A Gymnast Battle - Michiko vs Julia Hiroshi

Match Type: Submission
Rules: Standard rules, but the match can only end when the winner makes the loser submit.

Spoiler:

"Ricochet" played on the arena as Michiko makes her way onto the ramp, head held high as she looked out at the crowd, confident and sure of herself. She had been riding high off of her latest win and had garnered herself quite a bit of confidence, for she was a winner. And being a winner meant she was able to do her family proud, as well as herself. She was Michiko: certified winner in AFW now, and she had such a good feeling about her next match being a win too. Because if she can win one match, why wouldn't she win a second one? It was basic logic to Michi, even if not much logic was involved.

But what piqued her interest was that she was told a match was signed between her and another gymnast. Michi had found her competitive spirit doing gymnastics and won various gold medals in the sport, because anything less wasn't worth it. It was only the interest of being able to compete in a more physical way against girls that got Michiko to leave gymnastics, but she was able to make good use out of everything she learned in it to take out the competition. Michi didn't expect this girl to be a better wrestler than her, let alone a better gymnast, so she kept that confidence rolling as she stepped into the ring, her jacket on and her shorts, and she began to stretch, feeling pumped to show the world that she was not just a winner, but a two-time winner in AFW!

From backstage Julia was able to peek out and watch the other gymnast step into the ring. "Hmmm, so this is the other gymnast. I wonder how good she is?" she would think to herself. "Hope I can keep up". She would wait until "Welcome to the Circus" started playing throughout the room before starting to walk down to the ring. Julia waved to the crowd as she strolled down to the ring. Hoped to put on a good show for them she would take slightly more time than needed to bend down and climb through the ropes, putting her behind on display. She would adjust her boots and pull up her blue pants a little as she settled into her corner of the ring. and quickly slid right through the ropes and into the ring.

Julia would look straight at Michiko and wave. "Hey! I heard you also did gymnastics. What was your specialty?" she would ask and slowly stretch her legs out on the mat. She would bend down and bring her arms to the canvas, letting the frills of her purple jacket touch the floor before she decided to get back up. "I liked the balance beam personally." For a second Julia would almost forget she came here for a fight. She was just excited to meat another gymnast.

Spoiler:

Michiko stared at Julia with a look of absolute apathy as she lifted up her leg and stretched it up high before dropping it down to the mat quickly in a stomp, looking absolutely disinterested in what the blue-haired girl had to say. Instead, the blonde could only roll her eyes. She walked up to Julia with a more serious expression on her face and said, "Okay, listen little girl. You are facing a winner, do you get that? You're not facing another loser who just wants to chit-chat about how you can tumble or anything like that. You're facing a winner. And that means you need to just accept that, shut your mouth, and don't make this any harder on you than it has to be. Sound good?"

Michi gave her opponent a smug smirk and then pat her on the cheek patronizingly. She had felt so much more confident now, and she felt she could throw her weight around, especially against a newcomer like Julia was. She figured if she could intimidate the girl a little, it might just make her job a little easier.

Julia's usual smile slowly faded as she listened to the other girl talk. She never understood why some people had such a hard time being friendly. While she wasn't necessarily expecting a friendly conversation she at least hoped her opponent would be more civil."Well you sure have the attitude of a loser." Was the only thing that Julia could think to reply with.

"We'll see how big of a winner you are when I'm testing how far you'll stretch before you snap." Julia retorted. While she tried to sound tough,the truth was that Michi's intimidation tactic had made a mark. Julia wondered if the other gymnast really was as good as she was making herself out to be. Being patted on the cheek like a child did not make her feel any better about herself. Not wanting to show weakness this early on though, she would quickly slap Michi's hand away with her own and then try to give her a rough shove back towards the middle of the ring.

Michiko scowled when Julia slapped her hand away and glared at her. She couldn't believe that girl would say something like that to her, a winner! It was known she was a winner, so it was impossible for her to have the attitude of a loser, at least she thought. And her taunt... Michi knew she had to put this girl in her place. "Oh, that's cute. And I will be delighted to show you exactly what--"

The blonde woman cut herself off and then threw a spinning roundhouse kick towards Julia's head in an attempt to catch her off guard before the match could even start. If she wanted to set the pace of the match, she knew this would be the way to do it. Sure, it may be a dirty tactic, but a win would be a win for Michiko, no matter how she went about it.

Julia took a fair bit of satisfaction from trying to show the other gymnast that she was no pushover. A slight smirk returned to her face. This didn't last too long though as the other girl had decided to unexpectedly start the match early. Despite her opponent's overwhelmingly negative attitude, Julia still didn't expect anything dirty from her. She just barely moved and took a hard kick right to the jaw. "Gahhh!" She yelped and stumbled to the side before balancing herself against the ropes. The bell would ring and already the match was off to a bad start for Julia. She glanced toward the referee to complain but their silence on the matter indicated that it was a lost cause.

"That was dirty! What kind of winner cheats?" She would scold from the corner, still a tad dazed. She would stay on the ropes for a few moments but the other gymnast would elect to run her mouth for long enough and waste enough time she would try to throw a heavy punch at Michiko's face. While this wasn't her usual tactic, Julia was just frustrated with how her opponent was acting and felt giving her a good hard punch would make her feel better.

Michiko rolled her eyes when she heard Julia's retort. This rookie obviously didn't get it, and Michi would explain as she walked towards her. "Oh, get over it. You don't understand how this place--" And just like that, the blonde was socked in the face with a punch to her cheek. Michi fell to a knee briefly from the shock as she grabbed her cheek. "Wh-what the...? You..."

Michi's eyes lit up in fury as she proceeded to run at Julia to start throwing punches, elbows, knees, and kicks at the girl relentlessly, overcome in anger and a desire to hurt the girl who had disrespected her with such a cheap shot! The blonde would absolutely not let her get away with that, and her mad strikes would be her attempt to make sure of that.

"Hmmph, take that." Julia would say with a smirk. Her small victory was short lived though as Michiko was soon right back up and up close. She would try to protect herself from the barrage of strikes however it was impossible for her to block them all. "Hey ouch ugh ow ahhh." She would yelp as she was repeatedly hit in head chest and stomach. It wasn't long before she was backed into the corner by the blond haired gymnast.

Feeling her back against the turnbuckle, Julia decided it was time to try to strike back. She would bring one foot back to the turnbuckle and use it to push off and lunge towards Michiko. She would try to catch the other girl by the waist and pull her down to the ground. It was there that Julia thought she would be able to do more than just trade blows with her opponent.

Michiko was able to keep hitting Julia with some solid strikes. And finally, when she took a step back so she could step forward and really wallop her, the blue-haired girl dove at her and tackled her down to the mat. Michi took a moment to hold the back of her head from the impact, before attempting to lock on a body scissors with her legs before her opponent could take advantage of her position.

Michiko had a plan. Lock on the body scissors with her very strong legs, then attempt to lock in a guillotine choke to try and start this match off by really wearing her down. Her game plans were often on the fly, but she had to say that sometimes that's the best way to have them. But her priority was to never let Julia get momentum.

Julia wanted to get right down to business but would be held in place as Michiko quickly wrapped her legs around Julia's body. She would wince as she started to feel a bit of a squeeze. "Hnnng...tight." She would instinctively try to pull the other gymnast's legs apart before quickly realizing that it wasn't going to work. Julia would try to drive her elbow into Michiko's gut, hoping that would persuade the girl to loosen her grip.

If she managed to distract the other girl long enough, Julia would try to hold Michiko's legs and then stand up. She wasn't kidding when she said she wanted to test how far the other gymnast could stretch. The only thing left was to figure out the best way to manage that.