Bryan Daniels vs. Ninjette - The Fight Before Christmas

Kozue wasn't sure - couldn't be, really - but she thought she might have experienced some king of mental trauma. Things were off, askew, and she was processing reality right, because that was the only logical explanation she could derrive for what just happened to her. This wasn't real life, she'd been sucked in some weird space warp and brought to an alternate dimension where wrestlers did Samaon Drops from the top ropes.

Kozue didn't even know that was an actual move that existed. It wasn't in any of the matches she'd gone over for training, it wasn't something any wrestler she'd ever met even attempted. But Bryan was a different breed, apparently. Wilder and cockier and crazier. She'd had her moments in the match, but if it all came down to percentages, anyone could figure out who'd take the most. Bryan was winning.

"2...!"

It was an impressive showing, and Kozue would be sure to give him his much deserved props...after the match was over. For now, she was still fighting, and as the referee's hand began to descend for the final count, she put her precious reserves to use and shot her legs straight out. The pin was broke with only half a second to spare, and the crowd went wild.

Kozue's split second escape from the pin attempt almost fooled Bryan into thinking it was an actual three count, raising his fist in the air in a false victory before the nearby ref-girl flashed two fingers in his face and repeated "Two!!" over and over enough to echo in his mind even more times. Bryan sat upright with his head in his hands and a wide-eyed look of astonishment on his face as, through all manner of reason, Kozue somehow managed to kick out and have the Christmas Brawl continue onward.

Call it freakish resiliency or something their putting in the water at this crazy dojo Kozue was busting her ass at, but this ninja girl was not staying down for anyone. The model athlete may not have taken as many bumps Koz but the prospect of continuing the match was already earning a few annoyed groans from him and his aching back, lumbering up to his feet on exhausted, shaky legs before approaching Kozue's limp frame. Freaked Bryan the fuck out, how much fight this girl had in her after taking all that punishment...

"C'mon Koz, I'm dyin to get home already and knock back some egg nog...what say ya jus tell me what I'm gonna havta to do here, huh?" Not really expecting a response this time around, B-RY would lethargically bend down to hoist Kozue back to her feet by her arm, too exhausted and frazzled to think of what ELSE he could throw at her...

The crowd was cheering something fierce for  Kozue, but she couldn't quite share in their enthusiasm. Her body felt like shit all over, and when Bryan hauled her up, it took way too much effort just to not fall flat on her ass. She was on her last legs, and for all the effort she was putting into this, she knew exactly how to answer Bryan's question. One more solid move, and she was done. She'd probably give the three-count to a simple clothesline at this point.

This hadn't exactly been her best showing from a skill standpoint, and she knew that whatever she was going to do, it would have to happen now and it would have to be sneaky.

As Bryan raised her up, Kozue fell to one knee, looking like she didn't have the strength to make it up all the way - which wasn't that far from the truth, really. But instead of simply staying down, she reached forward and grabbed Bryan's right leg with both her arms, plowed her shoulder into his thigh, and brought him down hard for a quick and desperate leg hook pin, pressing her back to his chest and locking her fingers for the most secure hold she could muster.

Even the referee's eyes widened in surprise, but she dropped after a hot second and started the count. "1...!"

"Whoa, easy there..." While hoisting Ninjette upward he nearly lost his grip on her arm, bending down along with her before she seemingly collapsed back to the mat. Attempting to heave Ninjette back to her feet gave Bryan the sense for just how dead tired she must have been at that moment, the ninja girl slack and lifeless with hardly any resistance or willingness to even stand under own power. Bryan just couldn't understand what was goin on through her mind. Why not just stay down and call it a day if you can't even find the energy stand on her feet let alone fight back? Still though, Ninjette's confirmed underdog status has rallied the entire audience behind her, making Bryan feel like a horse's ass for having to continue wailing on a helpless women...and a friend to boot.  

"Hey uh, ref...ya think maybe-WHOA!!" Bryan's brief attempt to get the ref's attention and hopefully him to maybe call the match or something would be abruptly disrupted by Kozue bum rushing his legs and slamming back him down to the mat. The back of his head bouncing off the canvas introduced a throbbing head ache to go along with the wave of pain washing over him from his stinging spine, leaving him stunned, sprawled out and easy pickings. Rolled up into hasty but well secured pin with Kozues light frame weighing him down, the first sensation he regained was the fuzzy image of the ref slamming her hand down for the two count.

Grunting in exertion soon after, the model athlete shot him arm to break up the pin...only for the bell to ring in the echoing distance to signal the end of the match, B-RY mistaking the two count for the three count. With Kozue's theme playing over the speakers and cementing his worst nightmare, B-RY rolled to his side wide-eyed and with a look of astonishment at having lost it all from a roll up pin...a freaking roll-up pin. The model athlete sank down to lay on his back with one hand covering his sweat drenched face, definitely needing a minute to process what the hell just happened...

Kozue wasn't the strongest, she wasn't the toughest, and she probably wasn't even the fastest. But she was smart, she was tricky, and she knew how to seize an opportunity when one fell in her lap. That could go a long way, and this was a good example.

It wasn't Bryan's fault. He'd wrestled a good match, a great match for a guy who was still fresh in the ring. Kozue had been expecting him to be some dude in it for the thrills, not taking any of it seriously. She'd expected a model who was just dabbling in wrestling for kicks, and while that probably wasn't 100% untrue, it certainly was the whole case. He had talent, and if the match had gone on for another minute - hell, even a few more seconds - she would have been done. Straight up.

But Kozue hadn't spent time in the private hell better known as Junko Higurashi's house for nothing. She'd done her homework, she'd memorized her moves, and her arsenal was bigger and better than ever. Fortunately for her, that arsenal included a roll-up pin.

"1! 2! 3!" Done.

The crowd's reaction was a garbled mess. Some cheered. Some booed. Some were simply confused because they'd chosen the wrong time to blink. Kozue didn't blame the haters, since it wasn't exactly the most climatic ending to a match. Shame, but that was the way the ball bounced, sometimes. Sucked, but she'd take it.

Kozue laid beside Bryan in almost the exact same position he was in, staring up at the ceiling. Quiet. Still. Giving him a moment to process what had just happened. When she felt the time was right, she reached over and gave him a little poke on the shoulder. "Hey, B." She finally sat up and gazed down on him, not bothering to hide the look of sympathy on her face. She did care. She wanted to win, but she knew that had probably looked like stealing on his end. "You okay, man?"

Bryan may not have taken many shots to the torso during this match, but at that moment if felt like he'd just been gut punched. Winded and in a dazed state of mind as he laid on his back with his hand over his eyes to help block out the beaming white lights, Bryans mind replayed the entire last few minutes on a continuous and torturous loop. Trying desperately to find out where exactly he went wrong here.

He couldn't have played his game any better than that. Nailing move after move, hanging in there when Koz was roughing him up until he could turn the tables with one of his awesome counters. And all it took was one freaking second of pity on his part to have her wrap him up in some bullshit roll up pin. His mind was bombarded with "If only's" and "I should haves", the taste of this defeat probably more bitter than if he'd just been owned straight off the bat. Bryan didn't know what the hell 'crestfallen' meant but somehow he figured that was kind of how he felt at that moment. A slight poke on his shoulder nudged him out of his regretful wallowing, spreading his fingers to glance to see it was Ninjette before closing them up again to cover his face.

"Noooot really Koz. Kinda feeling like crap here...*groan*...What typea bullshit...I had you and then...I mean, the fuck did I do wrong here for Christ's...*sigh*...Just...go on...Koz. Let me mull..." B-RY was definitely not his usual self, slowly working his way up and decidedly not in the holiday spirit anymore.

Very touchy situation, here. Kozue saw a couple of ways to approach this.

There was the old Kozue way, where she simply didn't give a fuck. Yes, he'd lost. Yes, it came out of nowhere. No, it wasn't exactly the best finish, especially after he'd busted his ass like that. But Kozue didn't cheat, she didn't do anything wrong. This was the game, plain and simple. Sometimes you fought a hard match and you made a mistake, then all that hard work went down the toilet. It sucked, yes, but he couldn't blame her for using all the tools and opportunities available.

There was the new Kozue way, where she actually gave a damn about other people's feelings and tried to comfort them when she could. That was what she was leaning towards, now, but she didn't want to push it too hard. Bryan said he wanted to be left alone, so maybe that was the best thing for him. Give him some time to get his head right.

"Hey." She finally settled on a decent course of action and handed him a little scrap of paper with her phone number. "Look, I know this is a sucky time, so I won't bug you much on it. For what it's worth? Nothing I said in the back changes. I think we should hang out. If you're still down with that, give me a call sometime and we'll go skating at that park I mentioned. If not, well...good match, man."

Kozue laid the paper by Bryan's side and stood up, starting to make her way out of the ring.

Bryan may have been content to just lay there on the canvas until the the stadium was long since emptied of it's fans and personnel, with maybe only a lingering janitor sweeping around him to converse with. The model athlete had gone from a guy with nothing but holiday cheer before the match to someone looking like he was he readied to be carted off on a stretcher suffering from a broken spirit. He wasn't sure anything could-

"Hmm?..." Bryan tilted his groggy head to the side to notice a piece of paper at his side, reaching over and taking a peek to see Kozue had left him her cell phone number...

*...ALRIGHT!!! Knew I could score them digits!!!~...* Bryan's frown seemed to instantaneously turned upside down after having scored what every red-blooded hetero male strives for, as if a beaming ray of sunlight had cleared away the gloomy clouds over his head and helped him come to a few realizations. That they did indeed have a kick ass match, and that one salty loss wasn't worth losing a gnarly friend like her. Still though, from first meeting her on that pier a few months back to beating the snot out of eachother in front of thousand's of people...Kozue easily sets the record for the most shit he had to go through just to a girl's number....easily.

"Yo!!...Hang back a sec..." Bryan yelled back at Kozue just as she reached the ropes, lumbering up with a notably more upbeat swagger and grin. His approach was quite stilted, arching over slightly from his sore back, but he tried his damnedest to play it off and hide the soreness knowing full well that Kozue had to have been hurtin heaps more than him. Once close enough to her Bryan grasped the ninja girls wrist to escort her back to dead center of the ring to raise her arm in an amicable show of sportsmanship. The decibel level roared right back up with even some fans giving a standing ovation, even Kozue's detractors joined in once Bryan let it be known that he wasn't AS salty about the loss anymore...

"C'mon Koz, I'll let you buy me a drink to wash the bitter taste of this loss out of my mouth...Along the way I'm hopin you can explain how a Jersey girl like yourself ended up in the middle of a Japanese wrestling ring..." Bryan quipped after letting her hand down to stroll right along side her out of the ring and back up the ramp with a hand on her shoulder. He knew he recognized her accent from somewhere, just took him a while to pin Kozue down as a 'Joisey' native. Must be some story behind all of that...