Workouts and First Acquaintances

Kyo was definitely smiling now as Crista made her suggestion. He had to admire the girl's bravery for wanting to take the both of them on, not to mention her practicality for wanting to get the tough, tag-team training out of the way now. He nodded as Crista held up her fingers.

"Three rounds sounds fine," he said, pulling at the edges of his shirt, and, wordlessly, sliding it off...now giving Crista a look at the finely muscled and tattooed body underneath as he was left wearing only a simple pair of black gym shorts. Next to him, Makie did the same, quickly sliding off her everyday clothes to reveal the white sports bra and boy shorts she'd been wearing underneath.





"I have to ask though," he said, remaining nonchalant even as he got shirtless, "how do you want to do this? If you want to do a straight up submission spar, with no punches or kicks, and only grappling holds, then..." He gestured to the blue mats lining the floor, "this is as good a place as any. If you want to do this pro style, though..." He gestured to the wrestling ring at the far end of the room, "we should do this up there. It's up to you."

Were Crista more crude, she might have whistled.

The two appeared to be in agreement with her proposition, with the way they lost their street clothes immediately upon the words leaving her mouth. What they revealed were impressive bodies, Kyo with lean muscle and Makie with athletic curves, and Crista took in each of them with a smile.

Kyo presented a reasonable question, and Crista twisted her mouth while she considered it. It was submissions that she wished on, but she doubted that it would be a perfect situation if she fought two people where she could rely on grounding and grinding on both of them. But, she was quite confident in her standing game. With both ideas sounding worthwhile, Crista let another factor make the decision for her. What sounded more fun? After this week, she needed some of that, and with these two being so kind, it seemed the time to let loose.

The answer to her question was obvious, and she tilted her head towards the mats on the floor around them. "Let's grapple here. For that matter, why don't we start on our knees?"

Kyo nodded. It had been far too long since he had a proper ground and pound battle on the mats, matching strength and skill against a tough, muscular opponent like Crista. Tough, muscular, and attr-- 

"So...ahem...anyway," he said, trying to interrupt his own trail of thought as he blushed ever so slightly, "I, um...say we keep things fair. Instead of the both of us against you, I suggest we have it so that either Makie or I can tag in the other at any time. Also, if the fight goes off the mat, that's out of bounds and considered a rope break. Does that sound fair?"

"Does to me," Makie replied, before nonchalantly moving past her brother and walking onto the mats. Without even waiting for Kyo's opinion on the matter, she knelt down on the mats opposite Crista. "You ready to do this?" she asked, a defiant grin lighting her face. If she was intimidated at all by Crista's size or muscle mass, then she definitely wasn't showing it.

Filled with eagerness, Crista had not one complaint with Ryo's expansion of the rules and gave him a nod. "That sounds perfectly fair to me." While she knew it wouldn't always be that she could fight two people who would tag in and out, and experience had proven that, it was much more practical for practice than her having to wear herself out holding off two people at once. Crista wouldn't gain much when she was having herself bent in two different directions. When Makie echoed her agreement, too, it sounded like all was settled. Crista could not resist an excited smirk to cross her face while she watched Makie step up first, with a smile on her face.

Returning the smile, Crista strode over to the mat in front of her, getting down onto her knees slowly and settling her hands on her hips again. This petite woman had confidence and spunk, that much was certain, and that was something Crista could greatly appreciate. She was going to enjoy getting to tangle with her, and with both of them, for that matter. They certainly both had her attention. "Am I ever ready", Crista assured her.

Before she crouched down, she glanced over at Ryo for one more thought. "Whichever one of you is on the sidelines, you can call the rope breaks." Her eyes turned back to Makie briefly, before she smirked at Ryo and, in amusement, added, "But no sibling favoritism." Her stare was chastising.

With all that said, it was time for the action. With a roll of the neck, Crista shuffled on all fours closer to Makie until the two of them were within arm's reach, and she again nodded at the smaller woman. "Let's go."

Kyo watched as Makie and Crista settled onto the mat opposite each other. Admittedly, he would have preferred to take Crista on first, but he still had faith in Makie's abilities-- he had helped train her himself, after all-- and knew she could hold her own against a larger opponent. As the two girls squared off, he flinched a little at Crista's comment. "What.....I wouldn't..." he started to protest, but then calmed down when he realized that Crista had been kidding. Makie merely gave him a nonchalant shrug of her shoulders, before turning back to face Crista.

This close to the Chinese girl, Makie got a much better look at just how muscular and lean the other girl was-- she wasn't just powerful, she looked decently fast as well. In a ring, Makie would have been able to rely on quick strikes and aerial moves, but here, she was going to be grappling against a much more powerful opponent. Her heartbeat steadied as she edged closer to Crista, dabbing out tentatively with her arms as she tested Crista's reactions...before suddenly shooting forward, aiming to snap an arm around Crista's collar before shooting her legs up around one of her arms, hoping her momentum would be enough to take Crista down onto her back.

Tension mounted as Crista and Makie neared each other, but Crista ogled the other woman from the neck down to her hips to watch for a first move and kept her hands raised to grasp at any hands that sought to grasp at her. Concentration won out as she wondered how she should go about, if Makie waited long enough to offer Crista the first move. Should she go for the simple power move, and try to grasp Makie around the stomach to pin her down? Or should she go for the more technical maneuver, since she needed the practice in locking those in...

Makie made the decision for her, and proved Crista's assumptions that she was quick.

Crista slapped at the arm that Makie extended at her upper chest, and though she hit it, she did not stop it before it hooked her. She clenched her teeth and started to retaliate, but before she could solve the first problem, she felt muscle coil around one of her arms, robbing her of its use. One hand on the mat couldn't keep her upright, and she fell backwards, Makie crossed over her upper body with a leggy grip on her arm.

Very nice. She had picked the right partners, she thought to herself, as she looked up at the light.

But she did not linger. A burst of power into her free arm took her shoulder off the mat, and she started to try and get enough leverage to turn both of them over and leave Makie her back. She searched for the back of Makie's shorts with the hand of her constricted arm to help get that leverage, but she couldn't quite reach them, instead brushing skin.

Makie's heart pounded with exhilaration as she got the first takedown of the match, snaring the unsuspecting Crista's arm and then flipping the taller girl to the mat in an expertly executed armbar. In an instant, the Chinese girl was on her back, Makie's legs entwining her trapped limb as Makie kept a solid grip on her forearm. From here she could easily start twisting on Crista's wrist and wring an early submission out of her. She debated doing so-- on the one hand, she would feel bad about forcing a submissions so early after she had agreed to help Crista. On the other hand, Crista looked tough enough to take it.

Crista solved the dilemma for her by suddenly powering sideways towards her, getting a shoulder off the mat as she forced Makie further onto her back. "Tch..." Makie grimaced as she felt her legs being rolled up...and blushed as she felt Crista's trapped hand probing her naked thigh. She tried to get her breathing under control at this stage. "H-hey, cut that out!"

Not waiting to be rolled up into a pin by Crista, Makie twisted her entire body, hoping to use the grip on Crista's trapped arm to flip her over onto her front while maintaining the body scissor. If Makie managed this, then, breathing steadily, she would unhook one leg and instead try to latch it around Crista's head, closing the back of her knee around her head or throat in a vice and leaning back a little to pull on her toes to crank the hold.

The move would require a lot of flexibility from her, but it would also, hopefully, keep Crista on the back foot, so to speak.

...Certainly not Makie's shorts she was grabbing, judging by the reaction.

Nonetheless, Crista continued fighting, turning over onto one of her knees to complete the transition where she was on top. Makie still had her arm, in a now-uncomfortable position, but Crista could yank out of her grip if she got onto both of her knees. Small groans of effort slipped from her lips as she got to her knee, her foot...

A wrench on her arm made those groans a moan, and she lost her balance enough for Makie to flip her back down, now landing on her stomach. She was technically over Makie, yes, but in no advantageous position with no hand beneath her. The mistake was noted. Crista should have used her weight better, and instead, it had been used against her. With her failure, she could only stare down the length of the smaller woman's legs while she rallied for her next move.

She got a closer look. Makie lifted her nearest leg, and before Crista could respond, the woman had the leg curved around Crista's face, a thigh on one cheek and a calf on the other. A fantastic place to be were the circumstances any different, but as it was, Crista did not have the time to dwell, only to get her free hand up to pull at the calf. Too late, though, as the muscles bulged to lock her in. Her lower face was pinched tightly enough, and her head bent back far enough, that she let a cry into the back of Makie's knee.

Makie had only ever practiced that move before, and had never once had the opportunity to test it out on an actual opponent. As such, she was just as surprised as Crista that she managed to pull it off, but she wasn't about to waste time being impressed with herself. Pulling back on her leg to cinch the hold tighter, she arched her body off the mat, squeezing Crista's head in the crook of her leg as she heard the Chinese girl give a muffled scream. She could feel Crista pawing at her leg as she no doubt began to feel the pressure.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to do this until you pass out," Makie said to her opponent, before adding with a cheeky grin that Crista couldn't see, "but if I were you, I'd think about tapping." She kept in mind, though, that her opponent was still fresh, and that they weren't too far from the boundaries of the mat...

Crista didn't even recognize the hold that she was locked within.

She only knew that Makie needed only a single leg to leave Crista shamefully yanking at the smaller woman's swelling calf in a futile search for an escape. She didn't have her other hand to help her escape through pure strength, either, as her effort to move it told the ex-volleyball star that the arm remained beneath the offensive leg and lay over Makie's back. While the suffering was not unbearable, the suddenness of her predicament had her flustered, and she panted and sighed stifled, soft moans. Her free hand searched higher for a means to escape.

It wrapped around Makie's hand, and then her foot, and she cleared her mind enough to gather how Makie had trapped her. The leg wrapped around her head...while Makie, to crank on the pressure, had grasped her own toes and used her own body as a flexible restraint where her more petite size didn't matter. And she was using that petite body to control Crista's. In fact, she had left Crista nearly helpless, all her advantages stripped from her while she lay draped on her stomach, muscular legs writhing against the mat behind her and in no range to do any damage. Crista found herself admiring...and when she heard Makie's words, that told her the smaller woman knew she held control, she found her body tingling, too.

Did she tap? Realistically, what could she do from here? She wouldn't, yet...stubbornness denied logic. But, unable to help herself, her hand moved down from fingering and pulling at Makie's grip on her own foot to rest on the strong thigh constricting her, no longer prying but perhaps momentarily betraying her resignation to her fate...and her admiration.