Super Hyper Exciting Double Debut: Natsuki Tsukino vs. Strawberry Meringue!

"Oh you give me too much credit." Natsuki replied humbly, looking up at Strawberry with a delighted expression. "Just ask anything of me, at I will give it my utmost effort!"

"OK. I forgot we were in a match. Ummm... Irish whip, right? Got it!"

Flying up to her feet in an exaggerated manner, Natsuki charged towards the ropes, pretending to crash into them and...

"Oh dear. I wonder if I'm going too fast...?"

...bounce off. Very sluggishly. Attempting to force herself to play along at Strawberry's supposed pace, she 'ran' in extreme slow motion. Natsuki inched closer and closer, trying to anticipate whatever she was going to do. "Drop kick? No... Probably not that... Clothesline? Yeah maybe that's it!"

"Now's your chance, Miss Strawberry...!" the Japanese girl mouthed out as she got within range, acting as though something were about to hit her.

As it turned out, Natsuki was not going to have to pretend, at all.

"You have to start actually trying to wrestle," the annoyed ref girl was saying as Strawberry half-heartedly 'irish whipped' her opponent to the ropes. "Seriously, if you don't do something, I'll--" She paused. Disqualification was probably not the right threat here. "--keep the match going as long as it takes."

Apparently this was the right thing to say, because Strawberry let out a sigh that seemed more agitated than bored. ".....man, why is everybody riding me today...." She flipped her hair out of her eyes (it went right back, naturally), watched Natsuki hit the ropes and rebound back towards her (very slowly), and assumed something approaching a ready stance. "....fiiiiiiine.....ugh..."

As her opponent returned, the blonde sprang into action with a sudden and totally unexpected burst of swiftness. She ducked a shoulder low and popped Natsuki up into the air, caught her in a fireman's carry, spun three times, and launched off into a sitout Michinoku Driver II.

It was like seeing some kind of divine intervention firsthand. A number of dozing audience members jolted awake, startled by the abrupt shouts from the rest of the crowd, and judging from the reaction, at least one person had choked on a bite of their hot dog. The 'whoa, that was awesome' reaction that'd usually greet such a move was running head-on up against 'wait, she did that?!' and resulting in total chaos.

Sitting on the mat, Strawberry sighed. Great. Now they were just gonna expect more.

Between the leisurely pace of the match and her dreamily appreciating Strawberry's cute face, Natsuki's senses were so dulled that to her it appeared as though her blonde "foe" teleported directly beneath her. "Ah wha- woooooAAAAAHHHHH...!" Definitely not expecting to be heaved into the air, the Japanese girl flailed about in confusion.

Spun around three times before being slammed down on her shoulders and neck, Natsuki limply flopped out onto the mat, looking right up at Strawberry sitting right above her. "W-wow..." Natsuki spoke with a sort of disoriented awe in her voice. "Th... that was amazing... Miss Strawberry... Just... just listen to all those cheers... I think we make a great team... You and I..."

"....ehhhh.....thanks.....I guess....."

Strawberry let out a very undignified snort, trying to resort to blowing her hair out of her eyes.  The crowd was paying attention now, that was for sure.  Urrrrrgh.  This was really not her day.  Once you committed to something you had to follow through on it, after all.

"....um...." She worked herself lazily upright and spun a finger in the air.  "....I guess, uh.....do you guys wanna see a 450 splash, or...?"

The response was loud and enthusiastic.  Apparently the 'real' match was finally beginning, and their cheers surrounded Strawberry as she meandered over to the top rope and climbed steadily up to the turnbuckle.  It took a while, admittedly, but at last the blonde was set in place and ready to perform the 450 splash.

Yup, any second now.

............................any second now.

"......oh god, it's really high up here," she finally said, and this was followed by her throwing herself off in some kind of languid splash / knee drop hybrid.  The attack made it about halfway to Natsuki's supine form before gravity kicked in and brought Strawberry flopping back to the mat with a crash.

"..............................mrgh."

The crowd was silent again.

Natsuki quickly went back to pretending to be out of it, letting Strawberry set up her next move.

"Ok... a 450 splash... Wait that's going to hurt, isn't it? Well I guess this hurt too, but... I'll endure it! For your sake, Miss Strawberry!"

While her eyes were closed, the cheers of the crowd were a good indicator as to how far the blonde was getting along. Just when it seemed the roar of the audience was at it's loudest, Natsuki readied herself for impact and then... Nothing? There was a loud thump nearby and the whole arena suddenly went dead silent. "...Huh?"

Looking over, she saw Strawberry laying face down on the mat nearby, and near instantly shot to her feet. Rushing over, she knelt down next to the blonde, rolling her over and trying to lift up the girl's upper body in her arms.
"What happened!? Are you okay? Miss Strawberry! Answer me please!" Natsuki blurted out in a panic, worried the girl possibly had gotten hurt.

".......ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhh........"

It had not actually hurt that much (the leap had been more horizontal than vertical, and being all spread out dispersed the impact a bit), but Strawberry was back to enjoying the cool feeling of the canvas against her cheek, sprawled out like a starfish in the middle of the mat. She looked less than dignified, not that she cared.

"....think I fractured my motivation," she groused, sounding vaguely bored. "Man....I just made myself look like a two-bit suck-rag asshole in front of everybody....mannnnn.............."

She took as deep a breath as possible and then let out a weary, dismayed sigh. It lasted almost fifteen seconds, which was very impressive as sighs go.

"......I also can't feel my face.....but that's normal...........I guess......"

It was somewhat normal, due to the Ambien abuse. She had more or less landed on it, though, so some of this was to be expected.

It was to Natsuki's great relief that Strawberry was unharmed, for the most part anyway. It was... a bit difficult to figure how to respond to those comments however.

"N-no, no, of course not, Miss Strawberry, I didn't get to see it, but I'm sure you looked incredible flying through the air! You should be more careful with that cute face of yours, though."

Pulling the blonde in close, Natsuki made a bold move and gave her a small kiss on the cheek.

"It would be a shame if such art was tarnished in any way."

*cue bishoujou sparkles*

While no nearly as impressive as Strawberry's, another long, exhausted sigh came from nearby. Turning over to the ref girl, undaunted by the previous rejection, Natsuki held out her arm welcomingly.

"You sound so tired as well, my dear. Why not join us? My bosom has enough space for two to rest against it!"

In all the movies this was the part where Strawberry would be swept away by Natsuki's gallantry. She would melt into a puddle at the cheek kiss and they would embark on a storybook relationship and get a house and 2.5 kids and a dog and live happily ever after. In the real world, being a perpetual disappointment, Strawberry didn't actually notice the kiss. Her face was numb, after all.

".....I guess....." she said, and that was the entirety of her acknowledgement of the compliments.

On the other hand, the ref girl at least managed to make up for Strawberry's lack of enthusiasm. "No!" she shrieked, stamping her foot. "You two haven't actually done anything! It's been like ten minutes and nothing has happened! It's wrestling, not...not...the talk show channel or....bwuhhh...." It was basically incoherent anger-ese for a few seconds, and then, at last, she threw her hands up and stormed away. "That's it! Match over! Nobody wins! God, why didn't I just go to tech school...."

Blinking her eyes, the blonde watched their presiding official storm up the ramp and disappear in a haze of frustration. A large portion of the crowd was following suit, although some appeared to be sticking around simply out of either morbid fascination or curiosity as to how the result was going to be determined.

"....I don't blame her, I guess....." she decided. ".....I mean.....I'd probably do that too......"

The difference was that she would do it without any provocation whatsoever, just in the interest of slacking off, but this distinction was lost on Strawberry.

Natsuki just watched along speechless as the ref girl had her tantrum and stormed away, faced with yet another scenario she didn't really know how to respond to. Depending on your definition, it could have been said it was an eventful night for her. Or it could have been said to be the exact opposite. Either or.

"So... I guess that's that then!" Natsuki said cheerily, turning back to Strawberry with a blissful smile on her face. "I don't really get what's going to happen, but at least we no long have to fight anymore!"

Not that they were actually fighting to begin with.

Slipping her hands underneath the blonde in a similar fashion to earlier ("pure intentions!"), Natsuki lifted up the girl like a princess almost effortlessly. "Well now that that's settled, how about we go have some coffee? I happen to know of a very nice little cafe nearby..."

"Oh god I hope Manager-san isn't mad at me for this..."

'What's going to happen' was a very valid question and Natsuki was well within her rights to wonder about it, but Strawberry tended to let that kind of thing just take care of itself.  Generally, if it didn't directly impact her in an incredibly important or significant way, she didn't want to hear about it and definitely didn't want to be involved in the decision-making process.

Going out to the cafe did impact her, though - it stood a chance, however small, of cutting into her sleeping time if the coffee was strong enough.  Then again, they might have pastries...

Strawberry scrunched her face up for a moment, considering her choice as hard as she ever considered anything, and then nodded.  ".................yeah, I guess."

It was perhaps not the most encouraging thing Natsuki could have heard, but it was definitely the most encouraging thing Strawberry was capable of saying, and that would have to do.


No Contest (Double DQ due to Severe Malaise)