Nathan Weed vs. Kozue Kaburagi - Second Strike: "I Quit" Match

Match Type: "I Quit"
Victory Conditions: Verbal submission
Stipulations: No strikes; 3 strikes (referee discretion) will result in disqualification


Kozue made her debut in a singles match against an irate man named Jay Zokaro. He was short- well, taller than Kozue, but short as far as men went- and came to the ring in a cat outfit, complete with animatronic ears and tail; the AFW really had all kinds. Kozue utilized a bow-and-arrow hold and a choke hold in that match; that choke hold won her the match.

Then, in her very second fight, she jumped to bigger game- the biggest, in fact. Kozue took on the infamous Killer King in a weird match that he'd never heard of before: a Take-a-Shot match, wherein the combatants drank for every fall that they lost. In the course of that match, Kozue managed to lock in a headscissors and reverse a figure-four leg lock. She lost that one.

She fought a big fella named Ryan Knight next. There was a figure-four headscissors as well as an armbar in that one. Pinfall, Kozue.

Then came one Johnny Higurashi; reverse armlock and neckscissors. Pinfall, Johnny, but it’s worth noting that Kozue squeezed Johnny unconscious just as the third count came. Something to watch out for.

The Mask: short arm scissors, bow-and-arrow again; lost by pinfall. A tag match, nothing of note. Sanosuke Sagara: neck scissors, something called a mutalock; won by pinfall. Bryan Daniels: Bow-and-arrow again; won by pinfall. Kent Quick: nothing. Violet Clarkson: nothing here, too. At the PPV: a double-toed leglock.

Finally, in her most recent match, Kozue fought Nathan Weed. At one point in their match, she’d slithered her legs around his neck and squeezed away in a figure-four headscissors. The legs were hard, and her calves locked in snugly under his chin like they were designed to fit there. Nathan was only able to escape by reaching the ropes, and she continued to beat his ass with strikes and aerial maneuvers thereafter.

Nathan sighed and leaned back in his chair. Going by what he’d seen in their first match together, he figured that their respective submission hold proficiencies were comparable, and that they would be on an even playing field given these match stipulations. But, upon perusing the archives, he discovered that there was a fair amount to take notes on, and he was no longer be sure of how equal their footing was.

Their fight, which was in just a few days, was the second in Kozue's proposed series, a best of five for the purpose of honing the skills of the two wrestlers involved. The winner of each match up got to select the stipulation of the next. Nathan had won their first fight, so the "I Quit" match was Nathan's idea. Nathan, a boxer by training, was seriously hampering his own ability to fight. But he hadn't forgotten that he'd picked these match conditions precisely because they were so far out of his own comfort zone; Nathan was grateful for the opportunity that Kozue had given him, and he was determined to make the most of it.

He looked down at the scribbles on his notebook page. He’d have to watch out for those legs of hers, which wasn’t really news; they squeezed like tourniquets, but he’d already learned that firsthand. The bow-and-arrow hold was clearly a favorite, and it looked tricky to escape from. But most worrisome was the fact that she’d never tapped out in a match. Not once, and some of these fights were against guys bigger, stronger, or better at submissions than him. He did take small comfort in the fact that she’d never won a match by submission, either. But, given the win conditions of their upcoming match, one of those streaks was about to come to a screeching halt.

Nathan turned off his monitor, stood up, and stretched. Then he tapped where he’d written and circled “Legs!” in the margins before going to fetch his gym bag. He needed to practice.

----------------------

Things were slowly changing.

The anti-Nathan presence on the official AFW forums was as strong as ever, but, with Abbey’s and Kozue’s help, the “Nathan-is-an-alright-dude-that-did-the-best-he-could-at-the-time” camp was slowly gaining traction. Anytime there was a topic on bad guys of Tension now, or any general topic on Tension’s C-listers at all, really, these scrappy new heretics were there, vocally defending Nathan’s okay name. Nathan might have been flattered by this, if he’d known about it. But he didn’t.

He did notice however that the composition of greeting was different tonight from his previous matches. The boos were still there; those weren’t going away anytime soon. But there was also applause, and even some defiant cheering. Not deafening, and certainly not enough to drown out the boos. But they were there, they were not insignificant, and they were appreciated.

Nathan climbed the steps to the ring. Submissions, submissions; no strikes. A strict, no-strikes stipulation would have been difficult to enforce, but the producers were a creative bunch, and had no trouble in coming up with a fair rule. A single strike wouldn’t be enough to merit a disqualification; it would take three before the match would be called. Nathan was glad for the buffer zone; he'd taken to his corner and started to shadowbox before catching himself; he was going to need to do a lot of suppressing here. Instead, he elected to stretch out his shoulders while he waited for Kozue to make her entrance. Nathan was nervous; more nervous than he'd ever been before a match. Even with the extra practice he'd done this week, this was going to be a really weird fight for him. But he shook it off. Round 2; he was ready.

Kozue sat on the bed of her newly purchased apartment, wearing nothing but her blue workout shorts and her black bandeau bra. A bed that actually took up about one fifth of the apartment itself. Not a big place, but after she'd left the dojo, size hadn't been big in her mind. Affordability was. With its little kitchenette and mini fridge and its cramped bathroom, it wasn't the swinging bachelorette pad she'd always wanted to live in at this stage of her life, but it would do.

At any rate, she could bemoan her living conditions later. Now she had research to do. She just wished she had more to research with. She also wished that the sweat from the sit-up fest she'd just finished wasn't seeping into her bedspread, but it was due for a cleaning, anyway.

The finish to Nathan's match with Abbey was playing on the TV screen in front of her, courtesy of the AFW Network. A pretty good match, and the best fight she'd seen anyone give Abaraxas since she hit the Tension rings. Takeuichi bullshit had to ruin it, though, and even though Nate wound up getting the win, it wasn't exactly a victory you'd want to brag about to your grandkids. Hell, none of the wins, really were - their match had actually been the first squeaky clean win he'd gotten. That had to suck for both of them.

The annoying thing for her was that it hadn't gone to completion, which meant she couldn't get as good a read as she really wanted. There were some interesting moments - like whatever-the-fuck'd been going on when he tried that grapevine - but aside from that she wasn't able to pad out her notes nearly as thickly as she'd like.

-strong upper body

-basic moves, simple moves

-Great base, gotta do something about that

-nice hair. hairmarable

- TOUGH AS FUCK

She traced over that last little note for emphasis. That was the biggest thing she had to worry about going into this match, the man's stamina. She couldn't find any YouTube footage of his boxing career, mostly because 'weed' made the search much broader than she wanted to sift through. Still, he was a boxer. Boxers didn't give up. Boxers didn't quit. They sure as hell didn't yell 'I quit' when some little shit of a girl gave them the squeeze.

So what was the gameplan? No kicks, but her toolbox wasn't empty without them. Nathan was closer to her weight than most, but not enough for her to overpower him. Not yet. A big thing was that Nathan had no finishers or signatures that she could see, which meant both that there wasn't anything to watch out for and that he was probably learning something new. The man was not an idiot. The Nathan Weed she'd be right next Tension would be different from the man she bumped fists with a couple of days ago. And she needed the win here, to even things up. Two wins wouldn't be the end of the world, but it would mean she would have to win three in a row from there. She was confident, but not that damn much.

Reverses, counters, maybe even the occasional high risk maneuvers. Keep it moving, keep it fluid. His fighting style was fairly stiff, so if she could outdazzle him, she could run circles around him. And once he was down, she could start dismantling a boxer's secret weapons.

"Legs." She tossed the notepad away and flopped back in the bed, planning tomorrow's events as she drifted off and soaked the sheets further. A few hours at the gym, then go for a run in the beach, then try out that weird tofu place and see if she could stomach a full meal there, then...

***

Time came, time went, and a few days later, Kozue found herself back at the top of the entrance ramp as her music Swept out over the crowds. She came out, bouncing to the beat as her ponytail swung behind her, side to side and stride for stride.  There was a smile on her face, just like there always was when she took the long walk. But there wasn't  any hand clapping this time. She wasn't playing to the crowd much. No, she had one target, and every movement was directed towards it.

Kozue hopped on the apron, grabbed the top rope, then did a quick flip straight into the ripe, letting her legs flying throught the air. She landed in a crouch, then slowly stood up as the crowd cheered. She stretched her arm out, pointed at Nathan with a finger gun, then blow him away with a sharp wink.

"You ready to play?"

Nathan watched Kozue, all smiles, bounce out from backstage. He was more than a little jealous of how relatively relaxed she was… though, from his research, it was clear she had ample reason to be. Nathan eyed those dangerous legs of hers as they came down the ramp, coming closer… and closer… and closer…

Nathan looked up, startled. Kozue usually took her time with her entrance, meandering from barrier to barrier, meeting and high-fiving fans, maybe showing off a few acrobatics to get them pumped up. But tonight she was making a beeline for the ring, approaching in a brisk but measured walk, her eyes drilling holes straight through to the back of his skull. Huh. Maybe she was just as nervous as he was.

But why were they nervous at all?

The question had a pronounced effect on Nathan’s demeanor. He met Kozue’s gaze and let himself grin a bit. He felt the tension in his shoulders dissipate some, even as Kozue flipped into the ring. Just because this was going to be a difficult match didn’t mean he couldn’t have fun with this. Kozue’s greeting only drove the point home; the series was there to make the two better pro-wrestlers, that was a fact. But that was no reason for them to make their contest into a dry technical study.

Nathan’s hand whipped up and caught Kozue’s bullet between the second and third fingers. With a flick of the wrist, he snapped the imaginary projectile into the stands. Then he immediately regretted it. Cheesy; he might deflated a little too much, there. The hand dropped back down to his side. “Yeah. I’m ready.” Then his hand came out in front. He could guess at Kozue’s reaction to this, but at this point he was just curious if Kozue could be tricked into a handshake.

Kozue snorted, then had a full laugh when Nathan sent her imaginary bullet into the stands. The fans even made a little show out of pretending to catch it. It was good to know he was developing a sense of humor in all this. As much as she was looking forward to these matches, she'd look forward to them a bit more if she didn't have to do them with a stiff. Wrestling was supposed to be fun, right? Glad some people we're remembering that.

She started to extend her hand for a shake on reflex, but pulled it back at the last moment, biting her lower lip. There was some caution on her face, but there was some curiosity, too. Nathan had offered a shake before, but that was a different time. Now there was a match. Stakes. Bragging rights. He hadn't struck her as the type to try a trick on her, and maybe he wasn't...a week ago. A lot could change in seven days. She had. No way to tell how much he had, too.

And she couldn't deny the temptation to misbehave, herself. He was begging for an arm drag...

She licked her lips, wriggled her fingers, gave him a wry grin. The audience got into it; half of them calling corner to take it while the other half wanted her to blow him off. Tempting, tempting, tempting.

"Fuck it."

Kozue caved and moved in with a casual stride, deciding to let tradition win. She grabbed his hand, balled his fingers up, and went for the fist bump.

Nathan smile flickered as Kozue hesitated. Then a grin sprouted on her face, and he almost withdrew his hand, suddenly feeling vulnerable. Was she going to leave him hanging? Or, worse, capitalize on his gesture of goodwill? The bell had yet to ring, but there was mischief in that expression that convinced Nathan that the thought had at least crossed her mind.

But then Kozue reacted in exactly the way that he initially thought he would, and his mouth slowly returned to full-grin status. The hand came down, freshly bumped, and Nathan chuckled. “If I win tonight, we’re shaking hands.” He retreated to a corner, but, when the match officially began, he strode right back into the ring’s center, arms raised, and hands seeking purchase on her collar and her elbow. No tricks; a proper wrestler's start to a proper wrestling match.

"More reason for me to win." Kozue backed away to her corner as Nathan did the same, facing off proper from both sides of the ring. Gave the whole thing a nice, big fight feel. She dug it. "I'll bring you into the 21st century, Nate. Kicking and screaming."

The referee motioned for them to engage, then moved away as Kozue came out to meet Nathan head on. She got her own hands up right after he did, as some seriousness started to seep into her smile. Bit of a gamble, right from the start - usually, she just used this sort of thing to steal a free hit. This time, she was going to play it straight. From the start, at least.

She locked up with Nathan and planted her feet down hard, trying to use her legs for most of the effort. Muscles strained, her teeth gritted, and her brow furrowed as she powered into him with her all.  She doubted she would have enough power to stop his advance completely, but she could slow him down a bit, make him waste effort to push her back, and if he got too much into it? That might open up a few opportunities.

The crowd’s excitement bubbled up once the bell sounded, and it boiled over when Nathan and Kozue collided like bighorn sheep in the center of the ring. He clamped down on her arm; her hand tugged at the base of his neck. He pushed, and she pushed back. To everyone’s surprise, the combatants looked as though they were in stalemate, with neither fighter winning any ground.

But the two of them knew better. Kozue was firing on all-cylinders, grunting and gritting her teeth, pushing into him with everything she had. Nathan, on the other hand, was not. He was exerting effort- it wasn’t exactly easy standing his ground, here- but he wasn’t straining to do it. He was stronger, and he was heavier… and even if he weren’t, he was quite a bit taller, giving him a significant mechanical advantage, too. They weren’t going anywhere that Nathan didn’t want to go.  

With a sudden grunt, Nathan pushed off of his back foot and charged forward, doubling his efforts to push Kozue to the corner. No strikes, so he wasn’t entirely sure what he’d do once he got there. But with Kozue, as he’d learned in their previous match, cutting off the ring was always a good strategy.

God. Damn. This. Fucker. Was. Strong.

For Nathan's size, he had a surprising amount of power to toss around. It didn't seem like he had that much, just to look at him, but when you got up close and you could feel those muscles and you actually had to deal with the reality of his power, you realized there wasn't much fat on the guy. It was a little overwhelming, and Kozue would know, because she was getting overwhelmed. More than a little humbling to know how wide the gap between them still was.

"Shit..." She cursed under her breath as she was pushed back, step after step, nearing the corner - not the place she wanted to be when fighting a boxer, even in a match like this. Things were going bad enough, but Nathan seemed a bit impatient. He turned on the gas and started to push her back hard, really getting his body into it.

Fine. She could work with that.

Kozue stopped resisting and started assisting, as she switched from pushing to pulling without a word of warning. Her feet came up and pushed into his chest, she fell backwards, and she tried to send him flying towards the turnbuckle to use his momentum to her advantage. Monkey flip. Always a classic.

Before his surge, their progress was steady. Surely, step by step, they were approaching the ropes, like pushing a car in neutral. After, their progress was accelerated, picking up speed, like pushing that car down a hill. The conclusion was inevitable.

Then, all of a sudden, that pressure disappeared. The wall that Nathan was pushing against evaporated, and Kozue fell backward in a reversal that, really, he should have seen coming. But no, Kozue pulled his body forward, planted her feet into his chest, then shoved him behind her and into the corner with hardly any resistance at all. Textbook.

“Ugh!” He took the impact straight on the spine, jarring his bones and rattling his jaw, and Kozue scored the first real blow of the match. But, painful as it was, it was just that- the very first blow. Nathan started a scramble to regain his feet. Which…

Nathan slid down the ringpost like rain on a telephone pole until he came to a stop on the top of his head, leaving him upside down against the post and his legs dangling over his chest. Flashbulbs exploded from the audience and from the official match photographer, immortalizing the frankly humiliating position that Kozue’s throw had landed him in. Oh good.

Before he could find his feet, he’d have to get his body parallel to the floor again. To that end, Nathan less-than-gracefully wiggled his shoulders and pressed down with his arms against the mat, shifting his body further and further off of the post. Quickly, quickly...

Kozue had to give the AFW referees credit, in that they were pretty good at getting the fuck out of the way when they had to. This one in particular did a good job, managing to jump out of the way just in time to avoid getting squashed into the turnbuckle by Nathan's flailing body. She hadn't seen that move coming, and most importantly, neither had her opponent. Kozue still had a long way to go, but at least she was off to a good start.

She did a kip up and shot back up to her feet, still feeling fresh and free and feisty. She started to break into a run, planning on hitting Nathan with a hesitation drop kick to the face while he was recovering - nasty little move she'd been aching to try out. But she cut herself off in mid-run, hitting the breaks before she could get too close.

No strikes. No drop kicks. Had to remember that.

Instead, she had an idea. It was a crazy idea, and it could backfire on her big time if she fucked it up. But she was a risk taker, and the only way she was going to beat Nathan was by doing things he didn't do. She had to play to her strength, and her strength was being crazy.

Kozue did a leapfrog over Nathan's head as he rose, landing on the middle turnbuckle. She quickly hopped up to the top, did a fast glance behind her to make sure the distance was right, then jumped backwards.

If the timing was right, she'd land on Nathan's shoulders like she was getting a piggyback ride, then she'd jerk back and send him flying with a reverse hurricanrana.

If the timing was wrong, Kozue would fall flat on her ass, look like an idiot, and probably wind up taking a few of Nathan's moves for her trouble. She'd done a reverse hurricanrana before, but only in training, and never like that. Not the best time to experiment, but...