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

If she was honest, Samiya would have been right back on Valley the second after the rope break, doing her best to keep the champion off balance and playing her game. Distracted, off-balance wrestlers went with old favourites and familiar moves, exactly the sort of thing Samiya had spent time looking up and planning counters for. Angry, motivated, smart champions came up with new tricks or very unusual takes on old ones and that was the last thing she needed.

But the ref, biased little wannabe as usual, had refused to let the dark-haired grappler past until Valley was out of the ropes, back on her feet and thinking again.

And the fans cheering for Valley Doll. Of course they were. Forget that it was Samiya who was the plucky underdog in this situation, forget that she was half-Japanese and the daughter of a local legend and Valley was neither, let’s all cheer for the obvious winner. And let’s make it even easier for her to win, as if Valley needed the help.

Great. Just great. And now Valley was on her feet, clearly very well motivated and a good part of Samiya’s advantage was shot. Thanks to the ref, in large part. Still, the match wasn’t over either and the tattooed grappler wasn’t quitting until it was. Dipping her own stance into a grappler’s crouch, hands up, she circled too.

Clearly, having been burnt once, the champ wasn’t eager to rush in again.

Samiya wasn’t about to rush in either. Things had just got potentially harder – Valley had clearly started thinking again and, even having a good handle on the blonde’s moveset, the pocket powerhouse didn’t feel like rushing in against a veteran champion. But nor could she just hang around to see how quickly Valley could recover from the beating she’d been suffering so far.

She did have to capitalise, but do it in such a fashion that didn’t leave her wide open.

She needed an opening and her mind was working overtime on how best to make that opening or to force Valley to make one for her.

”You know what the definition of insanity is, Valerie,” The younger wrestler kept her tone moderate, level, despite the slight smile playing across her features as they circled each other, ”Trying the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”

The newcomer suddenly darted forward, halving the distance between them before backing off, scouting Valley’s reactions.

Samiya had changed. Just a bit.

It was subtle, miniscule, barely noticeable. Valley had to give her credit. Many younger wrestlers tended to keep their emotions on their sleeves, including herself in the early days. She’d been easier to read than your average storybook when she first stepped between the ropes. Samiya would talk, sure, but she seemed to only do it as a means of getting under Valley’s skin. Whoever was responsible for teaching the little hellion, they had to be proud if they were watching this.

The smirk was still there, as irritating as ever, but Valley could detect the slightest change in cadence with her voice. Less sure. More cautious. Maybe, just maybe, a hint of fear. Whether it was justified or not, they’d both have to see.

At the comment itself, though, Valley had to chuckle. ”Just keep talking, Smurfette.”

Someone had to break the tension, and that someone turned out to be Samiya, rushing into Valley’s range. The Slamazon reacted in an instant, shooting her leg out with a roundhouse kick that would’ve sent her foe reeling if it hit.  But it didn’t. Samiya moved back just in time to dodge, and Valley was left spinning about, seemingly leaving herself wide open as she turned. Seemingly.

She’d thought Samiya  would move back from the kick, and while she would’ve liked it to hit, that wasn’t the only card Valley put on the table. Instead of trying to reset her position after the missed strike, Valley continued to turn, bring her leg down from the first kick and immediately raising the other to swing  it out behind her in a wide arc, chaining the roundhouse into a spinning heel kick aimed at Samiya head.

All in one, seamless motion.

If Samiya hadn’t already been fully aware of it, the degree to which the roundhouse kick came close to decapitating her would have made it clear that Valley Doll’s reaction speed was insane. Samiya’s own bursts of speed tended to come in just that, bursts, and she only just got the timing right. But she did, meaning she could keep her smirk fully in place.

And then she moved in, to take advantage.

If there was a… weakness, something lacking in Samiya’s technique, it was her striking. She was a submission genius by the standards of her age, and able to play the power game despite her small stature. Admittedly, her high-flying abilities were also not especially remarkable but she knew how to counter an opponent’s attempts at it. But her striking…

Well, it was serviceable. She could throw a punch or a kick and knew the basic counters. But Samiya, really, just wasn’t very good at it.

Punching or kicking bored her. She respected those who did it but, to her, it lacked something.

Obviously, she’d done her scouting on Valley Doll but…

Well, suffice it to say that Samiya had indeed scurried back just quickly enough to let the first kick sail harmless past her. It also meant that she was in the ideal position to rebound, shoot in, capitalise and…

Take the blonde’s heel to the chin, staggering her and leaving the tattooed grappler temporarily stunned – though definitely still on her feet somehow. Well, she was a sturdy little thing.

If Valley had to compose a list of her favorite moments as a wrestler, at least since joining the AFW, the moment where she finally gave Samiya the kick she’d been begging for would rank high. Maybe not at the top, especially now that she’d gotten the title, but definitely in the top ten.

The crowd seemed to agree, giving a strong cheer when her heel connected and the unmistakeable sound of boot and face meeting filled the arena. She couldn’t see the impact with the way her body was turned at the moment, but what she felt through her foot was enough to tell the tale - the kick would leave her opponent reeling, even someone as surprisingly hardy at Samiya.

Sure enough, when she spun back around, she was gifted with the sight of a staggering submission specialist, wide open for once and ready to be attack. A small part of Valley wanted to hesitate - Samiya seemed surprisingly adept at reversing a situation, and she’d run into enough traps for one day. But she quickly bulldozed over that impulse. No hesitation, no rest.\

Valley took a deep breath, hopped up, then ran forward.

She closed in on Samiya fast and ducked down, looking like she might have been going for a spear or a punch or a grapple or anything that would’ve required moving in past kicking range. Not the best move, considering how successful her last strike had been.

That wasn’t the case, though. Valley was going for a kick, just one she rarely busted out. She ducked down and kept moving down, turned it into a somersault, in fact, letting her legs come up and over in a wide arc, her heels aiming for the top of Samiya’s head.

The Rolling Koppu Kick, a Japanese classic, and one Valley had been saving for a special occasion.

Say what you like about Valley Doll, she knew how to throw a kick. The one she’d hit Samiya with had been on the rebound, so to speak, while she wasn’t looking and it’d still knocked the younger grappler for six.

Shaking her head clear, Samiya regained her awareness of what was going on in more or less the nick of time. Valley was heading right for her, already past the danger zone of her kicks and accelerating fast. Almost as though she was about to go for a spear, but Samiya discounted that idea immediately. Valley might be bigger but she had to know that was a stupid plan.

No, she had something else in mind and… As soon as Valley turned into a somersault, Samiya’s brain chimed with alarm. She knew this move. Her mother used this move.

Acting as fast as she could make her arms move, the smaller wrestler got her arms up above her head, managing to take Valley’s heels on her braced forearms with a grunt. It hurt, pain shooting up and down her arms, but it was still the only solution, when the alternative was taking it to the skull instead.

Even with that, the force of the blow drove Samiya down to a knee, her block also exposing her body to any followup Valley might have in mind.

The audience was applauding, loving the use of the old-school favorite, but Valley wasn’t about to share in their joy or relief. They called her the Chick of 1,001 Kicks with good reason: if there was a striking move that involved her legs, she could do it. Despite that, she preferred to stick to the more reliable, mundane attacks. That she was having to dig down this deep and mine her repertoire was not a good sign.

Nor was the feeling of negative impact from the blow. She couldn't see from her position as she rolled forward, but it was a safe bet that Samiya had blocked. Quite surprising and impressive - even a skilled wrestler would've had trouble anticipating such an unorthodox move. Samiya had raw instinct. It was a shame she seemed so centered on being such a little troll, the two of them could've likely learned much from each other.

Valley had been initially worried as she rolled back to her feet, thinking Samiya would’ve recovered too fast and moved to press her offense, but she was elated to learn that just wasn’t the case. She stunned. Better than that, she was stunned and kneeling, which meant that Valley could go double up on her classic.

She rolled back to her feet, backed away to the ropes, then charged towards Samiya, full throttle. When she was close enough, Valley put one foot on her opponent’s upturned knee, stepped up on it, then swung her other leg in from the side, looking to hit her right in the mouth with a Shining Wizard.

While she would have loved to turn things around, counter-attack, even a blocked kick from someone like Valley with that much oomph behind it to the head had consequences. All that momentum, all that power and gravity behind it meant that Samiya was still left seeing a few stars and down on one knee. Add to that the lingering effects of the one before that and, well, Samiya needed some time to regroup.

Time Valley was never going to give her because Valley was too smart to let her recover and thus too smart to showboat and give her that time.

So Samiya was still down on one knee as the blonde came right back at her. And this time she was just too slow to react even though she could see exactly what was about to hit her.

She did try, to her credit, but there was only so much she could do. At the moment, that didn’t include any sort of worthwhile counter.

So she took the Shining Wizard dead on – the old ‘blocking it with her face’ cliché. Formerly sturdy legs turned to water, the tattooed grappler landing flat on her back with her limbs starfished around her.

There was some twitching but no real movement at the moment.

If kicking Samiya Kusanagi in the face was the greatest pleasure, then kneeing her in the face had to be a close second. This time, Valley was in a perfect position to watch it happen, too - she could see the look in her face right before the impact, the way it scrunched up as the point crashed into her skull and drove deep.

The crowd seemed to enjoy it, too, as they gave her another rousing cheer. There was still some unwariness there, Valley knew the audience well enough to recognize when it wasn’t going full strength, but they were definitely rallying behind her, recognizing her groove. She wasn’t a walking blonde punching bag, she was the Entropy Champion, and she was demonstrating exactly why that was the case.

For that, she felt they deserved a little treat. And, as she rose to her feet and saw Samiya sprawled out in the perfect spot, wide open and waiting, she knew exactly what that should be.

Valley rose with her finger to the sky, taking a moment to drink in the hype, and then she took off towards the ropes with a dash. She jumped up when she was near enough, placed both feet on the middle rope, and flipped backwards off them from there, arcing through the air with a lionsault, a flight plan that had her coming down right on top of Samiya.

Samiya, naturally, was not paying a great deal of attention to Valley and the crowd as the blonde went about getting her groove back. She was a bit busy getting her marbles back into order, her faculties having been put into a definite tail spin by the kick followed shortly by the Shining Wizard. Both had been straight to the chin and, while Samiya’s stocky frame wasn’t fragile and she didn’t have a glass jaw as such, she certainly wasn’t made of steel either.

And Valley kicked like the metaphorical mule.

Samiya hadn’t been given much time to recover and she was just starting to stir as Valley took to the skies. The roar of the crowd was a warning that not everything was right, the tattooed grappler having a decidedly good grasp of fan psychology for a novitiate. In this case, however, forewarned did not make her forearmed and, in fact, all she managed was a slight twitch of her arms. Her feet managed to press against the floor.

And none of that did anything to stop Valley from landing square across her midriff. The Schoolgirl Assassin jerked back to temporary life with a choked splutter as her belly took the brunt of the assault, her breathing turning short and rabid as she wheezed for oxygen.

The fans, of course, cheered like the blonde veteran had just won the match.

Valley’s moonsault was usually flawless, but it was a testament to Samiya’s skills that this wasn’t the case, today. She didn’t quite get the arch she wanted. Not as silky smooth as some of her best leaps, and it was a good thing she didn’t go for the Full Moonsault - she probably wouldn’t have gotten enough heft for the full two rotations, and it could’ve wound up very badly for her. Just because her opponent was on the floor didn’t mean she couldn’t mess her up in subtler ways.

But it didn’t. The move worked, and Valley came crashing down on the Schoolgirl Assassin with satisfying results. Somewhat, anyway.

It certainly hurt the tattooed terror, making her sputter about, but it wasn’t the happiest landing for Valley, either. Samiya’s densely packed body made for a rough landing pad, emphasizing the risk part of her risk and reward style.

But she wasn’t done. Not yet.

After a hot second to catch her breath, Valley pressed her palms to the floor, lifted her legs up to handstand, then rolled forward and popped back to her feet in one single, smooth motion. Her feet had only just touched the ground when she lifted of once more, doubling up with a standing variation of the moonsault, piling on the damage.