Sheila Chihara vs. Chiaki Nanami - Apex Qualifier Match

[CaptainL]

Sheila had been taken by surprise, and when Chiaki followed up with a well-placed kick to her abdomen, she folded over forward, the air knocked right out of her. She was still dizzied even as Chiaki followed up, grabbing her head and throwing her face-first to the ground with a thump of bodies landing against the canvas. The world around Sheila felt like it was spinning, and she could barely keep up when everything around her. But if there was anything Sheila knew about wrestling, it was that she was in a less than optimal position right now - if she was content to lie there in a daze , Chiaki would have every opportunity in the world to press her advantage. She couldn't let that happen!

Fighting through the haze, Sheila shook the cobwebs out of her head, summoning the energy back into her body just in time. She threw her arm around Chiaki, and as they turned over, she went to grab one of her legs in between her own to stabilize her hold on her. Then, as she threw her weight to the side, the two went rolling. Sheila had the weight advantage, and that was enough to set the two of them into motion, guiding them out under the bottom rope and onto the apron as they turned one over the other - just before they reached the edge, sending the two of them toppling to the floor below!

Sheila let out a gasp as she felt herself fall through the air, and she landed with a thud at the bottom, rattled from the drop. She clenched her teeth and shook her head, trying to get her bearings. Seeing the two women were out of the ring, the referee called "One!" to begin the count. But soon, Sheila looked down to see that she had landed on top of Chiaki - and now, it was her turn to press the advantage!

"Haaah!" Sheila cried out, drawing her energy behind her next blow. She arched her back, raising her hips and shoulders up from off of Chiaki, and swung her forearm down to hurl a chop against her head!

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The fall from the ring to the floor below had not been a pleasant one for Chiaki. Undoubtedly less so than Sheila, considering who was on top. Even a drop of only a few feet still hurt when over 100 pounds came down with you and landed on your chest and stomach. Chiaki heard the ref counting, and went into a momentary panic, believing that he was counting a pin.

But Chiaki's worries would shift when Sheila pulled off of her and reeled back with her fist. The Aussie's arm came down, and Sheila finally managed to land her first real hit of the match. Clean against Chiaki's head no less. The gamer's head stung from the hit, but her focus quickly shifted once she realized the ref was still counting, and was already past three.

"Wha- oh right," said Chiaki as she realized the ref was counting the time the two had spent out of the ring. Not the time for any sort of pin. Despite her position, the gamer girl was relieved. She knew that she had plenty of time to get back in, and that Sheila was most likely not going to actively stall for a time out. Chiaki however, may be able to finesse her way into the ring while Sheila was stuck outside when the count hit 20 if she played her cards right and a couple things fell her way.

[CaptainL]

Sheila didn't even care that she had gone outside the ring, and the drop she had to ride out on the way down barely even seemed to bother her; she just clenched her teeth and kept at it, throwing herself into the action. She swung out with a forearm straight across Chiaki's head, knocking her against the floor. Sure enough, the pink-haired girl shrunk back from the hit - which only encouraged Sheila even more. A grin crossed her face as she nodded her head toward Chiaki. So far, her strategy was working, so she might as well keep it up!

"Two! Three! Four! Five!" The ref's count was climbing higher and higher, but Sheila didn't show any signs of slowing down. She was sure that if she did enough damage to Chiaki outside the ring, she would be left dizzied and unable to catch up with her once she went back inside just before time ran out! "Yeah, take that!! And that!!" With growing enthusiasm, Sheila turned from side to side, throwing punch after punch at Chiaki's face to knock her this way and that! She was getting so caught up in the motions, in fact, that she was beginning to lose focus on everything else around her...

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Regardless of any plans which Chiaki may be trying to cook up, the fact of the matter still was that she had a bigger stronger girl mounted on top of her and out for blood. Sheila was raining down fists, and Chiaki was just looking to turtle up and protect herself. She was doing a solid job of it, as not much of the Aussie's barrage was getting through to the gamer's head.

While Chiaki let her arms take the brunt of the pounding, she slowly pulled her legs up and around Sheila's body, but refrained from actually making contact for the moment. Chiaki wasn't sure how much time she would wait before trying to make her move. If she left too much time, she probably wouldn't be able to wall Sheila off to keep her out for long.

Chiaki thought that it'd be better to go for it early rather than late. The streamer felt good about her chances in the match, so she didn't want to bring it to a draw by double DQ. She'd rather just have the fight continue if she couldn't pick up the win. Chiaki wanted to give herself enough time to actually get Sheila, who was still pounding away, off of her. So she made her play once the ref got to 14. She swiftly wrapped her legs around Sheila's body and would try to pull her down and unbalance her, then use her arms to push her off completely. From there, Chiaki would rush back into the ring.

[CaptainL]

Sheila knew she was going to have to get back in the ring eventually, but that wasn't on her mind right now. For now, she had mounted her opponent, and she was content to unload on her with a barrage of strikes from all directions, looking to wear her down! As soon as one blow landed, Sheila was already drawing her other fist back for the next, settling into a rhythm. As the count grew higher and higher, a few of the fans looked at each other with confusion, unsure if the Young Lioness was ever going to get back in, or if she was aware of that rule at all.

Either way, Sheila couldn't hold up her offense for good. She had let her excitement take control of her, and she had thrown everything she had into her whirlwind of strikes. But now, as that energy at last began to burn out, her movements were beginning to grow slow and stiff with fatigue, and she took heavy pants in between each punch. Chiaki would soon realize she had an opening to strike - and she would have her chance by the time she decided to kick upward with her legs, throwing them around Sheila's waist!

The Australian girl let out a gasp, taken by surprise when Chiaki at last took back control. A moment later, she was thrown over to the side, going rolling across the floor by the force of the gamer's shove. There, she righted herself on her hands and knees, shaking herself out. But she stood back up to see Chiaki climbing back into the ring, and she was quick to get her head back in the game - her eyes narrowed, and her fists balled tight. She wasn't going to let her get away!

"Ooooh no you don't!!" Sheila shouted. Just as Chiaki was getting back into the ring, Sheila came charging after her; as she got over the ropes, Sheila would fling herself forward off her feet to dive through the ropes and crash into her with a spear!

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Chiaki had been able to get Sheila off of her a lot faster than she had been expecting. But that actually was to the gamer's disadvantage. She had made her move a couple seconds early because she had been expecting the Aussie to put up more of a fight to keep Chiaki down. But with five whole seconds left before a ring out DQ went into effect, Sheila would probably have time for two or three cracks at getting back in if she was quick about it.

Chiaki got back into the ring, but as expected, Sheila was hot on her tail. The pinkette used the split second she had to try to prepare for Sheila, but the rookie never stopped charging, instead launching herself through the ropes. The force of Sheila's momentum allowed her to blow straight through Chiaki and bowl her over while getting back into the ring with a few seconds still to spare.

Chiaki was left slightly shaken and slow to get up. Something that Sheila would most likely be all too happy to take advantage of. And with an opponent who swung as hard as Sheila did, that could mean a lot of trouble for Chiaki.

[CaptainL]

As she bounded through the ropes, Chiaki was once again in the ring. But Sheila was quick to follow her. With just a few seconds left to spare, the Australian girl took off, charging the ring - and, as she approached, she hurled herself off her feet, throwing her body through the air like a missile streaking toward its target as she held her hands out in front of her, poised for impact! With the sound of a crack, Sheila plowed into Chiaki, taking them both down to the mat in a heap!

Sheila was able to roll forward through the motion, using the momentum of their collision to bring herself to a seated position just next to her opponent. And, as she looked back over her shoulder at Chiaki, she smirked. Just as she'd suspected, she had hit the girl with enough force to leave her stunned, and from the looks of it she was too dazed to get up any time soon. That just gave Sheila even more time with which to pack on the punishment!

"Woo-!~" Sheila pumped a fist in the air in a rather self-indulgent cheer for her own efforts. She rolled one revolution further, sommersaulting away from Chiaki and toward the ropes. There, she reached out to grab a hold of them, grabbing the middle rope and planting her feet on the bottom before she pressed against it with the soles of her boots to fling herself backward toward Chiaki and crash down on top of her with a senton!

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Chiaki watched Sheila let out a cheer before she started somersaulting away from the gamer and towards the ropes. With all the flash and flamboyance that Sheila was making her next move with, the Aussie must have thought that she had dealt a more dizzying blow to the pinkette than she had. While Chiaki recognized that she had been stunned enough to leave an opening, it was not nearly as big as Sheila was trying to make it.

But then again, a larger girl shooting through the air at you is not an easy thing to counter when you're grounded. Chiaki decided that it would be wiser for her to simply dodge Sheila's senton. So the gamer rolling in, allowing the Aussie to pass over her as the flew. Chiaki wanted to go on the counterattack, but the two wrestler's momentums were carrying them in opposite directions. Coupled with Chiaki still needing to stand before being able to attack, getting aggressive now would most likely cause Chiaki to drop into the same pitfall as Sheila just had.

When Chiaki's desire to attack clashed with her natural patient caution, her decision ended up as the midground. The gamer would go on the offense, but she would not go full aggro. Chiaki would mimic Sheila, backing into the ropes and bounding off of them for speed. But Chiaki would stop herself short of reaching Sheila, instead looking to bait out a defensive response from the Aussie and then act accordingly.

[CaptainL]

Even if Chiaki hadn't been quite as flattened by the spear as Sheila might have thought, that wasn't going to slow the Australian girl one bit. She was already celebrating what she thought was sure to be a crippling blow as she bounced back to her feet, and she was quick to charge the ropes, preparing to set up an even harder hitting move. If she had bothered to check on her opponent, she might have thought twice before acting so rashly...but that was not how Sheila Chihara did things! She knew what she wanted, and she wasn't going to stop for anyone once she had made up her mind!

Sometimes, she would later regret it, but that was her problem to deal with once that had actually happened. And...as it turned out, this was going to be one of those times. Sheila shot herself back at Chiaki just in time for the gamer to roll aside, leaving her flying through the air like a missle aimed straight at the bare canvas! She only had a few seconds to let out a gasp before she wiped out, her back slamming against the mat with enough force to knock the air out of her lungs.

Sheila groaned under her breath, staring up at the lights over her head as the world around her went spinning. Eventually, she would groggily sit back up, but even then, she was teetering from side to side; it was a struggle to keep her body upright, and her eyes were glazed over and rolled up in their sockets. Just then, though, she looked back ahead of her - in time to see that Chiaki was charging straight toward her, using the momentum of the ropes to carry her closer!

Letting out a gasp, Sheila quickly moved to save herself. She threw her arms up to cover her head, shielding herself from an incoming blow...a blow that never came. Just then, Chiaki ground to a halt just a few inches away from Sheila. The Young Lioness stopped, lowering her arms enough to peer back at her opponent, and she raised an eyebrow, puzzled by how she had apparently stalled at the last moment. But in the process, she had afforded Chiaki those few extra seconds to act!

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When Chiaki hit the pause button on her attack, so to speak, Sheila had reacted as expected. While to the crowd it may only look like a stutter step or momentary hesitation from the gamer, to the wrestlers in the ring, that single second of nothingness could feel as though it were an entire minute. Sheila chose to protect her head in that moment, so Chiaki would attack the Aussie's stomach.

Just as Sheila's head was starting to peak back over her guard, Chiaki's foot would find its mark in her stomach. Then the gamer girl would raise that same leg up and go over Sheila's lowered guard with a push kick to her head with the intent to knock the Aussie down from a sitting position onto her back. If this second kick connected, Chiaki would be decidedly back in control of the match.

If Chiaki got Sheila down, then the pinkette would follow up by grabbing the Aussie's leg, and stepping over it as Chiaki wrapped the leg around the knee of her other leg. It could be mistaken for nothing else but the set up for a figure four leglock. So if Sheila failed to interrupt Chiaki, then the gamer girl would complete the hold and drop down onto her own back.