side, Yuki felt as though her heart would stop. What was going on? Was this supposed to happen? Had Satsuki shown mercy? Or...

Then, Satsuki spoke. And the next words out of her mouth made Yuki's spirits plummet. Yuki...was scared. Yuki wasn't fighting back. She had seen the face of danger, the threat that the gambler posed to her, and she hadn't risen to the challenge. Her confidence and bravado and self-assurance had melted away. No matter how much she'd promised everyone that it wouldn't - the fans, her opponent, and most of all, herself. Was she really...a failure?

When Satsuki's voice rose into a shriek, Yuki's body locked up, her muscles going tense. Tears beaded in her eyes. She wanted to be strong. She wanted to be defiant, to make a comeback, to prove she was capable of overcoming the odds. More than anything else, she wanted this match to be the match to prove it all. This was her first match after coming back from her injury, this was her chance to prove she would be stronger than ever before! She had a clean slate in front of her, and she should have been able to show the world a new Yuki, a better Yuki, a Yuki who wouldn't be conquered. And yet...now, when it mattered most, she couldn't even bring herself to it. Her opponent knew. Everyone knew. Perhaps more than anyone else, Yuki knew - how much she had failed in her duties.

Slowly but surely, she was being pushed back up against the ropes as Satsuki's arm pressed against her throat, causing her to groan and sputter. She felt the cables press into her back, and her muscles tensed up as she sucked in a breath. But she didn't put up any fight against it. She knew she couldn't. She should have been able to - but she knew she was hopeless.

[FreestylePoet]

A new fear would have been better than this. At least that would have meant Yuki was still here. That she was present enough, in some way, to react to a madwoman screaming bloody murder in her face. Instead, as Satsuki's desperate gaze flickered from brown dot to brown dot, she found nothing looking back at her. Even Satsuki's rabid tirade couldn't break the stupor; that meant her radar was so overloaded that Satsuki's threat could hardly even register as a blip. Even worse, it meant Yuki was unsurprised by the content of her ravings... That Satsuki was merely telling her what she already knew. In short, Satsuki's greatest nightmare: She was right. Yuki was scared.

"No..." Satsuki's whine was a trembling, airy one. "You can't...!" She peered even closer, pressing madly into Yuki Kazikura's face until they were nose-to-nose and their sniveling tears threatened to become one. Desperately searching for some other explanation but finding none. An expression of heartbreak spun into a scowl of insulted disdain. After all, it was clear that she was no longer Yuki's opponent -- or, worse, that she never was. Finally, she pulled away.

KRAK!

And delivered a stinging slap across Yuki's face! "How dare you?" she demanded. WHACK! The arm swung back, this time lashing Yuki with the backhand. "How dare you wear those clothes and steal that name?" It rose once more, but stopped just shy of its target. "Not just Yuki, but wrestler, contender, would-be champion?" Instead, it ticked off all the things this pretender claimed herself to be, finger by accusatory finger.

"Who the hell do you think you ARE?!?" At that last syllable, Satsuki sprung up! She bounced upon the bottom ropes, clambering up the cords to hop up onto Yuki's face! But instead of flinging her into the ring with a hurricanrana, she pivoted about the hapless Yuki's head to lock in a figure-four choke. All she needed to do was lean back, and gravity would turn Satsuki's body into a noose. Her finisher -- Drawn Dead -- would do the rest. Even so, Satsuki sat atop her opponent, intent on delivering one final scolding.

"I don't give a damn about Yuki Kazikura, but the woman whose reputation preceded her tonight -- the woman I came here for -- would never waste time wallowing in her own pity when there's a real fight in front of her! So I'll ask you one more goddamn time--"

Satsuki fell back.

"Who are you?!?"

Drawn Dead

[CaptainL]

Every thought and impulse in Yuki's mind had sucked back inward into herself. She was awake, she was breathing, but she wasn't there. The world had ground to a halt, and even the roar of the crowd had dimmed to a dull roar - instead, the only sounds that reached her was that of her own heart pounding, of the blood rushing between her ears, and of the pants and gasps of that came with each rise and fall of her chest as her lungs kicked into a pattern of hyperventilation. The match was still going on, but that meant nothing to Yuki now. The real struggle came within - she couldn't focus on Satsuki when she was wrestling against her own self-doubts, her own destructive thoughts, her inner demons telling her that she wasn't worth it and that she would never be worth it. And what was more, Yuki's inner demons were winning that fight.

But when she felt that harsh slap ring out, Yuki's head went cracking to the side as she let out a gasp. The sound of skin against skin echoed back toward the corners of the arena. And suddenly, Yuki found herself back in the real world - staring back blankly at her pink-haired foe as she looked into a face of sheer rage. But that rage, she realized, wasn't directed at Yuki Kazikura, the Dynamite Schoolgirl, who had taken on Aoi Fukiwara and Rose Gold, who had competed in the Lightweight Classic. No, Satsuki aimed this at the girl in front of her, who was locked up in terror, cowering, afraid. This wasn't the woman Satsuki had come here to face. And yet, that was the woman she was dealing with now.

A second slap rang out, cracking Yuki's head to the other side, and she let out a cry of pain, her face contorting against the shock. With each harsh word that came out of Satsuki's throat, the tension rose inside Yuki. She could feel it coiling tightly around her, wrapping her like chains; she couldn't even will the air out of her lungs, holding her breath in her throat. Yuki wanted to be better. She knew she had to be better! She had done so before; why couldn't she do so now!? What was holding her back? Why couldn't she fight when she needed it now?!

Her body trembling, her teeth contorting in a grimace, Yuki was paralyzed, a prisoner of her own mind as Satsuki jumped off the ropes. She looked up just in time to see the shadow of her foe's body coming down on top of her, yet before a gasp could leave her, she felt Satsuki's legs snap into place around her head, her groin pressing into her face and muffling her groans. Everything went dark. She could feel her knees buckling beneath her against the weight of Satsuki's body burdening her shoulders, yet she couldn't fall; her body was so stiff her legs were holding her up. Yet as cut off as Yuki was from the outside world, the roar of her opponent's voice reached her loud and clear. And as Satsuki leaned back, throwing her body over the ropes to compress the girl's throat with her weight alone, there was just one thing that came to Yuki's mind.

Here she was again. Frozen up. Helpless. Vulnerable. With a noose around her neck, and a counterweight dangling from the ropes. Yuki had been here before. This was just as she'd been left in her last match with Skylar Jones - the very match that had taken her out of action. The very match that this should have been a comeback from - but even when Yuki now needed to prove herself more than ever, she couldn't find the strength in her to do so!

Her heart was pounding. Her body flared up with the heat of a fever, and her mind wavered in and out of reality, falling into a haze before she was shaken back to her senses. Through it all, though, there was one thought that never left. One thought that hung there, following her always. She was better than this. She needed to be better than this. She could be better than this. This was her chance to break the cycle, to prove she was stronger, to show that she wouldn't be a victim again - she wouldn't let herself fall to the same move twice.

And yet, she couldn't. She knew she had to, and yet she couldn't will that out of her muscles and her bones. All she could do was moan under her breath, her head shaking frantically as much as it could against the force Satsuki was exerting on it. Paradoxically, the same painful memories that dared Yuki to make a difference, to defy the desire of lightning to strike twice, also halted her hand, consuming her in the very fear that was letting this happen again, and proving herself unworthy of her much-awaited return.

Seeing that Satsuki was using the ropes for leverage, the referee stepped in to begin a count. "One! Two!" But Yuki didn't hear a single word of it. Her own thoughts drowned everything out - everything but that crippling fear that maybe, just maybe, she was a lost cause all along.

[FreestylePoet]

Yuki's lack of effort was a grave insult. LAW was home to the best of the best, or so Satsuki was told. Over the last half-year, she'd learned how to navigate the strange new world of professional wrestling. Sampling everything LAW had to offer, learning from it in preparation for bigger and better things. Now, she felt, she was ready to dip her toe into the bloodbath of real competition. Yuki was supposed to be the first of many impregnable hurdles for Satsuki to break down.

Instead, she was nothing but a sniveling husk, more apt to be crumbled by a stiff breeze than to stand tall in the face of adversity. This girl had so much to learn about what it meant to fight. Satsuki's finisher would either beat that lesson into her or punish her for her ignorance. The Queen of Clubs reached behind her and pulled at Yuki's ankles, turning this Hanging Headscissor into Drawn Dead's critical form: A Tarantula Hold!

Once more, she asked, "Who are you?" Finally, this infraction and its accompanying shout were egregious enough to return the stupefied referee back to the land of the living. She skittered over to the web of limbs and started her count. At each wave of the official's hand, Satsuki made another overture, each more aggressive than the last.

One. "Tell me!" she said. "Tell everyone who's ever wronged you!"

Two. "Tell the whole goddamn WORLD who you are!"

Three. "Not with your words. But with what you do next!"

Four. "And if you don't…"

And when the last hand was about to come down... "I'll tell them for you!"

"RRREAHH!" Satsuki let go of Yuki's arms and swung her powerful legs! The tension in the hold broke under Satsuki's counterweight, flinging Yuki Kazikura over the ropes and out of the ring! The former contender would THUD! against the edge of the apron before landing in an unceremonious heap just outside the squared circle.

Satsuki rolled back into the ring and stood, glaring at the referee to begin the most unnecessary count-out in history. She peered down her nose at the crumpled form of the Dynamite Schoolgirl before spitting that disgrace of a name out of her mouth. Her disgusted sneer was the last, wordless demand for Yuki to get up and prove her wrong. But she wasn't holding out any hope, not least because Yuki wouldn't see it. The referee hopped off the apron and started her count. Ten seconds were merely a formality, and though waiting through them would be the biggest challenge she'd faced tonight, at least the final bell would soon ring.

This match was over.

[CaptainL]

Satsuki's legs were locked in place, slung around Yuki's throat like the clutches of a serpent. Little by little they grew tighter and tighter, all but wringing the life out of the dark-haired girl. She hissed and gagged, but every sound that came out of her was stifled and breathless. As she realized the danger she was in, Yuki began to reach up, to paw and grasp at Satsuki's thighs in an attempt to loosen her hold, but at that point, it was too late. Yuki was out of breath, and her strength had left her; with her lungs all but wrung dry, there was no way she could summon the force she needed to break her opponent's hold. More to the point, though...Yuki had gone catatonic. She was crushed by the weight of her failures. All the failures that had come before, and her failures now. She'd had a promising start, but her career had since plummeted, with one high-profile loss after another dragging her down further and further, until everyone knew she was a joke. She had come to this match intending to make a comeback, to make a difference - for this to be the match that set her back on the right track, and proved to everyone she still belonged at the top of the card. But she couldn't even do that.

The referee counted, but Satsuki held on. Yuki couldn't even take solace in knowing that her freedom would come soon enough, whether it was by Satsuki letting go or getting herself disqualified. With each second that passed, the gambler reminded her of all she'd failed to do. All the ways she'd let everyone down - how she'd let herself down.

At last, just when the ref was about to count five, Satsuki hurled her weight backward - and Yuki went flying. Her legs kicked straight up in the air, and a scream was whipped from her lungs as she was catapulted over the ropes and out of the ring, streaking by in a blur of black and yellow. She braced herself for the impact, her teeth clenched and her eyes squeezed shut. A moment later, a loud thud rang out as she planted on her back against the floor, her body bucking into the air as the breath was knocked out of her lungs. Her legs kicked upward once again, then they came down. Her head was tilted to the side, her hair splayed around her in a tangle, and her jaw lolled open. She was only hanging to consciousness by a thread; her chest rose and fell with each breath, but her motions were slow and ragged. It was a miracle she'd avoided being knocked out entirely.

With Satsuki letting go, and Yuki outside the ring, the referee took a pause, but soon launched into a new count. "One! Two! Three!" But Yuki didn't move. She stayed there, laid out flat. A few of the fans groaned in sympathy - but most were deathly silent. They didn't know if Yuki could get back up. All they could do was wait until the bell tolled.

"Four!"

Yuki knew that, too. She didn't want to accept it, but anyone could see the truth. She lost. This was her chance to prove her worth, and she'd failed it. If she could win this match, one with the highest stakes she'd ever faced, on such a grand occasion, it would prove that everything she'd suffered through was worth it, that she could drag her way back to the top.

"Five!"

But she couldn't do that. She'd failed, just like everything else. And her opponent knew that. All Yuki would prove was that she really was hopeless - that she really had nowhere to go. She'd trained, she'd tried her best, and it wasn't enough. Just like Rose, just like Amano, just like Xiomara, just like Skylar...at the last moment, when she needed to keep her calm the most, she had lost it, and it had blown up in her face.

"Six!"

It was always this way. What was the use? Every time she thought it would be different, that this would be the one. It never was. What did she think she was doing, chasing blindly after a victory that would never come? Failing the same way every time, whenever she got close?

Yuki began to shiver and stir, her fingers coiling tighter. Tears started to trickle down her cheek as she whimpered helplessly. She hated the very thought of it. But Satsuki was right. It all was right. She'd devoted her entire being into becoming a successful wrestler. It was the only thing she could do with her life, the only thing she wanted. But she just wasn't cut out for it. All of this had been...a waste of time.

"Seven!"

...Had it?

Was that where the story was going to end?

Was she really going to...give up like this? To let her story end not with a bang, but with a whimper?

No, no. At that moment, Yuki stopped. Her body went still, and she drew in a long, deep breath to collect herself. She knew there was a problem. She knew this kept happening again and again. But...she knew why she had lost those times. She knew how to avoid it. Maybe all she needed was to take a stand, to make sure that this time, she wouldn't.

At the least...she didn't want it all to end this way. She'd put in too much work, put up too much of a fight, to let it all end with her admitting that her whole life was a lie.

"Eight!"

Just then, Yuki sat up.

She rolled onto her back. Her hands pressed against the floor. In one swift motion, she shoved herself into a seated position and fixed a glare on her opponent. At the sight of Yuki's comeback, the fans began to cheer. But she didn't so much as look their way as she continued on her way upward, getting to her feet, balling her fists, and marching toward the ring. The whole time, her gaze was fixed on Satsuki in an unwavering, unbreakable glare. Nothing was going to stop her. Not even if she had only a few seconds to act - she had to show Satsuki, to show everyone, to show herself that it wouldn't end like this!

"Nine!"

Yuki hopped back onto the ring apron. Her fingers coiled tight around the rope, and she leaned in closer, glaring at Satsuki. It was time for her questions to be answered.

"My name," she shouted back, her tone even and her intonation crystal-clear, "is Yuki Kazikura, the Dynamite Schoolgirl. I'm 19 years old, from Yokohama, and I've been wrestling for three years. I do this not to please anyone...but because wrestling is my life. It gives me a reason to live. To strive. To keep reaching forward...and to prove that I can be a stronger person than anyone who ever doubted me would ever think! And that...is what I'm GOING to say to the world!!"

"Te-"

The ref was just about to call off the match - but Yuki was already getting back in the ring. She jumped up to grab the top rope with both hands, using the momentum of her leap to swing herself over and around the rope in order build up speed. As she came back up to face Satsuki, she let go of the rope, flinging herself forward - and spreading her arms out at the sides, as she aimed to slam into her with a slingshot somersault plancha!

Spoiler

[FreestylePoet]

Yuki was closer to a fly than a rival: mindlessly locked on an ill-fated goal that amounted to little more than an annoyance for Satsuki. So she swatted her away like one, flinging Yuki out of a ring that she hardly deserved to be in. The motion was like tearing off a Band-Aid: A quick, sharp sting meant to head off the pain of a slower denial. And despite the harsh set of thuds that followed, Satsuki couldn't help but think that she was the one hurt more by this whole ordeal.

After all, Satsuki arrived at Korakuen Hall expecting a knock-down, drag-out brawl against one of LAW's top competitors. To fight tooth and nail against someone who would only ever think to do the same. She didn't get that. Yuki, for her part, clearly had no such designs for tonight. Satsuki had no idea what had happened to this woman whose sterling reputation preceded her, but the Dynamite Schoolgirl came to We Are LAW 5 to do nothing but fizzle out.

That was why, when Yuki stirred on the ground, all Satsuki did was watch. When she stood and started the long march back to the ring, Satsuki made no motion to retreat. Only when Yuki started her spirited declaration did she start to react. Each successive word was like a dagger into her heart, a promise of a Yuki Kazikura that neither of them would ever know, and every one drew more molten tears and disdainful ire to Satsuki's face. Like a powder keg, the pressure built and built and built until-

"LIAR!" Satsuki shrieked as soon as the other woman was finished, her voice crackling with fury. All this time, all this song and dance, and finally, finally, when the truth was revealed, Yuki had the gall to treat this like her storybook moment. Well-acted speech and all. Why didn't she understand? Even the most pathetic of animals had the instinct to stand when faced with overwhelming odds, but the embers of rebellion were fickle. They could be snuffed out with the slightest breeze, and soon enough, they would be. More than that, Yuki's stubborn words were just that -- words. Empty, meaningless, and a waste of both their ti-

THWACK!

In an instant, Satsuki was on the canvas! The pinkette's skin burnt as she skidded across the harsh surface of the mat. Her arms flailed back in some cruel copy of a backstroke. When she came to a stop, her jaw and upper back still rung from the impact. Whether from surprise or pain, she didn't know, but Satsuki was stunned by her sudden upending. As she gaped up at the lights in shock, fighting to refill her lungs with breath, it was only then that Satsuki realized:

Yuki hit her.

[CaptainL]

This whole match, Yuki had let her fear consume her. She knew what she wanted. She knew the comeback this was supposed to be. That had given her hope - but it also set a bar for her; a bar that she was under that much more pressure to reach. What if she didn't win? What if she just fizzled out again? Then all the work she put in, all the training, all the commitment to be stronger, better, to overcome all the obstacles in her way - it would all be for naught. That was the greatest threat to Yuki. Not losing, not being hurt, but being proven wrong.

And so far...it seemed like that was what would happen. That everything was doomed to repeat, again and again - she'd build herself up, going for a big match, trying to prove to the world she wouldn't be held back, and then at the last minute, letting everyone down as she crumbled in the face of danger. It happened with Skylar, it happened with Xiomara, it happened with Amano, it happened with Rose - and now, it was going to happen all over again, with Satsuki. As Yuki lay outside the ring, crumbled and breathless, all she could do was think over what had led her here - why would she ever think this would be any different?

But then, she realized it. All those times she had lost, things could have gone differently. She could have won - but she let herself lose. Skylar had blindsided her with her aggression. Xiomara had taken advantage of her shock in Rose Gold's interference. Amano had goaded her into losing her control, and when she fell into a blind rage she lost the very focus that brought her success. And it was Rose's revelation that she was the same woman Yuki thought was her friend that shattered her confidence in herself. That, too, was what was happening now. Yuki saw that, despite all her expectations, despite all the burden that was placed upon her by herself and by everyone else, she just couldn't stand up to her foe. That had caused her to lose hope. That had made her stop trying.

But, if she did that...then, once again, she would let herself lose. Not this time. Not again! Yuki had to make sure this time was different, even if she couldn't do anything else. At the least, she needed to show the world that she could go down fighting!

When Yuki threw herself over the ropes, it had struck Satsuki with enough force to take her off her feet. With the sound of a crack, the two of them plummeted to the ground, each hitting the mat hard. Yuki might have taken a fair amount of damage up to this point, but that wasn't slowing her down now. Her heart was racing; adrenaline surged through her veins. She was quick to right herself, rolling up onto her knees. When she looked back at Satsuki, it was with a cold, determined glare, her eyes narrowed and her brows firm in focus, and she raised her fists in front of her to assume a fighting stance. Satsuki looked out with her eyes wide and her mouth agape - but what looked back at her was the bold, hardened face of a warrior!

With well-practiced grace and agility, Yuki's arm shot out faster than anyone could track. Her fingers wrapped around Satsuki's wrist, and mere seconds later, she was back on her feet, pulling her opponent up along with her. Now, it was time for Yuki to really show everyone what she was made of. And she couldn't disappoint.

Now, face to face with Satsuki, she unleashed a series of quick, pointed blows, striking out with fists into Satsuki's ribs, her chest, her stomach. Each was thrown so quickly, even the ringside photographers could barely make it out; by the time Satsuki felt one blow, Yuki was already readying the next. Finally, satisfied that her foe had been softened up, Yuki pulled back on her arm to draw her in closer - and right into her path as she swung out with a fist into her face for a rainmaker, at the same time letting loose a battle cry!

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