Diana Accera vs. Megumi Momoi - Step Up

Megumi was a woman of quick, hot temperament and many ways to set it off. Of the many ways to truly tick her off, though, the most steadfast, reliable one had to simply be not taking her seriously. She hated it. Always hated it. She'd worked too hard, done too much, to be underestimated in that way. She simply refused to suffer the insult.

This was no exception.

When Diana asked her question, Megumi didn't answer right away. Instead, she stood up - slow. It hurt just to do it, but she had to be equal height with Diana for what she had in mind, here.

As soon as she was up straight, Megumi reeled back and gave Diana a clean slap in the face. Not a strike, not a chop, just a regular, no-disrespect slap to the face.

Diana didn't mean to be perceivable as not taking Megumi seriously. She just didn't think the toned woman was taking her seriously. Soon enough though, she'd get a serious response.

The slap somewhat echoing around the arena, Diana's head snapped somewhat less so given that the move was open palm rather than a dangerous closed fist, the Italian quickly bringing her eyes back to her foe. The crowd shared a shocked general consensus, some covering their mouths in pure disbelief. You didn't have to be a well established AFW legend to know you simply didn't slap a woman of Diana's, or even Megumi's stature, for that matter. Not ever.

Whilst most women would of suddenly morphed into horrendous beasts, throwing themselves at their foes whilst screaming all profanity, Diana opted to simply straighten her figure. She'd start to slowly step back somewhat, the referee herself somewhat looking on expecting the Italian to lurch forward in blind rage at any moment. Said moment, never came.

Instead, the Italian would simply raise her hands, curling her fists up tight. Whether Megumi had intended to or not, in Diana's mind, she just told the Italian she was ready for round two.

Oh. This was different.

Megumi was quite surprised by Diana’s reaction - or lack thereof. After all the tremendous shit the Italian had talked, she’d pegged her as another bruiser, wanting to prove herself to anyone and everyone at her opponent’s expense. The AFW certainly had enough of those types.

But, to her surprise, Diana didn’t seem to be one of them. Granted Megumi had never seen her do anything untoward in the ring, but she figured that woman was just a boiling top ready to go off.

Nonetheless, she didn’t complain about the change of events, took them for what they were. Megumi gave Diana a quick nod, then raised her hands and accepted the challenge, locking fingers with the Amazon and pouring on the pressure.

Her challenge accepted, Diana would begin her almost boxing like circling of her pray, body bopping as she somewhat bounced up and down. Gaining close distance to her foe, she'd somewhat stop her movement, evidently focused on both throwing a focused strike, and taking her foes somewhat like a brick house.

But of course, the Italian didn't forget that she was just on the receiving end of a slap, seconds ago.

In the tense moment that the two women would be reading one another out, Diana would shoot a mild, but notable, straight jab towards Megumi's cheek, a near mirror of what occurred moments ago, albeit with a closed fist rather than a open palm. The strike was by no means meant to finish the fight, nor even whooze Megumi. It would hurt if it hit, but it was more sent with a message in mind. Don't slap me again.

Megumi would give Diana credit: she wasn’t the strongest, the fastest, the biggest wrestler in the AFW, but, of the top of her, she couldn’t think of anyone who brought the same kind of unreal intensity. Usually, in a match, a wrestler might spare the occasional glance at the crowd or the referee, just getting thrown off by little distractions. Not Diana. She was all fight, all the time.

Megumi was honing in, too. She hurt, yes. She hurt a lot. But that didn’t mean she was finished.

That being said, Diana’s little jab wouldn’t have staggered her as much as it did near the start of the match. At this point, it made her wobble back and knocked a little taste out of her mouth, but Megumi pushed back fast and got back into Diana’s personal space. She swung her leg low and fast, aiming a roundhouse kick to the side of the Italian’s slender knee.

Megumi's quick rebuffing of her stance caused the Italian to somewhat smirk, as it appeared the toned woman had life in her yet. Had the strike knocked Megumi on her ass, Diana would of likely gone for the finish. Not because it would be capitalizing on her foe, but simply because if her foe was going down to strikes like that, dragging the match out would only be sadistic.

A precise shot to the Italians knee sideways on would force the big woman to buckle, briefly crouching in an attempt to correct her posture. Given the closeness of the two, Diana would re-affirm her arms, confident her foe would shoot in for an attempt to seize the situation.

Despite being on the bigger side of things when it came to wrestling, Megumi tried to keep her style varied and fresh, not wanting to rely on pure power moves. That meant upping her arsenal with something that was good in just about every situation: kicks. They were a great way for her to instantly equalize things, as Diana could no doubt attest.

Feeling she finally had something of an advantage, Megumi decided there was no harm in pushing it. She threw out a quick jab towards Diana’s face, but that was just a feint - the real attack came in the form of another low roundhouse, aimed at the same spot as the last one with just as much force.

How do you chop down a tree? Start at the bottom.

Megumi had successfully started to cut piece by piece out of the Italian, her faint followed by another swift kick connecting on the button, turning Diana's base to the nearest thing to instability as she had reached in the match. But just like an oak, anything the Italian fell on without moving would be filled with somewhat regret.

Somewhat on her knees in the woman, and sensing her foe would only further capitalize, with of course zero chance given to the Italian to stand, Diana would somewhat purposefully lean forward. Arms hooking around her foe in a somewhat ineffective boxer-style clinch, given the distance in height between the two, Diana would somewhat basically try to restrain the woman whilst she seemingly caught her breath. Or so it seemed.

If Megumi failed to force a release, or protect her vulnerables, Diana would suddenly attempt to shimmy both sides to Megumi's right, hands looking for her right arm. If all went well, she'd look to suddenly yank the womans arm up and behind her back, in a somewhat roughly applied kimura lock!

For the first time since this match started and immediately began to go to shit, Megumi felt optimistic about the outcome. She hadn’t brought Diana down yet, but she’d staggered the mighty woman. Made her hurt. For the first time, it seemed like she had a real chance of pulling this out of her deficit.

She kept that mood all while Diana plowed into her with the clinch, mistaking it for an act of desperation. That was a mistake, as she soon learned.

Megumi felt the pain before she even fully grasped what happened. A fiery bolt of pure agony going up her arm, as Diana locked in the brutal kimura lock. She knew this hold. She’d seen what it could do. She realized that, if it went bad enough, she might not be using that particular arm for a long, long time.

Going into panic, Megumi began to thrash around like a trapped animal - which, in many ways, she was. She furiously rained her fist down on Megumi’s shoulder, trying anything to make her let go.

Whilst Diana's manoeuvre had all the tell tale signs of a standard kimura lock, the Italian was yet to hook her legs around the woman, so that she could use Megumi's own body as an anchor to bend her arm painfully behind her back. She partly purposefully didn't do so, more out of curiosity over how Megumi would react; she'd seen more than a few kimuras turned into powerful spinebuster-esque slams, and even wounded Megumi still had the frame for it. She also partly didn't have a choice, as the moment the Italian pulled her foe on top of her Megumi would thrash like a bear caught in a trap.

Not at all having the leverage to bend her arm to crippling levels, Diana would soon find her foe raining down shots regardless, each hit jolting the Italian and causing her to loosen. Grunting in somewhat frustration, Diana would opt to release, her hands instead trying to hook around Megumi's head for a standard clinch; knowing that letting Megumi obtain a full mount would be a incredibly dumb thing to do, considering she'd just tried to tear the woman's arm out her socket.

She'd try to somewhat roll the shoulder that Megumi had just been laying into; the close distance of the two prevented Megumi putting in extreme power, but the rapid shots she did land were by no means tame.