Tension in Ueno: 24/7 Championship Match- Carmen Rodriguez (c) vs Akino Sanada

The crowd was a ways off now, watching the match unfold from a screen in the building. There were people around the festival, too, watching as AFW security kept them at a secure distance.

All of them - inside and out - were booing at Carmen, as near as she could tell.

She could guess why. Rubbing Akino’s face around like this was a dirty attack in both senses of the word. But the boxer in Carmen was still strong and present. In a boxing match, if her opponent’s eye was swollen or impaired, she would work to exploit that weakness. It was what you did in the ring. Yes, Akino’s weakness was natural, but did that make a big difference?

She honestly didn’t see how.

With the damage done, it was time to reap what she’d sown. Carmen wrapped her arm around Akino’s throat and hauled her back to her feet, trying to drag her over to the attractions.

The more Carmen ground her face in the dirt, the angrier it made Akino. And as it was all happening she heard the boos just as clearly as her opponent. One might think she would be grateful for the sympathy the crowd was showing for her, but really all it did was make Akino even more pissed off. All her life she’d been treated differently because of her blind eye. People shot her strange looks, went out of their way to avoid her, talked behind her back because of it. But the two most painful treatments she’d received over it were bullying and pity.

Most of the bullying stopped in her teen years, when she’d become advanced enough in her martial arts training to effectively defend herself. But that was exactly what this felt like. Carmen wasn’t using a wrestling move to attack an opening she’d developed through the match. No, she was specifically targeting and attacking the maid using her disability. Akino wanted to give Carmen the benefit of the doubt on it. But even that aside, there were still the surrounding fans booing Carmen, and pitying Akino. She didn’t need their fucking pity. She didn’t want it. She was a proud fighter, and that’s what she wanted to be recognized as. But with Carmen and the crowd, both representing two opposite extremes of her situation, that simply wasn’t the case. Right Akino felt like she was just “that half-blind girl,” and it was a miserable feeling.

When Carmen finally pulled her off the ground Akino was still spitting dirt out of her mouth while her gloved ands tried to brush more of it out of her face and away from her eye, all while the boxer slapped on a headlock and dragged her further into the park. When Akino felt like she’d dealt with as much of the dirt as possible, she threw a leg in front Carmen’s, grabbed onto her foe’s far arm, then jerked her body forward in an attempt to judo flip the 24/7 champ right onto the concrete pathway!

Carmen glanced behind her as she pulled Akino back, watching as some of the park’s patrons scattered away and wisely kept their distance. The whole time, she was taking in the attractions, trying to get a good feel for how she could use them. Being the 24/7 Champion was really teaching her the value of using her surroundings, and she was already getting ideas. That dunk tank looked promising…

”Come on, querida.” She gave Akino a quick twist, emphasing her control. ”Just a little further. Want to show you-”

Carmen felt her feet leaving the ground, as her body tumbled forward, falling out control, flipping forward over the maid’s puffy shoulders. Had they still been on the grass, that wouldn’t have been such a big deal, but now they were on the pavement. That made for a nasty landing.

She landed hard on her tailbone and cried out as the pain ran up her spine, lighting it on fire. Nothing broke, but far too close for comfort. All Carmen could in response was just roll away and howl, yelping with the grace of a scalded dog.

Akino fell to a knee and immediately started panting after she flipped Valley over onto the pavement. As bad as her back was hurting right now, Carmen didn’t look to be in such a good spot herself. And unfortunately for the Puerto Rican, Akino had a considerable amount of frustration to vent at the moment.

The maid stomped over to her downed foe, the grabbed onto her hair and yanked hard to start guiding her up. “No. How about I show you instead?” The question was of course rhetorical. It didn’t matter what Carmen said, Akino had every intention of kicking the boxer’s ass up all over this park.

And to punctuate her intent, the one-eyed maid threw her right knee up and attempted to smash it right into Carmen’s nose. With all the various stands and attractions along the pathway, that should be a good way to move them further into the park while keeping Carmen nice and stunned for the moment.

Carmen looked over her shoulder as Akino neared. Maybe it was just her imagination, but her lover looked seriously angry right now. She didn’t think Akino would be happy to have her face rubbed in dirt, but it was hardly out of bounds in this type of match. She didn’t cheat.

There was little time to ponder, though, what with Akino grabbing her hair and yanking her upwards. Carmen was yanked around and brought back to her feet with a few nasty tugs, where a knee to the face was waiting. Just for her.

Striking wasn’t Akino’s specialty, but getting hit like that in the face would be effective no matter who was doing the damage. Carmen’s body shot upright and arched as she staggered backwards, struggling to keep her feet on solid ground. She might have toppled over, too, if not for the goldfish stand that she wound up backing into. Convenient. Maybe.

Oh, and no doubt about it now, Carmen could see Akino’s face easily. The blue-haired maid - Carmen's lover, her mistress, her slave, her querida, and many other things - was pissed off.

Akino’s eye had reddened and started itching, and there were plenty of dirt smudges on the surrounding areas of her face. She tried rubbing the back of her glove over the eye as she stalked over to Carmen. Didn’t help. But maybe venting more of her anger out would do the trick.

Along the stand Carmen had stumbled into were small bowls and tanks of goldfish. Akino had had one when she was a child. Something about it had initially intrigued her, but she hadn’t built up any special attachment to it. Certainly not enough to make her feel even slightly remorseful about ruining this stand at Carmen’s expense, at least.

She reached out to grab onto her foe’s hair again, and would attempt to slam her face down onto the stand then slide it across the surface to smack it into each and every fish bowl along the way.

Carmen had certainly never considered Akino to be weak, but she never figured on her being all that strong, either. Not quite this strong.

Strong enough to ram her face down into the table with considerable force, making the whole thing shake and sending a couple of goldfish falling to their doom. More followed soon after as Carmen was dragged along the table, and their only hope was their owner, who was frantically scrambling to put them all back and probably contemplating a lawsuit.

She went all the way to the end of the table and then she went off, tumbling over onto the sidewalk and just narrowly to fall on her back and avoid a gash on her forehead. Despite being turned around and stunned by Akino’s wild onslaught, she still knew full well that she had to slow this momentum down before the match got away from her.

While on her back, Carmen lashed out with her leg and tried to kick the side of Akino’s knee, hoping it might be enough to stumble the cyclops. It wasn’t exactly a power move and kicks were hardly her specialty, but it might do well as a quick stalling tactic. Just needed a little time to regain her base, that was all.

No consideration for the poor goldfish stand owner was anywhere to be found in the wrathful maid as she dragged Carmen face first into one glass bowl after another and knocked them off the stand. Though to be fair, she likely wouldn’t have cared about the fish or their owner even if she was in a good mood. As it was, the man was just fortunate he didn’t try taking up a direct complaint with Akino.

But while he kept his attention on saving as many fish as he could, the maid’s focus remained locked onto Carmen. And after sending the boxer tumbling onto the sidewalk, she stalked over to her, only for a wild kick to suddenly strike up against the side of her knee.

“Agh!” the bluenette cried out as the leg buckled and she fell down to her hands and knees. Akino tried to start slowly getting back up, but Carmen’s defensive strike had left her vulnerable for a precious few seconds. Akino’s ability to maintain her control would likely depend on whether or not Carmen could act on the opening she’d made for herself before the one-eyed maiden could recover.

And down Akino went, much to Carmen’s relief. She’d staved off the assault for now, but this sudden burst of life from her lover - hopefully not former lover - was an unwelcome change. She needed to shut that down with haste.

They said the worst punch was the one you didn’t see coming. Time to test that theory.

Carmen scooted away and got to her knees as Akino fell to hers, putting them at roughly the same level. She threw a hook at the maid’s face, but not just any hook - this one came from the right, specifically aiming for her massive blindspot, where she'd have the hardest time anticipating it.

Akino saw Carmen moving away and getting onto all fours, much like the maid was. On the ground, the bluenette was confident that she could handle the boxer. Down here, it should be much easier for her to cling onto Carmen and maneuver into an excruciating hold than it would be for her foe to throw one of her devastating haymakers, right?

Wrong.

Not only did Akino not foresee that Carmen would try to throw a punch from a position like this, but she just plain didn’t even see the punch at all. It quite literally came right through Akino’s blind spot, and the fist blasted her right on her cheek.

“Ugh!” Akino cried out as the hit rocked her head to the side and dropped her right onto the ground on her front. Taking an unexpected punch was bad enough, but the fact that it came from someone who hit as hard as Carmen did only made it even worse. And just like that the maid found herself back in dire straights.