The Judo Babe combats against Karate!

Masane steps out onto the stage, with a fist raised up in the air, her face expressionless as she walks down the ramp to the cheering of the crowd. On the inside, however, she was quite excited. While she didn't know much about her opponent, she DID know that she was quite famous, and apparently quite skilled in judo. She made it to the bottom of the ramp, and then climbed up into the ring, moving to her corner and awaiting her opponent's entrance.

Makoto Aihara then enetered. It was her in ring debut in AFW. She had a cold and stern look on her face and it almost seemed there was aibt of a shadow around her even though she wore her usual face costume with the white gi and black shorts. She didn't seem to carry the air of that little girl who was forced to submit to both Reiko and Dixie back in the Rumble fed. She eyed Masane as if thinking she were merely an obstacle or warm up for the tournament ahead.

Masana blinked when she saw that stare in Makoto's eyes. It made her feel... lower than her. She frowned a little before cracking her knuckles, seeing she could've possibly been wrong about this girl. Never the less, she still offered a semi-friendly smile when she entered the ring, raising a fist up into her hand and bowing to her.

"It's an honor to fight you, Miss Aihara." She declared.

Makoto merely grunted and smirked at her but nonetheless gave her a curt version of the deep bow she usually started with. Other than that she offered no words of greeting and would raise her hands in a defensive posture waiting for the bell to ring.

Masane said nothing else as well, and assumed her fighting stance. Suddenly, the bell rang and the fight was on between the two. She started to step in towards the center of the ring while holding her stance, staring Makoto down quietly. If she thought just because she was new she would be easy to beat, Makoto would have another thing coming.

Makoto held her pose barely moving and returning her cold, dark stare. Makoto was new too but it didn't matter to her. She waited for Masane to draw close.

Masane had never met Makoto before, but even so, something felt... wrong about her. She shrugged off the feeling, however, and fakes a straight right before pulling back quick and leaning back to try and throw a left kick aimed at Makoto's gut.

Ever since her submission loss to Dixie and Reiko, Makoto had spent months of hard training to make herself stronger. She clearly was not the same girl as before and she vowed to neevr be as weak as she used to.

As part of that training, Makoto's senses had grown sharper. She smirked and snorted ever so slightly as she sensed the feigned chop coming at her face and did not move. Then as the actual kick came in, Makoto would attempt to use her judo reflexes to catch the foot in one hand, slightly raise the foot so that she exposed the bottom of Masane's thigh a bit and strike at it with a quick fist to the hamstring, then attempt to follow up with a quick dragon screw attack, going to the ground and taking Masane with her in a slight leg twist move.

Masane gasps as her leg was caught, and realized this girl was pretty sharp. She reacted quickly though, leaping up with her other foot and tried to swing that foot around to strike her across the face. In the process, however, that hamstring would still get struck, ending up in a less-than-graceful landing on her side. She hissed softly, clutching where she struck, but then tried to roll away from Makoto if she let go of her foot, and would try to stand back up. She started to smile a little, however, seeing this girl would be a better fight than she thought she would be.

Makoto was struck across the face and merely turned her head. This would however force her to let go of Masane's leg and enable her opponent to get back up. Makoto then turned wiping her cheek where she was struck and giving a cold smile. Another regimen of her training had been endurance and learning to absorb blows. Like a boxer she knew when to move with the strike to lessen the impact, thus turning her head when Masane had kicked her. After all, judo was all about learning to absorb a blow and redirect it. She waited like a viper prepared to strike to see what else Masane had in mind.