Mikoto Kusanagi vs. Suzumi Ishikawa: Friendly Foes!

Suzumi growled as she heard the crowd cheering on Mikoto, who was refusing to quit. This wasn't surprising but that didn't mean Suzumi was happy about it by any means. She felt the stinging of Mikoto clawing at her hand, knowing that she was going to eventually break the hold far before Suzumi broke Mikoto.

Suzumi let go of the hold and stepped away, trying to pull Mikoto up by the arm. Suzumi knew Mikoto was tough, and for once it didn't make her proud but it made her angry. Upset. It made Suzumi feel like just seeing Mikoto made her live in the past instead of working towards the future. Suzumi wanted to progress forward, not step back. She stepped in and tried to whip Mikoto into the ropes as hard as she could while running back to the opposite ropes. Suzumi jumped up onto the middle rope and jumped back hoping to vault back into Mikoto upon her return trip elbow-first!

Struggling valiantly to unseat her former friend from her tortured spine was apparently cutting quite the "underdog" image of the priestess, the swelling fan support ending up generating rhythmic claps as Miko shuffled to her knees and desperately clawed at Suzu's fingers. Wallowing in her own self-pity and bitter memories of matches lost against Suzu was a hurdle Miko may not have been able to overcome so quickily had she not overheard a lone voice in the crowd rooting for her. Miko recognizing it instantly and appreciating his presence in the stadium all the more now...

Whatever relief she felt from not being bent over herself in the camel clutch was short-lived when Suzu hoisted her back to her feet. Miko groaned and offered middling resistance to being sent sprinting across the ring to bounce off the adjacent ropes. Keeping the tempo of this match fast and loose was Suzu's forte. It played to her strengths and Miko knew she needed to reverse her fortune or risk being slammed and pummeled the rest of the match. Glancing up to see Suzu hop up on the middle ropes, Miko would collapse into a baseball slide under her catapulting friend, leaving her nothing but a rather stiff canvas to cushion her elbow drop.

Suzumi sailed through the air and came crashing down.... hitting nothing but the mat! "Omph! Damn it...." Suzumi wheezed out as she was stretched out, having the wind knocked out of her! Not to mention, her body felt a throbbing pain at the point of impact with the mat... not a good combination for someone trying to build momentum in a match against a difficult foe!

Suzumi rolled around on the mat, trying her best to recover. Unfortunately, she wouldn't be able to really get up and mount her own offense for a moment, and Suzumi knew Mikoto needed but a split second to turn the tide of a match!

Narrowly avoiding Suzu's springboard elbow drop with a last second baseball slide, Miko found herself sliding clear out of the ring just from how fast she was running at the time. Suzu's explosive offense meant that the slightest mistake could end up causing her to lose control of the match rather quickily. And Mikoto knew she needed to capitalize while the tide of the match was in her favor.

Rolling back under the bottom rope and approaching the rolling Suzu, Miko would pounce atop Suzu from behind with one arm encircling her opponent's neck. The priestess applying a standard but efficient rear naked choke from behind while she had the Tsunami down on the canvas.

"You were...always...so...stubborn..." Mikoto uttered in between reasserting her grip on the sleeperhold, hugging the tsunami closely from behind.

Suzumi was still laying on the ground cursing her bad timing, as well as Mikoto's phenomenal reflexes when she felt the rear naked choke slapped on with fast, deadly precision! Suzumi clawed at Mikoto's grip to no avail, grunting and shouting out as her air flow was cut off! "Ack! T-thats how I will show everyone that I'm better than before... by not giving up!" Suzumi choked out as her legs flailed wildly. She wasn't about to pry her way out of this hold, she was not strong enough and Mikoto had that hold far too secure to allow for such a simple solution.

Suzumi instead tried to roll both of them over, attempting to keep the momentum going until they rolled right up against the ropes! Not the most technical, graceful or fancy solution to this problem but it seemed to be the most practical to the gasping Suzumi. She knew she had to do something otherwise she wouldn't be conscious for very long!

Tightened and secured with mounting pressure closing off Suzu's windpipe. Miko buckled down on the draining sleeperhold when she felt her former friend reflexively panic with sputtered coughs. As much of a veteran as Suzu was, Miko knew that escaping submissions was never exactly her forte. Her initial reaction almost always being to make the long trek towards the ropes for the breakup. And the priestess counted on this. Eventually Suzu would wear herself out from the constant slogs towards the ropes, each journey draining her more and more until their would be one submission that Suzu wouldn't have the energy to escape from...

"Su...zu...please...stop...roll...ing..." Miko sputtered out from the dizzying tumbles Suzu was taking them both for across the canvas. Miko groaned and only clenched onto Suzu tighter from the discombobulating journey until the both of them would be sent into a tumbling crash outside of the ring!! The Tsunami perhaps not gauging their distance to the ropes quite properly before the sudden decent. Miko yelped from the surprising drop and released Suzu upon impact, rolling off of Suzu and grabbing the nearby ring apron to lift herself back up. One hand holding her head to try and normalize her dizzied vision.

"Nngh...being so stubborn...is NOT...a noble virtue, Suzu. What...what if you get hurt again?" Miko worriedly explained during her ascension, keeping her attention on her former friend with earned concern on her face.

Suzumi coughed, gasping for breath as she stayed down on the mat with her chest heaving. Mikoto kept talking and that was highly unusual for her in a match. "Then I get hurt on my terms instead of running away." Suzumi quietly muttered as she still tried to catch her breath.

She was very slow getting up but didn't want to be on the defensive any longer. Mikoto could easily cause trouble if Suzumi gave her a tiny window of opportunity. Her slow rise to her feet had already done that so Suzumi tried to focus on Mikoto and rushed at her as quickly as she could! Her speed wasn't quite there given how she hadn't caught her breath but she had to try something.... so barreling straight at Mikoto in a hasty yet sloppy attempt to tackle her to the mat was the best Suzumi came up with on the spot! Not overly cerebral, and Mikoto could do a number of things to reverse this but Suzumi knew she wouldn't be expecting this!

At least, she really hoped it wasn't expected, for if it was Suzumi was going to be in a world of hurt!

Mikoto was still showing signs of concern for her former friends well-being. Despite all of the turmoil their relationship had gone through, and despite the nagging dizziness she was only just then recouping from. Gripping the nearby apron helped straighten her slouching posture as she studied Suzu's movements. The Tsunami was sluggish in getting back and was clearly still winded from the constricting sleeperhold. Lulling Suzu into a blissful unconsciousness being one of the more peaceful ways Miko wanted to end this match...if she could.

"Then that's exactly what's going to happen to you, Suzu..." Miko eerily muttered towards her stubborn opponent, the priestess limbering up in preparation for whatever Suzu was going to toss at her next. Miko recognized Suzu's telltale slouched posture from the countless times she had been on the receiving end of her bullrush tackles.

And responded swiftly by side-stepping into the blind charge and wrapping her arm around Suzu's waist from behind, fluildly bucking her hips backward into Suzu's crotch before performing an O-Goshi hip throw to flip Suzu up and over for a hard crash onto the notoriously thin mats.

Suzumi screamed as she flew into the air and came crashing down on the mat! She wanted to come back with something witty at Mikoto but there were no words. She could only scream and writhe in pain on the mat as the match was catching up to her!

Was Mikoto right? Suzumi couldn't allow her best days to be behind her when she was just 23. She rolled around, trying to make her way to her feet again even slower than before. There was no way she was done....

Straightening herself back up after rotating Suzu over her hips, Mikoto then took one deep exhaling breath to calm her nerves. Her split second counter could have very easily been her undoing if she was a hair's breadth off in her positioning. But luckily for her, the sharpened reflexes from years of judo training enabled her to use level the Tsunami back down to the mats, the priestess now standing over her and gazing down at her former friend judgmentally.

"...and if that happens again, I may not be there to help you recover this time, Suzu." Miko uttered down towards Suzu, finishing her earlier statement from before. Mikoto bent down to hoist Suzu back to her weary feet by tugging on her arm, the priestess intending to add to Suzu's painful woes and give her the match she wanted despite her voiced concern for her former friend.

After sneaking her head under Suzu's armpit and wrapping her own arm around Suzu's neck, Miko would hook her other arm behind Suzu's knee to have the Tsunami balancing on one foot. The priestess having Suzu bounce on one foot several times to build momentum before attempting chuck her opponent overhead in a swift and seamless exploder suplex.