Countess Dante dashes into the Scorpion's Den! (for CaptainL)

[Vc0m]

After jumping, there was a slight worry in Chika’s mind. That the Countess wasn’t going to listen to her, just hear her words as empty one more time, before pulling another cheap trick. The Raven Knight didn’t know if she’d stop herself from beating the blonde till she drew blood at that point…

…but her landing was safe. Her move drove the remaining air from the blonde’s lungs. As Chika landed on her rear, getting back up to her feet, she looked down on Isabella. She looked as knocked out as a person could be right now…

Chika exhaled, trying to relax… but it was difficult. Recently, too much stuff was reminding her of her past, between her feud with Himiko and this. With how much she put herself into training and raising her daughter, she tended to forget how hellish more than half her life was… and she hated to remind herself that some instincts of that life were still inside her mind.

She didn’t blame the Countess for reminding her of that. She likely just watched one too many martial arts movies, heard one too many stories about dojo stormings and decided to emulate that.

Of course, that wouldn’t make her escape the set punishment…

Shaking her head, Chika approached her foe, lowering herself, and lightly slapping her on the cheek: ”Hey… wake up.”

[CaptainL]

In that moment, Isabella had frozen up in fear. She hated to admit it - after all, she knew no fear. She was the deadliest and most terrifying woman to ever take up the martial arts. She was who everyone else was supposed to be scared of! If she let herself freeze up like this, locked like a deer in the headlights with Chika staring her down, it meant she had already accepted defeat in her heart, and let down the entire image she'd worked so hard to cultivate. It meant she knew there was something out there that even she couldn't overcome, and that meant everything she believed about herself was a lie. That was something she couldn't swallow. And yet, when she saw Chika plummeting toward her through the air, while she lay there powerless to resist and with nowhere to escape to...Isabella knew she was done for. The last thoughts that ran through her mind, just before Chika made contact, were that she had picked a fight too big for her, and now she was paying a very dear price.

The moment Chika landed, however, all the air was driven out of her lungs, and she crumpled limp and lifeless to the ground. Everything went black. Even when Chika leaned down to tap her cheek, the Countess could only barely respond with a low groan. Slowly, she blinked her eyes open, but her jaw still hung slack, and her muscles twtched, but she couldn't find the strength to so much as lift a hand from the mat. The world around her was still spinning around in a blur, and she couldn't process what had happened to her, let alone what would happen next. She barely knew where she was. But when she looked back up at Chika, a shudder ran through Isabella's body, causing her to go tense and swallow a gulp. Even if she wasn't lucid enough to process what might lie in store next, there was one thing she knew - Chika was no one to take lightly. She wasn't forgetting that so easily.

[Vc0m]

Dante looked up on Chika with a familiar gaze to her. This wasn’t the woman who would talk to her how superior she was to Chika any more. The Raven Knight truly humbled the Countess… and believed it was time to humble her just a little bit more:

”Good… you woke up. Stand up”

She expected the Countess to follow her request, before continuing: ”Our arrangement is still in power. Broom is right outside the ring, start with cleaning the glass you broke with the rock.”

Having a helper to help her delegate would help her get back the time she used to fight against the Countess… at least, Chika hoped…

[CaptainL]

The Countess was sure Chika would show no mercy. Certainly, she wouldn't. If someone tried to break into her dojo - which at this point was just her apartment, but she'd get there eventually - not only would she have beaten them into submission before anyone had thrown a single punch, but she would have crushed their windpipe, shattered their ribs, and torn their still-beating heart out of their chest and shown it to them! Or, at least, she would if she didn't have to worry about the legal system. Either way, when she was looking into Chika's eyes, she could feel her face grow pale, and the goosebumps rose up on her skin as a chill went down the back of her neck. She was vanquished by...she didn't want to say a superior fighter, but at least in this case she'd come out on top. And now, whatever happened to her next was Chika's call...

Her heart was pounding in her chest, and her stomach turned with nervous energy as she rose to her feet. She stood straight and still, her gaze unblinking; she wouldn't dare take her eyes off of Chika when she wanted to face her doom. And then...

...All Chika wanted was...for her to sweep up the glass?

Isabella blinked a few times. Her mouth opened, as though she were ready to say something, but she couldn't find the words that would do justice to the...abject bewilderment she felt. She thought at first that Chika was playing a cruel joke on her, but sure enough, there was a broom sitting beside the ring. That was it? Just manual labor? Chika could have done whatever she wanted, and she just wanted to use Isabella as a glorified janitor?

"...Wait, really?" she said at last, sounding more disappointed than anything else by the mundanity of the request. "That's it? Like...you're not even gonna do anything cool? You're not gonna send my head back to my followers in a box as a warning or something?"

[Vc0m]

Chika turned around at Isabella's shock of her punishment... which was way smaller than what she expected originally:

"<...what?...>", she muttered in her native Japanese, half under breath, half out loud. Was this lady's life completely taken by movies? She heard of rumors of yakuza in her days sending packages with severed animal heads as threats, but rumors were as much as it got with her. She certainly never heard of death sentance over property damage in a dojo...

...still, a funny idea popped into her head:

"Now why would I do that? I am honoring you with a warrior's death that way. Making you my servant, even for the few minutes that it would take to clean up, would be much more humiliating a punishment...", the Raven Knight would say with a sly grin.

[CaptainL]

It seemed that Isabella's statements had left Chika...confused, more than anything else. And, when she saw that hesitancy on her face, the Countess was confused too. She stared back at her with an eyebrow raised with bewilderment as the Raven Knight stood there, thinking things over. For a moment, it seemed she didn't know what to do with Isabella, and Isabella didn't know what to think of that - especially when her threat had been as underwhelming as it was compared to her gruesome fantasies of the sorts of things that would happen to the loser of a dojo war. Did Chika even understand the seriousness of this matter?

However, when Chika slowly turned to look back at her, with a smug look on her face...that was different. Isabella knew full well what was going on now - she knew that Chika was mocking her. Even before she said a word, the color drained from her face and a sinking feeling dropped in the pit of her stomach. To Isabella, even death in battle would at least be cool. But to be humbled this way, to be put through something so utterly mundane, was even worse a fate. And Chika knew it.

And sure enough, Chika told her as much. When Isabella thought about it - her masterful martial arts skills and her incredible conditioning, being put to use for mere manual labor - it was enough to cause her eyelid to twitch, and a clammy sensation to run over her skin as the hairs rose on the back of her neck. The very prospect turned her stomach! And Chika was being so smug about it, too. No, Isabella knew it couldn't be this way. She wouldn't dare debase herself like this! She'd provoke Chika into striking her down here and now on the spot, if it meant going out nobly!

"...N-Never..!" she called back, though her voice wavered even through her best attempts at defiance. "The almighty Crown Princess of Death would not DARE to endure such humiliations! I'll never bow to you! NEVER!" Taking a step forward, she stormed toward Chika, and tried to ignore the ache that ran up her leg as it hit the ground while she thrust a fist forward with a punch aimed for her would-be employer.

[Vc0m]

Chika believed that she wasn't too mean a person nowadays. She got angry, of course, but she wouldn't get mad at someone if she truly believed they didn't deserve. By the same token, she didn't believe her flirts, or jokey comments were meant to offend anyone. On occasion, this got her in more than a few fights in her career as a wrestler (especially early on, when her English was so poor).

It was rare for her mocking nature to fuse together with her anger like this. Her comment was jokey, but she understood Isabella's worldview, as warped as it was. And in her mind, she gave the blonde the most perfect punishment she could've possibly asked for.

...but maybe Chika overdid this. Swiftly, color drained from Isabella's face as she grew more and more upset as she realized what her punishment represented.

When she stepped towards Chika, though tired, the Raven Knight could still react in time to the punch, and caught it from mid-air! From there, Chika would kick at her rival's leg, trying to drop the Countess to the floor as she twisted her arm: "Lady...no. Girl. You do not have a choice.", she would say, in a serious, martial arts master-like tone...

[CaptainL]

For a moment, the Countess could almost accept that she was beaten. Almost. For as big as she liked to talk, Chika had shown her in no uncertain terms that she could still get over her head, and the aches, pains, and bruises that wracked her body were a testament to the fact that she had run into just that situation. For a moment, she could at least consider accepting her fate. In her own mind, this was was to be expected with dojo wars. Sure, she was all but convinced that she could've easily destroyed any opponent in her path, but if she fell short, she would still reap the consequences. But while Isabella was caught up in the fantasy of being a fearsome martial artist, a dealer of death with her own two bare hands, she had come to think that if she lost, she would at least get a glorious warrior's demise...and when she didn't, all she could see this as was an act of the lowest and most despicable mockery.

In an instant, everything changed. The soreness in her body and the throbbing in her head no longer bothered her. Now, Isabella could only see Chika as an enemy to be stomped out, with extreme prejudice! She had to stand up for her honor and take back her good name - and that righteous indignation was fueling her forward as she took off in a charge, intent on silencing the Raven Knight then and there!

But Chika was a moment too quick - and Isabella, pained as she was, didn't have the reflexes she needed. Just as her fist streaked out toward Chika, she found it snatched out of the air! And she barely had more than a second to contemplate her fate before Chika's foot lashed out at her own, knocking her feet out from under her and sending her to the ground! Isabella winced as she came crashing to the mat, and her teeth would only clench tighter as Chika wrenched her arm behind her back. "NNGH..!!" she cried, her face growing red under the pressure.

What hurt even more than the physical pain, though, was the disrespect and mockery that Chika was showing her...and what hurt more than that was the realization that, no matter how much Dante wanted to think otherwise, Chika really had bested her. Each inch that Chika twisted her arm reminded her of all the aches and pains that ripped through her from head to toe; aches and pains that could only slow her down and keep her back if fighting was to resume. She didn't have a chance against Chika now; she'd just be digging her grave deeper. She would protest all she could that Chika had just gotten lucky, and how she could've beaten her without breaking a sweat in any other circumstance...but for now, she had to accept her fate.

After a moment, Isabella glanced off, and she let out a sigh. Her voice was a hushed whisper now; gone was the boastful bravado of earlier. "...okay...fine. Maybe you do win...just, uh, don't tell anyone, okay..?" The last thing she wanted was something this bad for her image getting out.

[Vc0m]

Chika firmly but carefully held the Countess in the hold, just enough that it hurt, but also not enough for the pain to not linger. Dante felt like a woman who didn't realize that she stuck her head into somewhere way above her skills and stature. There had to be more old-school gyms that would've been either a lot more brutal to her... or would've just called the police on the blonde for her antics. It was her luck that Chika was nice, and didn't have much love for the cops.

As she held her trapped by her hand, she wanted to taunt the Countess once more... but decided better for it. The fight took a good amount of time, her family will be back home in about 2 hours, and if she didn't get on with cleaning, she would have to explain to her foster father about the whole awkward situation (and she could make up a story about the glass...):

"If all the glass you broke is gone, and floor on that side is shining within an hour, not a soul will hear about this"

Chika released Dante, keeping an eye on her as she stepped away to get a mop, bucket, brush and a scoop...and to hopefully shove it in her face!

[CaptainL]

Isabella, for all her boastfulness, did have a solid grounding in the martial arts. She wasn't all talk - beneath her grandiose threats and claims of deadly powers, she was a genuine fighter. And yet, she couldn't deny it - Chika's hold hurt. With how much the Raven Knight was torquing at her shoulder, it felt like her arm could well pop out of its socket at any moment, and her face had contorted into a grimace as the veins in her neck bulged and her knees wobbled unsteadily beneath her. Isabella knew she couldn't keep fighting like this. She had her limits - and much as she'd hate to admit it, those limits came quite a bit short of the noble death she had demanded. If it came between her pride and her arm...Isabella would pick her arm.

However, when Chika made her an offer, the Countess froze, turning to her with wide eyes. It seemed as though Chika did have some mercy to spare on this night. If Isabella could make good on her promise...then no one would have to know of her shameful blunder. She could go on her way like nothing happened, and no one would be the wiser! That was exactly what Isabella needed to hear. She looked up toward Chika, and as their eyes met, the dejected look on her face turned to a grin that split her face from ear to ear; she nodded her head without a moment's hesitation. It was as though she'd forgotten about any pain or fatigue she still felt from the duel a moment ago, and she was once again re-energized. "It's a deal." Chika, it seemed, had figured out what it took to get the Countess to fall to her whims. If it meant she could hold onto her fearsome reputation - or at least, to feel like she was - she'd agree to just about anything!

Isabella did wince a little as Chika shoved the cleaning equipment into her face, but only a moment later, she looked back at the Raven Knight with a nod, and immediately went to work sweeping up the glass. She had to make haste. Too much hung in the balance!