Higurashi Dojo-Taylor Parker & Julia Rogers vs. Jessica Wright & River Styx

No style, no finesse, no subtlety. Styx was a force of nature, running out of control. The referee barely had time to move out of the way as she chased Taylor around the ring, always one step behind her lightfooted opponent. Every miss added to the snowball effect, making her angier and more determined to land the next one.

Taylor glanced behind her for a moment, and Styx took that as her golden chance. She ran forward with all the speed she could get out of hulking body, opened her arms wide, and came at the smaller woman with a massive body avalanche, wanting to crush her int the corner once again. But by the time she arrived, Taylor had left, and there was only an unforgiving turnbuckle to crash into. Styx croaked as her upper body took all of the impact, and some smartass in the audience yelled out with a hearty "Olé!"

She stumbled back out of the corner and wrapped her arms around her chest, just trying to get her breathing right.

Julia was watching intently as River came charging at Taylor, backing her toward her corner. But while the big bad brawler thought she was putting Taylor in position for a knockout blow, the dojo gals saw something quite different. Right when her mentor reached a hand out, Julia reached her own to tag it, then jumped aside as River came blasting right into the turnbuckles.

Seeing River dazed and stumbling, Julia quickly moved to climb up the corner until she was standing on the top rope. Hoping to act before the larger girl could regain her senses and notice what was happening, the dojo trainee dove forward and over River while hooking her arms around her foe’s waist, then attempted to roll the brawler onto her back with a sunset flip to put her in a sudden pin attempt!

Styx's eyes were shut tight, wincing hard as she processed the pain going through her chest and struggled to catch her breath. Her body was tough, strong, but it wasn't made for bursts of exertion like that. She was hurt, she was tired, she was dizzy, she was confused.

Styx was dimly aware of something important going down. She could hear the crowd's roar growing, feel the wind as something moved through the air. By the time she realized what had happened through, she was on her back, everything had been turned topsy-turvy, and the referee was making her final count.

"3...!"

The crowd broke into celebration, cheering as if a title had just changed hands. Styx heard them, but you wouldn't have known that to look at her. She laid there, stunned, as she stared up at the ceiling and tried to make sense out of what just occurred.

"But, I..." She sat up with one eye closed tight and the other opened wide. "...what?"

The moment the ref’s hand struck the mat for the three count, Julia let go of River and sprang up, throwing her arm in the air in celebration as her music started playing over the speakers once again. After spending a good portion of the match just barely hanging on to life, Julia had managed to pick up the win for her and Taylor!

“Hell yeah!” Julia shouted excitedly while moving over to stand by her mentor. She panted and smiled brightly while taking in the energy of the cheering crowd. Despite this being a standard tag team match, coming out on top with her mentor at the end of the hard fought battle felt huge to Julia.

The ref then approached the dojo gals to raise both their arms and officially declare them the victors. And all the while Julia was beaming with pride and elation, in spite of all the pain fatigue wearing on her body.

"YEAH!"

Taylor sprang over the top rope and collided with Julia in a big hug. She was overflowing with pride as the ref raised their arms in victory, for her Dojo protege's triumphant performance.

She the ref let go, Taylor took Julia's head in her hands and put her forehead against hers, with a grin and a look in her eye that said in an instant what she would never be able to with words. And then just as quickly, she bounded past Julia and hopped with both feet to stand proudly in front of Jessica's corner, while still wary of River's presence.

"Are you noticing a pattern, Grape Ape?" She said cheerfully. "Every time you see me in here, you go down fast! And I'll never get tired of beating your monkey ass, because I'll never forget what you did. And I won't stop until you find a day job. Understand?"

She flashed a killer grin at the purple haired girl and skipped back to Julia. "Great job, dude. You had me going for a while there, but damn. Enjoy this."

She put her arm around her protege and turned to face their opponents, giddy with the thrill of victory.

Jessica's thoughts stopped. Time slowed. The world began to make little and less sense. River lost. She lost. They lost. She gripped the ropes tightly through the vicissitudes of Taylor and River's duel. It felt like reality was beginning to fray at the edges.

But reality was not so kind to just give her want she wanted. Rather, a new bleak reality was looking at them right in the face. It looked like Julia and the New Yorker staring at her straight in the face. This was something that she now has to deal with. Ugh.

"Fuck you." she spat at Taylor. That was another matter for another time. That wasn't the matter for right now. The matter for right now was her bald friend. Jessica climbed over the ropes and walked over to her fallen friend and extended an arm down to help her up. "Fuck this place. Let's go home."

As Taylor spoke, there were more than a few eyes trained on Styx, as she sat in the middle of the ring with her crossed legs. The AFW crowd was fairly familiar with her, enough to expect that she'd be up and raging after a loss like that. Instead, she was simply sitting there, with a confused look on her face, still trying to register what happened. This was the first time she'd been pinned. Ever. Just out of the blue. It didn't feel like the fight was over.

When Jessica extended her hand towards her, Styx stared at it for a moment, then looked back to Taylor and Julia over her shoulder. She still had energy. She could still fight. There was a very real part of her that wanted to just get up and start an unofficial rematch on the spot.

But Styx had enough enemies already - Angel, Tiffany, Brittany, Adrian and, by extension, her own monster of a girlfriend. She wasn't interested in adding the Taylor Parker Club to that list. Not today. "Yeah." She sighed with calm acceptance, turned back to Jessica, took her hand, and pulled her way back up to her feet. "Let's go."

Styx ran a hand over her scalp, stood tall and started to lumber her way out of the ring.

The moment was simply indescribable for Julia as she celebrated victory by her mentor’s side. And when Taylor brought their foreheads together, the cowgirl couldn’t have felt happier when she saw the girl’s expression. Not a word was spoken, but Julia understood the look by itself was telling her just how proud she had made Taylor and the rest of the dojo tonight.

Julia remained where she stood as Taylor went to address their opponents, but kept a watchful eye on River just in case. Fortunately it didn’t seem there’d be any further trouble from the big brawler or the Violent Violet, and moments later both River and Jessica were taking their leave while Taylor came to stand by Julia again.

“Heh... will do, Taylor.. Thanks!” she said in between breaths. Though she’d had some time to rest, the match had still left the cowgirl pretty worn out. But when Taylor’s arm came around her and the two watched their opponents walk away, that hardly even seemed to matter. Tonight was a big victory, not just for Julia, but for the Higurashi dojo as a whole.

“Hey, wanna go celebrate?” she asked with a grin. Naturally, she wanted to enjoy this while she could. Because as soon as the sun was up tomorrow morning, Julia knew it’d be right back to training again.

"Yeah," Taylor nodded, with a sly, sidelong glance at Julia. "Let's go."

She paid no further attention to their opponents, and sat on the middle rope with the top rope over her shoulder to make way for Julia. On their way up the ramp, she followed behind her, her hands on her shoulders, shouting to the crowd.

"I'M SO PROUD OF MY GIRLS!" She gave Julia a shake. "THIS ONE, THE ONES SHE HELPED, AND THE ONES WHO HELPED HER GET HERE!"

When Taylor held the ropes apart for her, Julia gave a thankful nod to her mentor while stepping through the opening to exit the ring. The entire way up the ramp, she wore a bright smile on her pretty masked face as her hands reached out to high five any and every fan within reach. And hearing Taylor’s words as they went, Julia couldn’t possibly have felt better right now.

Once at the top of the ramp again, she turned to glance back at the audience one more time while waving a hand overhead. “LATER, TOKYO!” she called out, before disappearing behind the curtain with her mentor, ready to celebrate the dojo’s big win tonight!

Winners: Taylor Parker & Julia Rogers via pinfall