Valley Doll III vs Kyo Akamatsu — Iron Person Match

[Underdoggo]

Okay. At this point Kyo just wanted to lay down. His back hurt. His arms hurt. His head hurt. Whatever reserves of willpower he had been running on in this match now felt like they were significantly depleted. At this point, he couldn't even muster the energy to stand, Valerie had been hammering him so relentlessly. Just lie down, let her pin him and....

No. Valerie was not simply pinning him. Instead, she was pulling him up. No, hoisting him up. Dimly, Kyo realized that he was being picked up in a fireman's carry, with Valerie once again showing off her prodigious strength by hoisting him up onto her shoulders, the match not seeming to have diminished her stamina at all as she hauled him upwards and carried him across the ring.

And then Kyo found himself being seated up on the top rope. Before he could try to do anything from his current position, a sudden sliced into his chest, knocking the air from his lungs, causing him to sway backwards and nearly lose his balance. He instinctively grabbed onto the top rope, body shining with sweat, breathing hard as he fought to stay upright...

[BlackAkuma]

This was crazy, this was insane, this was dangerous. Alarm klaxons blared in Valerie’s mind as she hoisted Kyo up on the turnbuckle, suffering through the arduous task, rung by rung. Voices telling her to go down, that this wasn’t worth the risk, that she could and would seriously hurt herself if she kept going. Smart advice. The right way of thinking.

And yet, she didn’t care. Maybe it was the lack of hydration talking, but it wasn’t just enough to end this match anymore. She needed to do so definitively. She needed to put Kyo down with a move so destructive that not even he would be able to kick out of it, something that no amount of determination could override. She could only think of one move in her entire arsenal like that.

After the blow stunned him, Valerie lifted him up on her shoulder and reached the top of the turnbuckle, standing up and perching precariously on the top ropes. The crowd looked on with baited breath as she swayed this way and that, but they wouldn’t have to wait much longer - her next was to lean over and bring Kyo crashing into the canvas with a top-rope variation of her family’s oldest, most lethal move: The Death Valley Driver.

[Underdoggo]

Kyo was swaying on the turnbuckle, tipping back and forth as he felt like he was on the verge of falling over. Only Valerie's steady grip was keeping him upright. Not that it mattered; he felt so weak, so worn, so battered that he barely had the energy to fight anymore, and nothing-- not the screaming of the fans, the weight of family legacy, nothing-- could keep him upright.

Even as he felt he was going to topple backwards, he felt Valerie grabbing onto him, one arm going around his thigh, another around his shoulder...and then the next thing he knew, he was being hoisted up onto Valerie's shoulders. The crowd went wild at this, excited at the sight of the female powerhouse lifting her male opponent across her shoulder in an overpowering display of strength. But the screams of the audience also sent alarm bells ringing in Kyo's head: Valerie was about to finish this.

Gritting his teeth, he kicked his legs, tryinf to drive a knee into Valerie's ribs, an elbow into her back...doing what he could to loosen her grip, or at least delay her big move...all the while he continued to kick his legs, trying to hook his boots under the ropes to anchor himself in place. At this point of the match, both wrestlers were exhausted, and Kyo could feel their sweat mingling as they fought in close proximity to one another...

[BlackAkuma]

Valerie, frankly, should’ve passed out by now. She could already feel her limits being maxed out, her body threatening to give way at any second, and there was a real chance she could pass out from the exertion and bring this match to an extremely ugly conclusion.

All she needed were a few seconds. Just enough time for the plunge. A little more, then gravity would do the rest…

…hm.

Fighting, hard fighting, as Kyo lashed out with what had to be his reserves, desperate for survival. If they were still on the mat, she could’ve maybe handled this without too much of a problem, but hoisting him up like this put her in a bad position, one where she couldn't hope to defend herself. The blows battered her, broke her down, and she was slumped back against the turbuckle, still holding him aloft, but not able to do much more.

”Kyo…Kyo-san.” She muttered under her breath. ”I can’t-”

[Underdoggo]

Perched as he was across Valley's shoulder, Kyo could feel his perspiration travelling down across his skin into hers, the two of them swaying precariously at the top of the corner post. A lot could go wrong at this moment, given that Kyo was only being held up by Valerie, and Valerie herself now seemed to be struggling with her balance. If he allowed Valerie to regain her balance, though, than nothing would stop her from delivering her Death Valley Driver and ending this match once and for all. But if Kyo continued to fight her, there was a could chance they would both fall over.

As the decisions raced in Kyo's mind, he came to one conclusion: better a controlled fall than that he allow Valley to win.

Holding his breath and bracing himself, Kyo hooked his boots firmly under the ropes, and pulled with his legs, suddenly and sharply shifting his weight, taking a calculated risk as he tried to pitch both of them backwards off of the corner post.

Right out of the ring, right onto the announcer's desk.

[BlackAkuma]

Valerie wasn’t sure what happened next. She would go back, after the match, and look over the replay from a few different angles to see it herself, but she didn’t recall much of it. Short-term memory loss, brought on by extreme blunt force trauma, was the doctor’s diagnosis.

All she could recall were a few key moments.

Being up top on the turnbuckle, dazed, dizzy, with Kyo so close to her. The smell of sweat hung thick in the air. She remembered his warmth, and how oddly comforting it was, despite the situation.

Then she remembered flying. The feeling of weightlessness, as they went soaring through the air, going so far and fast that she almost thought they would go into the audience. There was the pull of gravity taking over, dragging them back to the earth at a startling rate, and then came the crash, loud and deafening, as if a bomb exploded around them.

And then…

And then…

…

[Underdoggo]

HO-LY SHIT!!!
HO-LY SHIT!!!

The crowd was going wild at this point, and many visiting foreign audience members were making their awe known loud and clear with a big, booming chant. Kyo and Valley had both gone plummeting backwards, slamming into the announcer's table with a crack that could be heard across the entire stadium. After three whole rounds of the two wrestlers pummeling each other, stretching each other to hell and back, both fighters, in a fitting capstone to the raw violence they had been inflicting on each other, had just gone falling over the ring with devastating consequences.

And soon, the audience would see just how devastating. The Titantron quickly flickered to a view of the refs and various ringside attendants scrambling towards the wreckage, with the announcers, still describing events for the online viewers, backing away. Both Kyo and Valley were lying, sprawled and unmoving, amidst the wreckage, both lying on their back perpendicular to one another, heads beside each other. Both seemed to be completely out cold.

Diligently, the ref started the count out. "ONE...TWO..."

With a hiss of pain, Kyo's eyes shot open. His back was a screaming mass of agony, and he could barely feel his limbs. It took him a few seconds, past the tinnitus in his skull, to realize where he was, and what had just happened.

"...THREE..."

Valley was next to him, the two of them lying on top of the wrecked announcer's table like offerings on some funeral pyre. Valley seemed out cold. He could barely move. If they stayed here, they would both be counted out, and the match would officially be a draw. Given that even turning his head hurt, that didn't seem like such a bad idea.

"...FOUR..."

No...that was a lie. He needed to win this, damn it.

"...FIVE..."

With a rasping cry of pain, Kyo arched up and rolled off the announcer's desk. A few splinters of wood were impaled in his back, drawing blood. He payed the pain as little mind as he could as he collapsed onto his hands and knees, dry heaving breath as he fought to get upright.

"...SIX...SEVEN..."

"Come on, Valley-san," he said, grabbing a hold of Valley's head. He had no idea if she was still conscious or not, but all the same, he would rise, painfully, to his feet, pulling Valley up with him...

"...EIGHT..."

...limp over towards the edge of the ring, pulling Valley with him...

"...NINE..."

And unceremoniously shove her under the ropes, at the same time flopping his upper body under the ropes as well. Gingerly, he would roll into the ring, grabbing Valley's thigh to haul her in as well.

And then, with his strength giving out, he would allowe himself to collapse against Valley. His body slightly across hers, his head next to hers, his check nestled almost intimately next to hers.

In an instant, the ref started the next countdown. "ONE..."

[BlackAkuma]

"Come on, Valley-san…"

”K-Kyo?”

Valerie wasn’t totally unconscious, but she was about as close to it as one could be without actually being out. Her world was in a haze, her mind was reeling, and she didn’t even feel connected to the event going on around her, as close to an out-of-body experience as she ever wanted to be. She couldn't even properly register what was going on around her, too lost in the fog to register it.

She was being moved, she was sure of that, but it took her a moment to even register who was doing it, even though it could only logically be one person. Kyo was close, she could hear his voice, feel his warmth, as he made the arduous journey back to the ring, dragging her along for the ride. Despite all the pain, it was oddly comfortable being carried like this. His body was soft against her own, his scent filled her nostrils. Pleasing.

She honestly wasn’t sure how he pulled off. Valerie was no lightweight by any stretch of the imagination, and hauling her along would’ve been a task for a man Kyo’s size even if he hadn't just gone through a war. But somehow, someway, he made it work, rolling her limp body in under the ropes. She flopped in under the ropes, narrowly beating the count, and there was only one way things could go from there.

She didn’t resist as Kyo came in, not that it would’ve mattered if she did. Her body didn’t have the strength to do much more than twitch, so she decided it would be better to use what little energy she had left for more important things, like staying conscious. She laid back and sighed as he moved in and came over her.

”2…!”

Valerie knew she should’ve felt bad, disappointed, with the way things had gone, but she couldn't summon that emotion at the moment. Despite being utterly decimated, she was satisfied. She’d given it her all, pushed her limits against the best opponent she could’ve asked for. Win or lose, she could not have asked for more out of this. Out of Kyo.

”3…!” She closed her eyes and managed a withered smile as the final count came down, giving Kyo his third fall of the match and breaking their tie.

[Underdoggo]

A small part of Kyo was amazed that he had managed to carry the two of them into the ring. Past the pain, the dizziness, the exhaustion, his body had still managed to autopilot long enough to push himself and Valley under the ropes. That last burst of energy, that last ditch of willpower, finally gave out the moment they were both in the ring, and he finally collapsed on top or Valerie for a pinfall.

He wasn't conscious of the countdown at that point. All he was conscious of was the warmth of Valerie's body underneath his, the soft rose and fall of her chest against his, then soft brush of her breath against his ear. It was a pleasing sensation; he was too tired, exhausting and hurting to deny it anymore.

He heard the bell ring, a muffled, distant sound. He felt rather than heard the tremendous roar of the crowd as they got up in their seats, their stomping feet sending an avalanche of mini tremors through the ring. And that was all before blackness overcame everything else.

And, past the roar of the crowds, orderlies rushed into the ring to check on both battered combatants. It was undeniably clear that both wrestlers had reached their limit. It was also clear that, by the barest of margins, Kyo Akamatsu had won.