In the Crosshairs - Samiya Kusanagi vs Valley Doll (Non-Title)

The main bill of fare for the evening had been served. The television audience was busily being subjected to the ad break before their next entertainment or had headed off to do something else. But, for the fans in the arena, there was still a dark match or two left on the agenda. The announcer made his way to the middle of the ring and, bringing the microphone up, began his duties.

”Introducing first, from Miami Florida, she is the Schoolgirl Assassin – Samiya Kusanagi!”

With that, the first chords of ‘Divide’ bellowed out from the arena’s speakers, the signal for the arrival of the one and only prodigal daughter of the Kusanagi clan. A new theme tune for a new year but few could doubt the lyrics fitted the woman in question.

For her match tonight, Samiya wore the same outfit as ever, a liquid black leotard and tights combo that did little to disguise the stockiness of her small frame. She made her way down to ringside with a little smile twitching at her dark-painted lips, slapping the odd extended hand as she went. There weren’t many, given the Schoolgirl Assassin’s less than stellar relationship with the fanbase, but there were definitely some who appreciated her ability in the ring.

Or the way she filled out her costume, or both.

Not that Samiya cared as she made her way to the ring, slipping through the ropes and raising her arms high. As far as she was concerned, everything she did was for the fans – they could be as ungrateful as they liked.

This might not be a title match but it was still a chance for her to show that she could compete with a champion. It might be the first step towards a proper title shot. Samiya had to admit the idea of a belt around her waist appealed, even as she told herself it was not why she was there.

First things first, of course. She had to beat Valley Doll, no small challenge in itself. But she felt she had the tools to do so.

Stretching her arms out, Samiya tossed her hair back and rested against the ropes, the very picture of nonchalant confidence. Waiting for Valley to make her entrance, waiting for the match to start.

As ‘Divide’ died down, the crowd began to pick back up with an excited rumble, murmurs and whispers spreading throughout. They’d all seen the match with Alaina, but that was in Canada, few of them had been able to be there live. This would be the first time the Entropy Champion defended her new belt on Japanese soil, and even though it would be a non-title affair, the fact was that this was something of a special treat.

The lights dimmed, the music began, and in a flash, there she was at the top of the ramp. A spotlight shone down on her as she raised the belt high in the air and screamed along with the song.

”YEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAH, YEAH!”
”YEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAH, YEAH!”

Valley couldn’t have screamed louder. She felt alive. She felt incredible. The only way she could’ve felt better would be if they’re gotten the pyrotechnics for her entrance, but management wanted to save that for her televised return. For now, it was just great to be back, and even greater to be back with a title in her hands.

”And now, from Palm Springs, California. She is the Slamazon, the Chick of a 1,001 Kicks, and your Entropy Champion - VALLEY DOLL!”

”What’s up, Japan!” She made her way down the ramp, slapping hands as she went. ”You missed me? Huh?” Every little bit of energy she gave out, the crowd gave her back. It was an electric sensation, and even though there were still some aches and pain from Avalanche throughout her body, the excitement seemed to make them all fade away.

She didn’t have to do a dark match, but after she’d come back, still riding the high, Valley was all too glad to accept. In a way, she saw this as a tune-up match. A good way to make sure she wasn’t too rusty after the intense Avalanche bout, that everything was in working order...and to give the Friction fans a little surprise treat.

Valley hopped onto the apron, grabbed the top rope with her spare hand, pulled back and yanked herself forward, flying into the ring with one smooth motion. She did a quick flip, then landed right in the middle of the ring, coming down on one knee. As the crowd cheered, Valley rose up and held the belt as high as she could get it, loud and proud.

”Time to fly! Woo!”

Still bouncing, Valley handed off her belt and spun around to her face her opponent...and, notably, she had to look down a little bit. Samiya was a short one - not ‘little person’, but about as tiny as wrestlers got outside of the kawaii division. Short and wide, too. Not fat. ‘Curvy’ was probably the nicest word for it.

At a glance, she wasn’t too impressed, but she was a fellow wrestler and new blood. Heck, if what she heard was true, Samiya was the daughter of a wrestler, as well, which was probably the reason they got put together. Valley wasn’t about to rain on her or anything. She just hoped there was enough for her to get a passable match. It wouldn’t reach the level of her better bouts, but if she could let the crowd go home happy, she’d be satisfied.

”Hey. Always nice to meet another wrestling brat.” Valley whipped some of her hairs back and extended her hand as she stood in the middle of the ring, offering a shake to Samiya. ”Let’s have a good match, okay?”

Resting against the ropes, arms draped casually around them, Samiya watched the champion’s entrance with every appearance of not giving a damn. Not that anyone was watching her of course; all eyes were very much on Valley Doll. The champion, the favoured daughter.

Behind her disinterested mien, Samiya’s dark lips were pressed tight together.

The entrance didn’t help her mood. Dark match entrances were generally quiet, to better go with the lower key matches. She supposed she should have expected some… display because Valley Doll had only just won the belt. But, based on what she’d seen during her research, the only way this could be louder was if it’d included the pyros.

The music, the shrieking, the fans shrieking right back…

Samiya’s lip twitched. She’d match her title against any of Valley’s any day. While she couldn’t take the title today, if she could pin or – better yet – submit the new champ…

That brought a slight smirk to her features.

It didn’t get any better once the champion entered the ring. For one thing, the theatrics hadn’t ended there – and the tattooed grappler was all for theatrics. They definitely had their place. But the flip over the ropes, the somersault, taking the knee… Samiya rolled her eyes.

Not that Valley’s appearance helped. While she didn’t exactly look the same as the wrestler who’d nearly ended Samiya’s career, the similarities were there. Blonde, tanned, the sort of all-American beauty queen that Samiya had never even come close to being.

Older, yes. Leaner. But cut from the same mould. And, of course, she’d brought up Samiya’s mother which was always going to put her in a good mood. Not.

As such, there was a dark gleam to her eyes as, pushing off the ropes, the Schoolgirl Assassin strode out to meet the champion. There was a chorus of booing, not to mention more than one fan warning Valley not to do it. But all Samiya did was accept the offered hand and give it a firm shake. The two made an interesting picture; Doll the taller but giving up a good few pounds to the stocky Samiya.

”Guess we’ll see,” She offered before releasing her grip and – to the fans’ vocal surprise – stepping back without trying anything.

It was always fun to keep them guessing.

Valley was all smiles for the audience, but that didn’t mean she was completely oblivious to the world around her. She could hear the boos. She could hear the guy telling her not to shake Samiya’s hand. It wasn't quite like with Alicia, either. Judging from the look on her face and the general dark vibe she had going on, the Slamazon could make a few guesses on what her opponent had done to earn that ire.

Was she taking a risk, with the handshake? Sure. But Valley was, above all else, a student of the old-school. Once you extend a hand, you can’t just pull it back. Just not done.

Luckily for her, if Samiya was the type to cheap shot, she wasn’t in the mood for it today. Instead she got a genuine shake. A bit of a hard shake, too, since the smaller wrestler had quite a grip going on. And now that she was closer, Valley could tell that she had more muscle going on that she’d originally guessed at a distance. In fact, she looked fairly stacked. How strong was she all over? It was hard to say, but she’d be finding out soon.

”Guess we will.” Valley took a few steps back as well, keeping her eyes locked on Samiya, right up until the ring of the bell. The moment it sounded, she moved forward again, bouncing from toe to toe as she neared her opponent. Her hands came up as she neared, offering the test of strength - she figured it was the best, quickest way to get a gauge on how strong Samiya really was. Maybe she’d be overpowered, sure, but there were ways to get out. She’d be fine.

In 90% or so of her matches, Samiya either jumped the bell or struck immediately after it rang. True, the AFW crowd hadn’t had much of a chance to see that yet but anyone who’d watched her matches before joining the federation would know it. So it was perhaps a little surprising when she didn’t do anything of the sort. No dirty tricks, no sneaky attacks.

Of course, Valley wasn’t exactly going with her usual openers either. While Samiya’s research had certainly shown her opponent going in for the test of strength, it wasn’t what she expected the blonde to lead with.

Still, part of her was glad. Samiya preferred to win but she did enjoy a good problem to solve. That was how she’d earnt herself her nom de guerre, after all.

Continuing her atypical approach to the match, Samiya closed in as well, taking up Valley’s offer by interlinking her hands with the taller blonde’s. It made her wonder if the veteran thought her height would give her a clear advantage or if she’d just anticipated Samiya’s lack of height meaning she was weak into the bargain.

Either way, as Samiya dug in her heels and began to push against the blonde, she was in for a surprise. Samiya’s arms might not look as defined as some of the bigger powerhouse wrestlers around, but her thick biceps were still all muscle and a background in powerlifting meant… Well. It’d take more than Valley Doll had to beat Samiya in a test of strength.

The crowd, such as it was, leaned forward in their seats as Valley moved in to lock up with Samiya. They’d seen her wrestle dozens and dozens of times before, so you might think it shouldn’t have been anything new to them - but that was regular Valley Doll. Valley Doll the Champion was something they hadn’t seen before, and it would be interesting to see how she kicked her reign off.

In 3, 2, 1…

Valley laced fingers with Samiya, their gloves sliding along, their bare fingers passing each other. It was a little awkward with the height difference, but that was the point, in her estimation. More leverage. More power. In theory.

But that could only get her so far against brute strength, and Samiya had more than she’d anticipated. It started well enough. She was up, she as higher, she was standing tall - taller than her opponent by at least five inches. But with each passing second, Samiya got stronger. More muscles began to make themselves known. The grip tightened, her hands numbed, and then the descent began.

Valley clenched her teeth as her legs started to bend against her will. She wasn’t just being overpowered, she was being overpowered easily, forced down further and further with each passing second. The gap between them was getting wider, and it showed no signs of stopping anytime soon. Lower...lower...down to one knee…

”Okay, not bad.” Valley grunted through a smirk of her own. ”But…”

Suddenly, Valley changed things up. She stopped pushed and started pulling yanking Samiya towards her. At the same time, she shot her leg out, placed it against her opponent’s chest, fell backwards and tried to send her rolling forward with a monkey flip.

As predicted by the smaller woman at least, the test of strength didn’t last very long. The height difference made things awkward for Samiya but the strength difference was enough that she could still pull it off. Surely but not terribly slowly, she pushed the champ’s hands back and up until she could raise her elbows. And then it was just a question of time.

Tightening her grip on Valley’s hands, Samiya pushed back and down, rolling her hands over the top of the champ’s to put painful pressure on the blonde’s wrists into the bargain. Her dark-painted lips were curled in a smug smirk, making it very clear that dominating Valley like this certainly wasn’t making her break a sweat.

With Valley Doll down on one knee now, the Schoolgirl Assassin had leverage to add to raw power and she doubled down. One knee was good, both knees would be better and then she could-

Get pulled forward into a monkey flip when Valley planted a foot against her chest and rolled her over.

Now this one Samiya had seen. She couldn’t pull the same counter that Chris Morgan had – strong or not, she just wasn’t big enough – but she had an idea. Throwing herself into the flip, she managed to somersault over to land on her feet. It wasn’t as crisp as a high flyer would have pulled. It was in fact pretty workmanlike.

But it kept her up, allowing her to spin back around and shoot in for a shoulder block on Valley.

She’d known Samiya for all of a minute, at best, and she could already tell the Floridian was a cocky little thing. Valley could see it in the way she moved, the way she looked, that smug smile on her face. She supposed this was the sort of thing she should get used to - now that she had a belt, everyone and their sister would want to make a statement with her, even if they couldn’t get the title out of it. She’d been in that position herself, more than a couple of times…

But Valley didn’t get this far by putting herself into situations she couldn’t get herself out of. She was ready with the monkey flip, and it worked like a charm. Samiya was stronger, yes, but it wouldn’t matter too much if Valley could move her around the ring at will.

The second that Samiya was launched away, Valley raised her legs, kicked them up, and rose to her feet in an instant with a swift kip up. A little showing off, but she was eager to get up and see the lock on her opponent’s-

”Ungh!”

Valley spun on her heels and found herself getting run over by a miniature freight train. It was a weird thing, seeing such a smaller woman use a shoulder tackle, but Samiya’s body made it work. Every action had an equal and opposite reaction, and this one resulted in knocking Valley right back to the floor.

She wasn’t too hurt - it was a shoulder block, not a spear or anything - but the move did stun her for a moment, leaving her staring up, slightly raised off her back, looking to see what Samiya’s move would be from here.

If Valley had been looking forward to seeing the look on Samiya’s face, it was Samiya who got to see the look of shock on Valley’s in the heartbeat before the tattooed grappler slammed into her.

Right before Valley went down to the mat just like that.

A shoulder block wasn’t something Samiya did all that often, but there was a time and a place for simple moves. Valley was certainly the faster and more agile of the two and the Schoolgirl Assassin knew that she needed to take the blonde off her feet, keep her off her feet and bring her power to bear. She’d been banking on the veteran not expecting her to be up so quickly, meaning that a simple bodyblock like that would catch her flatfooted before she could react.

Going for something more elaborate would just open her up to the chance of a dodge or a counter.

And sometimes simplicity was best.

Keeping that in mind, Samiya didn’t give the blonde a chance to get back up. Instead, pausing just to give her hair a disdainful toss – more for the fans’ benefit than her own – she went to grab Valley’s leg before spinning around it in the first step of applying a figure four leglock.

She sincerely doubted the champion would be in any mood to tap but it was a good opening submission to start things off.

Well, the question of who weighed more was sufficiently answered. Valley knew Samiya would be heavier than a woman her height typically was thanks to her build, but she figured that, even so, she might be slightly heavier. Not so. That body block was ridiculously solid, and she suspected that Samiya’s size made it even worse. She was like a little wrecking ball.

Half because of the surprise and half because of the shock, Valley wasn’t able to get up as fast as she would’ve liked, which made her easy prey. Samiya moved a bit faster than she anticipated, and the next thing she knew, the Champion’s legs were tied up in one of her own favorites - the figure-four.

Valley let out an initial shriek from the pain, then clamped her mouth shut, trying to keep it all in. She was a champion now. Champions didn’t writhe around and scream and shout when they got in these sort of situations, right?

But damn, did it hurt, even if she was doing her best not to show it. Samiya’s legs weren’t long, but they were more than powerful enough for the move, sending pain through her legs in white-hot jolts. It was expected that her opponents would target her legs, since so much of her offense revolved around movement and kicks, but she was fairly sure this was the earliest they’d ever been targeted in a match.

But okay. Fine. She could handle this.

With an aggravated hiss, Valley twisted to her left, then rolled hard to her right, trying to flip them over and reverse the move in one, quick motion.