A Clash of Legacies: Kyo Akamatsu vs Valley Doll III

[Underdoggo]

Deep down, Kyo felt wrong about this. His gut instinct would have been to stay in the ring, to allow Valley some time to recover and then roll back into the ring so they could continue their fight properly. That, he knew, would have been the right, honourable thing to do. It also would have been a stupid thing to do, given how fearsomely strong and skilled Valley was, and he knew, deep down inside, that to give her any kind of breathing space would have been a grievous insult to his female opponent.

As it was, Valley shrieked and went down to one knee as Kyo axe-handled her in the back. Even as the Californian fixed him with a defiant look over her shoulder, Kyo grabbed her by the head and yanked her up into a side headlock. Taking a brief moment to squeeze her between his bicep and his abs, Kyo would walk aim to walk Valley across the ringside floor before trying to slam her, face-first, into the ringside steps! All the while, of course, the ref began to count the two of them out.

"ONE...TWO..."

[BlackAkuma]

Valerie was already regretting rolling out of the ring. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, and it might have been, but it depended on Kyo not chasing after her. As it turned out, this was a gamble he was destined to lose and lose big - the man was too wise to give her the opportunity to recoup, pressing his advantage and risking the countout. She was the hunted one, now, and he would grind her out here if given the chance.

He was unfazed by her glare, moving in and grabbing her by the head, holding her with a tight sidelock. She was still reeling from the axe handle, and it left her as easy prey, unable to put up too much of a fight as he marched forward. When she figured out what he was trying to do, however, she found some extra strength - no way was she letting her face smack into the steps. Not without a hefty amount of resistance.

When he brought her head up and tried to drive her down, she planted her hands on the steps and braced hard, stopping the move in its tracks. That wasn’t enough, though - she needed to counter, and she did so when she swung her arm and around and aimed her elbow at his stomach, trying to drive him away with the sharp blow.

All while the referee’s count continued. ”Three!”

[Underdoggo]

If this had been a match between his father and Valerie's mother, Kyo noted, there would have been a lot more trash talk involved: Keichii Akamatsu had been an infamous, and some might say infuriating, braggart in the ring, constantly engaging in trash talk and verbal sparring. As had once told his son, it made the match "a lot more fun." In that regard, Kyo had grown up to be completely unlike his dad, rarely engaging in verbal sparring of any kind, save for light-hearted quips in response to his opponents' taunts, or for the initial stage of a match where he and an opponent were still gaining the measure of one another.

Well, he definitely had Valley's measure now, and she his, and now the two of them were here at ringside, barely exchanging a word as they pummeled one another.

Kyo clenched his arm rightly around Valley's head as he dragged her along, making sure her short transit was still an unpleasant one before he reared her head back to smack it against the ringside steps. Normally, such unrefined fighting was beneath him, but Valley was making it abundantly clear tonight that she was going all out against him, and he could afford to do no less-- a point that was quickly highlighted when her elbow shot back, smacking hard against his forehead. "UGH!" he grunted, forced to release Valley as he staggered back, disoriented by the blow...

[BlackAkuma]

Valerie wanted to get this back into the ring. She needed to.

Aside from the countdown, threatening to end this match in the worst way possible aside from a disqualification, she did all her best work in the ropes. Her mothers had trained for the inevitability of ringside brawling, but it wasn’t something she could ever be comfortable with. Her skills as a striker were passable; she could deliver good impact with lacking speed, but she wanted submissions, she wanted pins, she wanted to get Kyo to the mat and tie him into knots, all things she couldn't do out here on the mats.

So, when her elbow struck him and knocked him back, her first instinct was to seize the moment and roll back into the ropes. That was the safer route. It would give him time to recover and come after her, but it would also give her a moment to catch her breath—a soft reset.

But then, an idea came as she looked back to the stairs. A more interesting idea. One that she wouldn’t have usually gone for, but given the opponent, the rarity of the window before her, it appealed…

Valerie wasn’t impulsive most of the time, but there were exceptions, and this was one of them. She looked over her shoulder to gauge the distance, leaped up, planted her foot on top of the stair steps in a single bound, and threw herself backward into space, soaring towards Kyo with a moonsault.

[Underdoggo]

Truth to be told, if Kyo had his way, then he would have wanted the same kind of fight as Valerie: he wanted pins, submissions, the trading of holds, the classic back and forth momentum of a prostyle match, not this uncivilized brawling at ringside. That was one of the reasons he was now regretting his ringside predicament...the other being the nasty elbow he had just received to his noggin. For a brief moment, Kyo's vision went white as he staggered, his head ringing from that elbow blow. He blinked several times, trying to clear away the visual cobwebs as he regained his bearing. Valerie had just launched an effective counter attack against him and escaped his grip. Not good. He needed to take control of the situation again before she--

He opened his eyes. Before she did something like come at him with a moonsault. Like she was doing now.

Seeing someone as burly as Valerie move so acrobatically was impressive, in and of itself. That was the one thought that went through Kyo's mind...as well, admittedly, as how fit Valerie's backside looked...before she slammed into him. "UUUGH!" he grunted from the impact, and then gravity kicked in and he went crashing down hard against the unrelenting floor of the ringside. The impact jarred his back, and left him gasping there, with Valerie now crashed down against him. The crowd, admittedly, were loving this ringside brawl between the two.

The ref, on the other hand, was less than impressed, and past the pain, Kyo dimly realized that she had been counting this whole time.

"...FIVE...SIX..."

Damn it, that was not good...

[BlackAkuma]

An hour later, when Valerie was in the back, sitting with an ice pack against her head, her mother - the second Valley Doll - would call and congratulate her for busting out an excellent moonsault. She always wanted her daughter to do more high-flying moves, thinking they would occasionally take her opponents off guard. When she asked her what inspired her to do a moonsault from such an unorthodox angle, Valerie would have a simple answer.

”I have no earthly idea.”

It seemed like a good idea, at the time, and to be fair, it did its job. Valerie crashed into Kyo, a human missile hurtling through the air, and both spilled out across the ringside area. He took the worst of it, but it wasn’t a fun ride for her, either, as the path sent her tumbling and nearly ended with her smacking against the barricade. She laid there for a moment, trying to catch her breath from the rush of action.

”7!”

Or she would have, if not for the time pressure. Grunting and groaning, she pushed her way back up and moved towards Kyo’s as the count continued, eager to get this match where it belonged. ”Get up, come on…” She breathed out a tireless command as she grabbed him by the head, forced him to stand, and shoved him back in under the bottom rope. She slid in right behind him, just as the referee called for the ninth count, saving them from a countout and no small amount of complaining from their families.

[Underdoggo]

Kyo let out a pained hiss of breath as he lay on his back, staring up at the arena lights as his back throbbed with agony. He hadn't been expecting Valley to pull off a high flying move like that-- truth to be told, the blonde amazon had done nothing but surprise him from start to finish in this match. On the one hand, it thrilled him that an opponent like her was able to keep him on his toes. On the other hand...her ability to surprise him was also quite painful.

Even as the count reached seven, he felt Valley grab him by the head and hoist him up. As his feet wobbled, he braced himself for a brutal follow up attack...but instead felt himself getting rolled into the ring. Silently, he found himself thanking Valley: she could have just left him out there and won on a technicality, but she instead made sure that the both of them were back in the ring, to continue this properly. If nothing else, Valley was at least as respectable an opponent as her mother was.

Rolling back into the ring, Kyo rolled away onto his side, breathing hard as he started to push himself up...readying himself in case Valley tried to follow up with another attack...

[BlackAkuma]

Valley didn’t have the time or inclination to say it now, but she made a mental note to thank Kyo for this when they were done. She’d had doubts about coming to LAW, not sure if it was the right place for someone like her. While she didn’t have anything inherently against lewder matches - heck, matches like that were probably a good part of the reason she was born - they were something she had no interest in, and she wasn’t sure if there would be enough genuine competition in the place to keep her going. It was a big trend in Japan, and she’d been considering trying her hand at the European wrestling community, knowing they were more traditional.

But this? If she could get matches like this, she would be just fine. She didn’t know how many more Kyo Akamatsus this place was hiding, but she was eager to find out.

So there was no way she would let this match end in a countout, and she hoped he felt the same way. She wanted a pinfall, much like the one she was going for right now, as she slid in under the bottom rope and quickly made her way on top of him, getting chest-to-chest while she hooked his leg. She didn’t think this would work, but she wanted to gauge how much energy he had left in the tank, while also catching a breather, herself.

The referee dropped beside them and started up the count. ”1…!”[b/]

[Underdoggo]

Kyo winced as he was rolled back into the ring, pins and needles flaring in his back as he was unceremoniously shoved back under the ropes. Flopping onto his back, he had a bit of time to try to roll to the side, to try to recover a little from that brutal collision he had endured only a few seconds ago. He needed time to recuperate, to get back into this fight. If there was one thing he could not allow, it was for Valley to continue ragdolling him like she had for much of this match.

Speaking of Valley, she was soon on top of him...literally. Kyo gasped as he was flattened on his back again, with Valley now pressed firmly against him. For a few seconds, he was distracted by the feeling of her chest pressing down against his, and the sensation of her muscular body...that was, until she hooked one of his legs.

"...2..." was where the countdown managed to reached before Kyo twisted sharply, getting a shoulder up. He was breathing hard, biding his time, waiting to see what else Valley would do and readying himself to counter it, even as he gave himself time to recover...

[BlackAkuma]

Valerie pulled him tight, hooked the leg, leaned in for maximum effect, did everything she’d been taught to do - it didn’t matter. Sure enough Kyo kicked out, escaping the pin with a solid second to spare. He still had quite a bit of vigor left in him, wasn’t close to being finished - she would have to hit him with something major, or keep this pressure up until he was thoroughly whittled down. Both tasks were tall hills to climb.

Either way, she wasn’t about to score a win down here - she needed him, she needed him moving, she needed him vulnerable. It was tempting to try and work him over with a submission move, and she had some ideas on that front, but she wanted to keep him mobile while he was still reeling from her last attack, take all the wind out of his sails. She had some decent ideas on that front, too.

Valerie huffed as she moved off of him, grabbed him by the wrist, and stood up, dragging him along for the ride and forcing him back up. As soon as he was standing, she took a step back, then leaped in and swung her arm into his chest, hitting him with hard chop to drive him back towards the nearest corner.