Blade Uehara vs. Cindy Won - Reunion in the Ropes [FWC]

Cindy laughed.

It wasn’t a typical laugh. Not a snicker, a chuckle, or a guffaw. No, she arched her back and laughed loud as Blade squirmed away and cradled her  smashed digits, taking pleasure in the brat’s pain. Her natural laugh was much quieter, but she wanted to make sure that her opponent and the crowd were both aware of her amusement. Judging from the raucous jeers she earned, that was certainly the case. As usual, their opinion meant little, but she was always glad to rub a triumphant moment in their ungrateful faces. Bridget was clapping, at least.

”Oh my, such foul language.” She walked over to her foe and reached down to grab a handful of Blade’s mangy hair, tugging it upwards, urging the rest of her body to follow suit. Best to get this fight away from the ropes, given the high-flyer’s irritating penchant for turning them to her advantage. On a level playing field, Cindy was certain to be the dominant force.

"Come along, Blade." She whispered, her smile widening by the second. "Your education continues."

Nothing quite like potentially having a hairline fracture in your hand to welcome you back on your first day back in the ring.

Blade's night had definitely taken a turn for the worst. Her vision was still spinning after eating a big boot from the obnoxious Chinese nationalist, and her freshly stomped hand was numbing over with only faint twitches in her fingers in response to what should have been her making a clenched fist. And of course, all of her misery came off as utterly freaking hysterical to the laughing hyena next to her. Blade hated it when people looked down at her and thought she was a joke or something. It all just reminded her of Beauty Ichigaya...and how she never got that pompous windbag to stop laughing.

She scrunched her face and reluctantly obeyed the yanking strain on her scalp when Cindy wisely opted to resume the match back in the middle of the ring, away from the safety that came with being near the ropes. Her injured hand dangling limply at her side while she clasped onto Cindy's arm with her other, a slight hitch to her step considering this was her first time back on her feet since getting plastered from before.

"My teachers always did tell me that I never learned..." Blade whispered coyly in response with a punkish grin. Something to distract Cindy before she realized that a fully cocked stomp to her foot was incoming, the heel of her boot crunching down on those toes of hers.

”The hair, Cindy!” The referee warned, frantically pointing at it as Cindy lifted her prey up by the scalp. ”Watch the hair! Let go!”

As always, the referee’s chiding went ignored by the Won Sibling. She and her sister had long ago learned how impotent referees could be on this island, how slow they were to throw away a match, and she hadn’t the slightest worry of being disqualified. Besides, there was no way she would let go and relinquish the chance to make Blade suffer for her impertinence in such a fitting way. Though she would have to wash her hands when this was all over. Who knew what vile things lurked in the shadows of Blade’s mangy mane?

She tugged her foe to the center of the ring and prepared to work her over from there, but before she did, Blade had the nerve to open her filthy mouth. ”Be silent, you-”

Cindy had just begun to bring her hand before a slap when she felt a sharp pain shoot through her toes, crushing them into the mat. With a yelp, she leaped back and hopped on her good foot, massaging it with one hand as she winced and hissed.  ”My foot! You disgusting twit!”

From ringside, Bridget echoed the sentiment. ”A cheap, disrespectful move!” She wagged a finger towards Blade, shaming her.

"And you watch the toes!!" The sharp-eyed referee now giving Blade an earful for what was not technically an illegal maneuver, but was underhanded enough to warrant a stern warning. The pin-stripped official clearly agitated at having to work twice as hard to keep the match legit.

Blade was far too relieved from simply not being jerked around by her scalp anymore to worry about the possible consequences though. Which she assumed would be zilch, considering that Cindy had gotten away with freaking grinding her fingers into the ground. Cindy perhaps now remembering that Blade wasn't above gladly paying forward any deceitful tactics her opponents brought to the table.

Blade could at least take solace in that now they were both equally and comically impaired in terms of crushed appendages, the former W.A. backpedaling a few steps with her injured right hand still dangling at her side and preventing her from the satisfaction of punching Cindy right in that laughing face of hers. In that case...

"Oh my, such foul...language!!" Blade emphasized that word by spinning in place and extending her leg out to knock Cindy right on her ass from the spinning crescent kick right to the side of her smug face. Cheering fans and a surging momentum building up upon them witnessing Blade resiliently continuing her comeback...

That dirty, cheating little wench!

Cindy fumed as she hopped about, waiting for the pain to simmer down in her aching toes. She shouldn’t have been surprised, really - of course Blade would resort to such an underhanded tactic. Yes, Cindy had stomped her fingers, but that was her fault for leaving them so vulnerable and open, inviting the attack in the first place.  Cindy had been in control, and the cheap little devil had used her trick to sway things, instead of more honorable tactics. And the referee merely let her go with a small chiding. Ridiculous.

She huffed and gingerly put her foot back on solid ground, before spinning about and moving past the referee, eager to reingage. Blade was going to pay the price for her insolence, she swore, and she readied her good foot back, preparing a kick meant for the wicked brat’s face.

Only Uehara beat her to the punch. Or the kick, as it was. Lightning fast, a foot flashed across Cindy’s vision for a split second before the impact, crashing into the side of her head. The impact sent the Won sibling reeling, staggering back one step, then another, before gravity got the better of her and she had to drop to one knee.

”You...you…” She held the side of her face and blinked rapidly, as she vainly attempted to put more than two words together and form a sentence.

Never let it be said that Blade didn't have a certain knack for on the fly improvisation. It would take more than an incapacitated right hand to prevent Blade from continuing to exact some oh-so-satisfying retribution on the hopping mad Won sibling. Namely by twirling around and greeting Cindy with a blisteringly fast spin kick. A breakneck strike that Blade simply thought up in the heat of the moment and with little to no forethought, the former W.A. than collapsing to her side but was already scrambling back up to her feet as quick as she could.

Riding off your own surging momentum usually meant going with your gut and reacting off your own basest instinct. And right now, they were telling her to fight through the head pains and sore hand, get the hell back up, and continue putting the screws to Cindy while she was probably still wondering what the hell just hit her.

"Come on...come on..." After hopping on her tip toes while eagerly awaiting where Cindy was going with her stumbling backpedaling, once she caught the Won sibling taking a knee Blade would go sprinting towards the ropes behind her to bounce off them. Savage speed and nimble agility was the name of Blade's game, and with that, she would jump up on her way towards Cindy and wrap her legs around Cindy's head before twisting to the side for the head slamming hurricanrana.

Cindy still had no idea what had just exactly hit her. She recalled that Blade had always been skillful with her kicks - not as good as Cindy herself, no, but that went without saying. She certainly was good enough to possess a legitimate threat, the Won Sibling was coherent enough to acknowledge that even in her stunned state. As far as she was concerned, however, it was just another slight that would be paid back in due time.

[”Stand up! Now!” Cindy could hear her sister warning her from ringside, but her vision only cleared enough for her figure out why at the last moment. Her eyes widened as Blade’s came flying past her head, and by that time, it was far too late to avoid what was coming.

The hurricanrana sent Cindy sending sailing through the air, flipping forward and landing on her back with one leg on the ropes. She put her hands to her head, partly to rub and also to readjust her oxhorns. Aside from that, she stayed in place, still trying to catch up with Blade’s lightning-fast, dizzying style. It was rare for her to be outpaced, she had to admit, and the experience was, among other things, painful.

That stupefied look on her opponent's face as they spotted Blade taking to the air was but one of many little idiosyncrasies that she secretly missed since leaving the business. That vacant and dumbfounded expression when they realized they were well and truly screwed. It was really only something other high-flyers could appreciate seeing as how it happened in the blink of an eye, but Blade caught it on Cindy and it was well worth those extra few seconds of waiting to pull off that flipping hurricanrana on her.

Blade landed on her knees but was back on her feet almost instantly. That rush of pure adrenaline was temporarily making her feel no pain, even from her freshly stomped fingers. The speedy tempo was how she got her offense going, and unlike before, she was going right back to work on the discombobulated Won Sibling. Blade approached her while she was still adjusting those bun things on her hair...Blade didn't know what they were called, just that they looked weird.

"Think ya got more important things to worry bout than those frilly do-dads in your hair..." Blade teased as she clamped onto two firm handfuls of those cerulean locks of her, probably exasperating her hair-raising problem in the process. Seeing as how they were already close to the ropes, Blade would easily prop Cindy over the middle rope so she was facing the crowd at ringside. After taking a few steps back and making a rectangle with her index fingers and thumbs, Blade would mockingly pretend like she was lining up a shot just before rearing her leg back and attempting a fully cocked back shin kick right to that surprisingly curvy rump of hers.

Even though these undeserving masses surely didn’t deserve it, Cindy and Bridget took the time to make sure their hair was pristine and perfectly coiffed, something that a ragged brat like Uehara would know little about. This was the Friction World Cup, after all, a contest which would put them both in the limelight. They had to look their utmost, for the sake of their country.

So, when Blade spoke her ignorant opinion, Cindy was quick to correct her. She did not invest so much time to have her work be written off as ‘frilly do-dads’. ”They are called ‘ox-horns’, you uncultured swine-”

Cindy’s educational moment was interrupted with a piercing shriek, as Blade had the audacity, the nerve, the downright gall to grab her by the hair and use it as a handhold, yanking her along to the ropes. Cindy, taken off guard by such an audacious attack, found herself hanging on the ropes, helpless and vulnerable as her opponent cowardly attacked her from behind.

The indignant squawk Cindy made as Blade struck her rump was equal parts pain, embarrassment, and rage - while she certainly had a fair bit of padding in that particular area, such protection could only do so much, and the pain spread through her hips.

From ringside, Bridget spoke Cindy’s feeling’s succinctly. ”You whore, attacking my sister from behind. Coward!” She screeched at Blade and wagged a finger her way. ”Shame! Shame!”

Brash impulsiveness along with childish antics certainly weren't the trademark characteristics of a hardened W.A. veteran who was typically lumped into the same caliber of competitor as Mighty Yukiko and Chris Morgan. But in Blade's unique case, being an impish brat at heart helped differentiate herself from those uptight "professionals" who probably forgot what it meant to even have fun in this business.

And for Blade, at that moment nothing could have possibly brightened her day more or made her smile wider than tanning Cindy's hide in front of a clamoring audience whose raucous cheers indicated that Blade wasn't alone in taking immense satisfaction from the cheeky offensive.

Except that Blade's own personal enjoyment from taking the stuffing out of this uptight China doll was quickly hampered by the shrieking ravings at ringside. Blade bristled from the "whore" and "coward" jabs, not really sure which one pissed her off more. The scrappy vet was seeing red all the same as she stomped over towards Bridget, now balancing herself on the bottom rope before politely retorting.

"WHY DON'TCHA GET THE HELL OUTTA HERE BEFORE I STUFF THOSE OX-THINGS RIGHT UP YOUR ASS!!!" Blade bellowed back while pointing her index finger towards the ramp. Now glaring fiercely at the Won Sibling below her before the referee used herself as a human barrier to separate Blade from the ringside ropes. Her fixated scowl centering on Bridget as she gradually backpedaled on her re-approach towards Cindy. After what was close to thirty seconds of time apart, Blade eventually guided Cindy back to her feet by her arm and attempted a rudimentary headlock. Her blood still boiling from Bridget and her her big fat mouth...

...wait, was that Game Of Thrones she was quoting?