SD III: Mariko Ishii vs. Ninjette

Mariko was too dazed to even notice the ref's count, though she wouldn't have been any more certain of its significance than Kozue was. Regardless, had the positions been reversed, she would've reacted the same way her foe did. This was a smother match after all. The last thing anyone would want was to risk even one round of this ending on something like a countout or disqualification.

She could only groan as Kozue's teased her with the same words Mariko had just uttered moments ago, even doing her best attempt at imitating her voice. The slap to her rear made Mariko's body jolt slightly, but that aside she offered no resistance while Kozue dragged her up and threw her back in under the bottom rope.

Mariko rolled a couple times before coming to a stop on her back, arms still wrapped protectively over her head. She had a good feeling that throbbing pain would be lingering a good while, and doubted there was anything she could do about it. But at the same time, she was still going to need a moment before she could think about trying to get up and fight back again.

Kozue chewed her lip for a moment as she rolled Mariko back into the ring. She rolled in far, but not too far, coming to arrest on her back on what she liked to call the ‘sweet spot’ - the magic part of the ring where she just far enough to be hit with a good springboard move without it fucking up.

Assuming she didn't move out of the way.

Mariko had proven to be tough, easily the strongest female opponent she'd ever faced and more hardcore than even some of the males. Not only that, but she was smart - she could've been playing possum. Just rolling to that spot on purpose. That'd be a very ‘Mariko’ thing of her to do. Then again, worrying too much about that sort of thing wasn't a very ‘Kozue’ thing. So.

She crawled up on the ring apron, gripped the top rope tight, leaned back, and hurled her herself into the ring, diving headfirst toward Mariko like a human missile. At the last second, snapped her body forward in a hard roll, trying to come crashing down on her chest with a Swanton Bomb.

Which wouldn't feel great for her aching back, now that Kozue thought about it. Oh, well.

Ironically enough, if Mariko had been playing possum, everything likely would've looked exactly as it currently did. She'd probably be laying prone in the same position, just waiting for Kozue to take the bait and dive at her only to spring a trap at the last second.

But as it was, the Japanese beauty was too stunned to bother attempting to track Kozue's movements, much less plan an effective counter. She didn't see her foe take flight once again, but she damn sure felt every bit of the impact when she landed.

"GUH!!" she gasped out when Kozue crashed back first right on top of her. The moment the brunette was off of her Mariko's arms moved from her still-hurting head to her now-hurting ribcage, though the expression of anguish she'd had seconds ago lingered while she writhed around on the mat.

Mariko didn't move, thank God, so Kozue’s landing wasn't as hard as it could've been. That didn't mean all that much, though - while she was soft, it wasn't like coming down on a mattress. Every aching bone in her body lit up on touchdown, and for one hellish second, it felt like her body was burning from the inside out.

She didn't roll off Mariko’s body so much as she spasmed off it, jerking about on the floor in wild fits. But, as bad as she was, Mariko was worse. Which meant she wasn't even close to done.

”Almost there.” She tried to push up to her feet, only to fall back to her knees after a strenuous moment. ”One more move, then one more nap.” She got it on the second try. ”Then we go home, clean up, I can come over to your place…” She grabbed Mariko by the foot and dragged her into position, getting her parallel with the turnbuckle. ”We can play some games. I'm thinking Mario Kart. In that kind of mood.”

With that done, she turned away from Mariko and starts to ascend the turnbuckle, though it was taking her longer than she would like. This was her first multi-round match, and she was really feeling it. It wasn't just about getting the bragging rights anymore or even getting to be Mariko’s guest - she wanted to end this before her body caved in.

There was a brief moment during which Mariko's mind was distracted from the intense pain surging through her upper body. It came while Kozue was dragging her along the mat toward the corner and suggested a game of Mario Kart later. Mariko had never played Mario Kart. Not even once. It wasn’t that she had anything against it, or videogames in general. She and Yamato had gone to arcades every now and then, but they hadn’t really had any of their own growing up. Yamato finally got a PS3 for Christmas one year, but Mariko hardly ever touched the thing herself.

She wondered what in the world Kozue would think about all of that.

But Mariko couldn’t really give a response to her foe’s words, aside from a weak groan. Not that that was in any way related to what Kozue was suggesting. Just a reflection of the wear and tear the match was having on her. Regardless, once she came to a stop Mariko’s mind snapped right back to reality; specifically, the reality that she was in a very tight spot and in serious danger of losing this match. She half expected Kozue to come crashing onto her any moment with some new piece of high flying destruction. But she didn’t. After a few moments the exhausted Japanese beauty looked up and saw Kozue was trudging up to the top rope at a snail’s pace. She was every bit as worn out as Mariko, possibly even more so. After all, Kozue’s reckless dives and blinding speed had taken a toll on her that Mariko didn’t necessarily have to worry about for herself. But just because Kozue was slowing down didn’t mean Mariko was safe. For that she’d need to bring her foe down from that dangerously high altitude, and she had just the thing in mind. It’d be difficult, and risky. But the potential reward was too much to ignore.

Grunting through the effort as she moved, Mariko slowly dragged herself onto her hands and knees and crawled over to the corner, grabbed the ropes, and started to climb. Moving as quickly as her weary limbs would carry her, she threw a stiff forearm strike directly at Kozue’s jaw, hoping to stun her long enough to allow her to ascend to the top rope. Once there she’d grab her foe’s head before jumping up and throwing her legs around the girl’s head and neck, and attempting to bring Kozue crashing down to the mat with a top rope hurricanrana, keeping her legs locked and rolling through the momentum to end up seated astride her upper chest and neck! If that worked, she’d immediately hook one of her arms around Kozue’s, hyperextending the limb, while shifting forward to plant her crotch right over the Ninjette’s mouth and nose. This was a finishing hold Mariko had only recently developed, Heaven & Hell. The name represented the pleasure experienced through the facesit, and torture the victim is put through with the smother/arm lock combo.

A lot had to go right for Mariko to pull this off. But if all the pieces fell into place, Mariko was confident it would be exactly what she’d need to secure this round in her favor.

Ugh, it was stupid, but the part Kozue hated most about high-risk moves - yes, even more than going splat all the time - was getting up the damn turnbuckle in the first place. It was harder than it looked, particularly when you were tired and sweaty and the ropes were getting slippery and your head was spinning for six different reasons.

Kozue wanted to do a 630° Splash, so she’d attempted to go up the ropes facing Mariko. That was a no-go, so she turned away to make the climb, the turned back around when she was up at the top, sitting pretty on the highest turnbuckle pad.

There was only one problem when she turned around, though: Mariko wasn’t on the floor anymore. She was up. She was close. In fact, she was right in Kozue’s face, hitting her with a wild forearm.

The blow crashed into Kozue’s face and sent her reeling, so bad that she might well have fallen off and taken a nasty spill on the staircase. Luckily, Mariko grabbed her by the head before that could happen, saving her. Temporarily.

The next thing Kozue knew, she was being hurled through the air with the third hurricanrana of the match, this one executed by Mariko’s purple-clad thighs. It would’ve been bad enough if it was just a top-rope hurricanrana, hammering her into the canvas with monstrous force. It would’ve been bad enough if there was a smother on top of it, covering up Kozue’s mouth and nose. Hell, that would’ve been fair play, considering how she got the first fall.

But nope. Mariko was nothing if not creative. She added an effective armbar to the mix, one that had Kozue screaming and squealing underneath. Muffled cries filled the ring as her body fought for air and release. Her legs rapidly kicked about, her spare fist battered the mat, she tried to twist her head to the side, but couldn’t  steal a single wisp.

Mariko was everywhere. Mariko was everything. Mariko was crushing her.

“High risk” was rarely something that could be used to describe Mariko during her matches. Just about everything she did was precise and carefully calculated, and left as little to chance as she possibly could. But in this moment, danger and uncertainty were simply unavoidable no matter what she did. If she took too long trying to recover, she could wind up having Kozue flying onto her again. If she tried to wait til the last second to move out of the way, she might mistime it or find all too late that she didn’t have the strength in her to move where she needed to. And the risks only doubled once she’d ascended to fight Kozue on the top rope. There were seemingly countless ways this could potentially end with Mariko taking a nasty fall and winding up in even worse shape than she’d been in seconds ago.

But, of all the possible routes this could’ve taken, Mariko managed to bring about the single best outcome she could’ve imagined. It had hurt and put a strain on her tired body, but she’d tossed Kozue off the top rope with her hurricanrana, and from there locking in her finisher had been a simple matter. And while she had no intention of seriously injuring the beautiful brunette trapped beneath her, Mariko simply couldn’t deny she was enjoying this quite a bit.

“Mmm, that’s nice~” Mariko purred, closing her eyes and smiling as Kozue’s muffled screams vibrated wonderfully against her, and the girl’s thrashing about made her face rub up tightly against Mariko’s panty-clad sex. Unable to resist, she slowly began to grind over her foe’s face. She couldn’t remember ever being this turned on in such a competitive bout, but clearly that wasn’t bothering her one bit. And after a moment, she’d stare down at the hazel eyes peeking up at her from between her thighs, and grin.

“Sweet dreams~” she teased, repeating Kozue’s final words to her in the first round, now just waiting for her opponent to drift into slumber.

Abruptly, out of nowhere, Kozue’s  struggling stopped.

 It wasn't because she'd gone unconscious, as Mariko could likely see from her position. It wasn't even because she'd lost the energy to fight. Her eyes were still open, though they had already began to dim just a bit. But she was still aware of her environment. Enough to take in everything going on around her. Enough to enjoy it.

That was the reason her struggling stopped. She realized that there was no way she was getting out of this, that her naptime was inevitable, so she decided to make the most of it, instead of wasting energy she'd need in the next round. 

Instead she spent her time doing more productive things, like moaning against Mariko’s thinly veiled sex, like running her lips along it, like reaching up and running a hand over a smooth thigh and making sure they both enjoyed this. 

And, as she began to fade out and her eyes closed, she began to run her tongue along the clothe, working her way around Mariko’s bottom,worming her way to the flesh underneath, getting close to the real thing, so close, until…

Nothing. She was out. Mariko had scored the second point, and they were all tied up.

When Kozue’s struggling came to an abrupt stop, Mariko immediately looked down to see if her foe had been knocked out. It would have been peculiarly soon if that had been the case, enough so that the violet haired beauty would have suspected Kozue was just playing possum. But quickly she learned that wasn’t so at all.

The muffled moans made wonderful vibrations against her sex, and the sensation was only heightened while Kozue ran her lips back and forth. The hand caressing her thigh was like icing on the cake. Her rival hadn’t tapped out, but this was submission at its absolute finest. And the growing wetness between Mariko’s legs, coupled with the soft moans that continued to slip through her lips while she ground her hips over Kozue’s face, showed perfectly clearly how much she was appreciating it. She even rewarded Kozue by no longer applying pressure to her armlock, though she kept the limb trapped and secured just in case.

Then she felt the girl’s tongue snake its way up, first pressing directly against Mariko’s panty-covered sex, before starting to push the thin fabric aside. She bit her bottom lip, and could feel herself quickly building up to a blissful climax. The rest of the match leading up to this moment had already taken her far, and now she felt so close. But just before she could be pushed over the edge…

Ding ding ding!

Kozue had finally gone limp, and the ref called for the bell, bringing round two to an end. Mariko clicked her tongue, and looked down at the unconscious face peeking out between her legs.

“God, you’re evil.”

She was painfully tempted to stay seated on Kozue’s face and work herself to an orgasm anyway. It wouldn’t have taken long. But that would’ve come far closer to crossing the line into sexual assault, or even rape, than she particularly would’ve cared for. Besides, it probably wouldn’t do her any favors from a stamina standpoint going into the final round. So, with no small amount of reluctance, Mariko groaned and crawled forward, brushing her sex over Kozue’s face one last time before she was off of her completely.

Round one had gone to Kozue, round two to Mariko, which meant this third and final round was going to decide the winner. But for now, they had to wait for the Ninjette to wake up before that final round could commence. Mariko pulled herself to her feet and moved into her corner, pulling herself up to sit on the top turnbuckle, where she crossed one leg over the other and rested her hands on the ropes. The match had tired her considerably, and she was going to enjoy the next few moments she had to rest and recover.

Consciousness came back to Kozue, though not all at once. For her, it was sense by sense.

First, she heard the murmur of the crowd, the dull din all around the ring as they got settled for the final round. The match had been intense so far, more than you'd ever expect from a fight that revolved around the results of an internet poll, and there was a palpable energy in the air. Tension was earning its name.

Then, she tasted the arousal on her lips and sniffed it in her nose, a reminder of who had just put her to sleep and what was used to do it. Not that she needed to be reminded on that fact - the image of Mariko looming above, looking down on her like some lofty sex goddess while she faded into darkness, that was something that was going to stay etched in her brain for all of eternity. The way she had been working herself to a climax, using Kozue’s face like a toy…

That was enough to make her notice that, even though her face was hardly dry, it wasn’t as drenched as it would’ve been if Mariko had finished her business. Which raised another important question: where was Mariko?

She sat up with a sudden jerk and put her head on a swivel, looking left and right, and until she spotted Mariko sitting pretty on the top turnbuckle. For a second, she couldn’t help but look astonished at her - the way the light cast off her body as she sat above, the regal look on her face, the calm, serene control she radiated, it all washed over her at once. She didn’t just like Mariko or think she was a sensual beast. She respected her. And that just made her want to win this so much more.

When that moment passed, her wicked smile returned, and she went back to business. ”Enjoy yourself?” She pushed her way back up and walked backwards towards her corner as the referee moved between them.  She never let Mariko out of her sight, not even for a second. Not because she didn’t trust her, but because she wanted to stay wholly focused on her target. No distractions. Until the final fall, only her, Mariko, and the referee existed throughout the entire universe.