Mariko Ishii vs. Armando 'Army' Rodriguez - Bow Down

On the surface, it seemed like a solid idea. Army wasn’t exactly being subtle with his attack, but there were times when you didn’t need the element of surprise. She was cornered. Nowhere to run. It didn’t matter if she saw the attack coming. She couldn’t avoid it.

Right?

Wrong.

He had just enough time to realize his mistake before his chest crashed hard into the turnbuckle, rocking the ring with his impact. It wasn’t quite enough to make him fall, but he did wind up staggering away with he clutched his chest, aching and cursing under his breath.

Some jackass in the crowd yelled ‘Ole’, too. Nice.

That “ole” was just loud enough for everyone to hear, and sparked a brief round of laughter from the crowd, and even got a chuckle from Mariko. Couldn’t help it. It just went too perfectly with the moment. But Mariko remained focused. Just because Army had committed a less than flattering blunder didn’t mean she had him beat.

Looking to take a step in that direction, Mariko grabbed onto Army’s nearest wrist before he could stumble too far away, then quickly hopped up to seat herself on the top turnbuckle. From there she pulled his arm out toward her, then leaned her body backward and extended her legs out until she was upside down, essentially applying a hanging armbar to the boxer with some extra help from the rope!

Naturally the ref wasn’t going to be a fan of this one, but Mariko had no intention keeping this locked in long enough to get herself disqualified.

Everything happened so fast.

One moment, Army was reeling from the missed hit. He was stunned, sure, and not in the best of positions, but this was hardly something he couldn’t recover from. He’d just hit his chest, which, not to brag, had plenty of good padding. He’d be fine.

That changed the second he felt a slender hand grab hold of his wrist. Mariko was swift, worked with purpose, and moved Army around like this was a choreographed routine.The next thing he knew, she was up, over the ropes, pulled his arm over...and then the pain started.

Army roared, first with surprise, then with relentless pain as Mariko worked away on his arm in the illegal hold. He wouldn’t have to endure it for long, that was the good news, but he hardly felt that mattered - it hurt so much, every second in it felt like a solid minute, at least. ”Ah, fuck, let go, shit!” He vainly tried to pull his arm free, but it wasn’t happening. His only choice was to wait for Mariko to get bored or for the referee to break it with the count. He felt the latter was more likely than the former.

Even though Army roared, screamed and resisted, nothing he did resulted in his trapped limb being freed. “Say ‘pretty please, Mistress,’ and I’ll think about it,” she replied through a grin while she continued torturing his arm. But of course, the ref soon stepped in to put a stop to her fun.

“Let go of the arm, Mariko! One! Two! Three! Four!—“ she shouted, but only after the count of four did Mariko finally comply, releasing the arm and rolling back in the ring under the bottom rope. Normally it likely wouldn’t be wise to stay this close to an opponent just after antagonizing them as she had. But considering who Army’s last attempt to rush her had gone, Mariko was curious to see if he was brave enough to try it again.

Army was fairly certain that Mariko meant what she saidd, that she would’ve held him like that until he begged to be let go. She had sort of a weird way about her - he wouldn’t go so far as to call her sadistic, but she was getting more of a thrill out of this than just about any other woman he’d come across in the ring.

Lucky for him, it wasn’t up to her - she either let go or she lost the match. Army wouldn’t have exactly been happy about winning that way, but he’d have taken it.

Even luckier for him, she backed off instead of pressing the moment, giving him some scant seconds to regroup and space to attack. Both things he could use well.

Army took a step back, then suddenly spun about with his good arm, swinging it around for a wide, powerful lariat, aimed straight for her face.

Mariko had seen enough of the Puerto Rican’s matches to know the dangers of “Hurricane Armando.” It had blasted women much bigger than Mariko off their feet. And while he didn’t have all the spinning motion to build up the momentum for it as he normally might, it still wouldn’t be any good for Mariko if that arm hit her.

Fortunately, this was one storm Mariko was prepared to weather.

When the lariat came at her, Mariko ducked down under it and quickly dashed behind the large boxer. Then, hopefully before he could turn around, she’d dive straight at the back of his nearest knee and attempt to slam her shoulder into it, throwing her weight into the dive. With a little luck this might bring Army down to a knee, or even to the mat completely. Either way, the lower he was, the less his size advantage over her would matter.

Army prided himself on his lariats, and for it was worth, he thought he had the best one in the AFW, Bomber be damned. Sure, it naturally came from having powerful arms, honed from years of boxing training, but regardless, it was lethal. He could turn someone inside out with the damned thing, and when he got some decent momentum behind it? Pure destruction.

If it hit.

It wouldn’t be the last time he attempted it, but this time, it was a far miss. Army cursed under his breath and started to wheel around, hoping he could catch Mariko before she could capitalize on his opening.

That was a vain hope, as he quickly discovered. The blow to his leg brought him down to his knees, and if he hadn’t managed to get his hands up in time, he would’ve faceplanted on the mat. As it was, he was hurting, but able to push through it enough to start rising up a moment later...slowly. He would need a couple of seconds to get back up all the way, seconds he wasn’t sure he had...

Once Mariko blew the big guy’s foundation out right from under him, it was all he could do to stop himself from falling flat on his face. He may have potentially spared himself a broken nose, but that damn sure didn’t mean he’d save himself from Mariko. The boxer was on his hands and knees – where he belonged, in her humble opinion – and for a moment Mariko was tempted to strut around him and just stand in front of him, then let him feel embarrassed at the humbling image.

As nice as that would have been, however, this was also a chance for Mariko to keep breaking the big tank down physically. That took priority when she had this much to work with.

Grabbing onto the ankle of the same leg she’d just plowed into, Mariko stood straight up and pulled the leg a few feet off the ground. Then she abruptly dropped down while twisting her body to send a sharp jolt of pain through the boxer’s limb with a dragon screw!

Army had started to stand, when Mariko was nice enough to help him get up. In a manner of speaking.

She didn’t grab him by the arm or anything like that. Instead, she yanked him up by the leg, a move that forced him to awkwardly rise up on one foot if he didn’t want his position to became even more awkward. He was up and hoping, arms flailing about to keep his balance as she maneuvered.

”Hey, what-” Army reached out and failed at nabbing her. ”What are you-”

He learned precisely what she was trying to do when she spun about and sent him spiraling away, giving off two full rotations before he landed on his back. The move was more disorienting than anything, and left him in a daze as he tried to pull his way back up in the corner.

Mariko was going to have to practice that one a bit. Good footwork was an important part of boxing, and she’d hoped she could disrupt Army’s by wounding his leg. Putting too much momentum into her twist resulted in the big guy being dropped on his back instead.

A slight mistake on her part. But Army was down and seemed rather vulnerable there in the corner, so it seemed things worked out well enough regardless.

Picking herself up quickly, Mariko backed up a few steps, then took off running straight at Army. Once she was near she turned around and threw her hips back, aiming to slam her rear directly into the Puerto Rican’s face.