Captain Red vs. Kozue Kaburagi - Don't Stop Me Now

”Banzai!”

Her attack hit dead on, and while it wasn’t enough to put the Captain on his back for good - she doubted much would be - it was enough to knock some wind out of his sails, at least. Down he went, with Kozue falling to her knees a half second later. She sprang to her feet, quick as a cat, leaning forward, ready to see what was coming her way next. ”You think that’s good? That’s a warm-up.”

For a big guy, he could move pretty fast around the ring - not quite fast enough to hit her with that spear, but fast. She jumped out of the way, then pivoted on her foot to face him as he hit the ropes and came her way again, this time with a lariat that looked like it could decapitate her.

It might’ve, too, if she hadn’t ducked under it just in time. As she passed under it, she grabbed hold of his elbow and used it to swing around his body like a jungle gym. She whipped her way over to his other side and attempted to grab his head with a facelock as she passed, looking to nail him with the float-over DDT.

This girl was good -- honestly, Red found himself in predicament after predicament with each moment that passed! Honestly, he'd be hard pressed to remember a match as challenging as this, and this was his first one in the league -- he had a lot coming, that much was for sure. Meant he had to remember to keep training and practicing. But there was no use for that now; he was in the ring, and there was nothing more he could do other than try and think things through without giving himself too much of an opening.

Kozue managed to lock her arm around his head as she swung over his arm, but instead of letting himself get caught in the DDT -- with which he had a bit of physics working for him, since she weighed a lot less than he did -- he kept moving, instead wrapping his arms around her and letting himself jump up onto the second rope as if he were going for a lionsault onto his opponent, using the propulsion to try and suplex her onto her head!

No matter how she landed, it was a suicidal move for him; he would still hit his own head badly on the mat. But if he landed the blow, she would surely end up more hurt! At least, in theory.

Kozue wasn’t sure what happened. Honestly. She couldn’t even guess.

She’d been doing good, working up to a slick DDT, using her agility work over the big guy. That was the plan, and the plan looked to be working...until he’d managed to stop her in mid-move. Then he jumped, then they were flying, then she was coming down on her head, and, well, there was pain. A lot of fucking pain.

Kozue must have blacked out for a second, because when she opened her eyes, the referee had teleported across the ring and was looking down on her, asking if she was okay.

”Y-yeah…” She grumbled and rolled over to her side. ”I’m good. Just...I’m good.”

It worked. Red could feel a piece of him (one that somehow managed to not hurt) cheering internally for managing to pull the move off. He grinned up at the ceiling for a moment, before slowly making his way to his feet. At this point, the referee had made her way over to Ninjette to check on her, but it still seemed like his opponent was out for a moment. He moved forward, getting down on his knees in front of Kozue, before moving to roll her onto her back, pressing his chest against hers so he could press his forearm against her shoulders and hitch up a leg.

Red knew that he had waited a little too long to get to the pinfall, but it was worth a shot. The referee was there, so she just dropped down immediately in order to start a count going; maybe surprise would be on his side? It was still incredibly early in the match, but still. He found himself grinning over to Ninjette, while quietly trying to get a battle plan in place before she kicked out.

"ONE!"

Kozue was seriously hurting, her head was awash from pain after the hellish slam. There was a little blood in her mouth for where her teeth had nicked her tongue - nothing serious, but she’d have the taste of it in her mouth for a while to come. Her vision was foggy, and holding a coherent thought was taking some real difficulty.

However, she was not so out of it, not so stunned, that she couldn’t notice a pirate rolling her over and laying across her chest, meager as it was.

”Two!”

Kozue kicked out before the referee’s hand could even rise all the way up once more, pushing Red up and giving him a quick elbow in the chest for his efforts. Probably wouldn’t hurt too much, but she wanted to send a message.

I’m not done.

When Kozue managed to kick out of the pin, Red began to rise, but it was the elbow to his chest that made him grin once more. The girl wasn't out of this, not by a long shot. He chuckled to himself, standing up to his feet and taking a step back, giving Ninjette a bit of space for her to stand up once more. The moment she looked up at him, he would give her a wink, showing her that the playful pirate was still there. "Yer a tough one, lassie!" he commented, stretching himself out. "That'll make my victory that much more fun!"

Perhaps he shouldn't have given her the time to stand. But he was a little too impressed by her tenacity and her ability to knock him down over and over again. Besides, he had a plan. That was the main purpose of going for the pinfall anyway. He moved forward as she was standing up before going to grab her and pick her up in a gorilla press. He was already going for one of his signature moves, and why not? The parts of the crowd that knew him from before began to roar in approval. Hopefully, she was still stunned enough to let him pick her up.

She had to admit, Red’s enthusiasm was refreshing. Usually, the guys like him were arrogant dickbags or glorified jocks. Having a guy who was so lighthearted about it all took her by surprise. Granted, it just meant that he beat the shit out of her with a good-natured smile instead of a vile one, but she’d what she could get.

Kozue could tell he was strong, too, and if she doubt that for any strange reason, it would be impossible to deny after what came next. She was just starting to rise, when he moved to help up. Way up. Too up. She had him in the gorilla press, which could be the precursor to all sorts of nasty things. She needed to get out, and soon.

Desperate, she rolled hard to the side and tried to fall down behind him, looking for an escape. And since she was falling anyway, she decided to make the most of it - she wrapped her arm around his head, pressed it against her shoulder, and tried to execute a neckbreaker as she dropped. Something to make him think twice about holding her at high altitudes, in the future.

Red had miscalculated…well, just about everything about Ninjette's current state. Most people would be too afraid of diving from over six feet off the ground, but this girl had no problem with it. It was definitely better than the alternative, since all that was coming next was a GTS that would surely knock her down for the count. In fact, she even managed to use the fall to her advantage, and use his own weight to knock him down! Before he knew what was going on, her arm was wrapped around his head, and his head was against her shoulder.

Down we go.

They landed with a choked grunt from the large pirate, making him roll away from the other wrestler. He put a hand on his neck after a moment, trying to reclaim some of the air that he had lost during that neckbreaker. He shifted, trying to make his way over to the ropes in order to get himself up, back on his feet. But he had put Kozue at his back for the moment, which, if he had taken a moment to think about, was nothing less than a Bad Idea.

Kozue was self-conscious enough to freely admit this probably wasn’t a good idea. Then again, simply stepping into the ring with a man twice her size wasn’t a good idea by itself. Frankly, she saw herself as being ahead of the curve.

Regardless, it worked...after a fashion. They went down, the move worked, though she wound up taking more damage from her own attack than she’d originally bargained for. It was a gain, though. Better than she had been a moment ago, when she was moments away from getting her shit most triumphantly wrecked.

She was having trouble standing, though, with Red managing to get to his feet before her. She wouldn’t have minded so much, except his back was to her. That was an opening, one that was too good to pass up.

Without bothering to stand all the way up, Kozue dove forward and turned her body into a human missile, aiming her shoulder at the back of his knee with a swift chop block. How do you take down a tree? Start at the bottom.

Captain Red should have known better than to turn his back on such a formidable opponent, but the neckbreaker had done more damage than he had expected she would have done, and the only thing on his mind was trying to recover. As such, he put himself in such a perfect position for her to go on the attack.

Before he knew it, he found his leg pushed out from under him by his opponent's shoulder, making him actually let out a soft yelp.

Much like a tree, he fell down with a loud sound that echoed through the arena. The ring shook with the impact, and even Red himself seemed to be stunned more than he was expecting. He groaned to himself, moving to try and roll over and away from her, before she could even manage to land her offense on him.

He still had a good shot at this, but he's on the defensive now -- which he didn't always do very well with.