Debut! Masuyo Ai vs Valley Doll

Masuyo always enjoyed having some back and forth between her opponent. It  Valley’s statement made her tense, however. This was a trap. She wouldn’t be goading Masuyo like that in her state without some kind of counter in mind. It demanded a cautious approach, more so than usual this late into the match. Maybe wait for her to try and make the first move. The momentum was in her favor, after all, given the hurt she was putting on her.

Still, this could be a golden opportunity for her. Her opponent was leaning on the ropes. Tired, on edge, and perhaps even a little intimidated. Giving her time to recover wasn’t the best idea either. If Masuyo could sneak past whatever counter she had in mind, Valley would be vulnerable. Then maybe she could pound her against the post or something. Get her out of the corner and onto the canvas. Ah, forget it. It was better to just play this by ear. The adrenaline flooding her body wasn’t letting her think straight.

“Tch. Alright, I’m bringing you down.”

Edging closer and closer to the recovering champion, she raised her arms, keeping her hands open for a counter. Her eyes studied Valley’s legs, certain that that was where the attack was coming from. It was her strong point, after all, and getting caught by those pythons was almost begging to be killed.

Once she was close enough, Masuyo would lunge forward, attempting to wrap her arms around Valley’s waist. Pressing hard against her at first, she would try and pull her from the corner if the lockup was made.

Valley sighed as Masuyo began to edge her way, moving carefully, slowly, methodically. Days like this, she found herself missing the more gung-ho wrestlers she took on in her early days, the ones who would come charging her way at full steam and give her opportunities to exploit. Masuyo was a different breed, one that was showing up more and more these days. ‘Smart’ rookies. Good for the sport, but no less of a pain.

Well, this was happening, and she was dealing with it. Masuyo came in slow and low, then lunged forward and took Valley as the waist, yanking her roughly out of the corner. A good choice, whether she realized it or not - when it came to these MMA types, the ropes were Valley’s best friend.

That didn’t mean she was out of options, though, or that she’d just let herself be womanhandled by this mauler.

Easy to think that, harder to do. As Masuyo pulled her away from the ropes, Valley tried resisting for an instant before she just gave up on. She was too strong to overpower, and when the two of them were linked, Valley was going where she wanted to go.

But she could work with that. As Masuyo pulled her out, Valley pushed down on her from above, then suddenly leaped forward, trying to free herself from the demoness’ grasp and vault over her. She tumbled forward and attempted to grab Masuyo by the legs as she rolled, trying to pull her over as flew. If it all worked out, she’d come down in a sit and her opponent would fall on her back between her legs - once more in a pinned position.

Masuyo was beginning to even impress herself now. It looked like she, quite literally, had the blonde on the ropes. Her cautious approach seemed to pay off when she managed to pull the champion away from the safety of the ropes. Valley’s brief attempt at resistance was all for naught. For a moment, she thought she had her, and planned on simply strangling her life away with a bear hug before slamming her to death. Like always, however, she was getting ahead of herself.

In one swift motion, Valley used her momentum, height, and weight against her. Flying over Masuyo and seamlessly slamming her into a pin. Even the MMA Demon, hardened and shaped by the octagon, had to admit how cool it was to both see and feel. Well, not feel per se. More admiring her finesse and physique. Now the pain. That wasn’t so pleasant.

The audience was certainly impressed. No doubt that was a stunning turnaround. The view must have been spectacular from their perspective. For Masuyo, however, all she felt was a warm grip on her legs, and was suddenly flipped onto the mat all in a sudden blur. Letting out a pained cry, she shook and fought the pin as the referee made the first count.

ONE!

With one strong effort, she kicked out and tumbled forward away from Valley. Scrambling away onto her feet, she glared at the woman from a crouched position. Her instincts told her to retaliate, but her body had other plans for in mind.

The blood was swashing around in her brain. The world swirled and turned around her. Closing her eyes and clenching her teeth, she felt the back of her head as she rose to her feet. The nausea from that sudden flip combined with the horrible impact left her head in utter disarray. Her fatigue only served to make matters worse. Her brain wasn’t getting the oxygen she needed to get her back in the fight right away. Backing away and wanting to lean against the ropes, she kept her arms low and one eye focused on the aerial master.

One count, and-

Valley clicked her tongue as Masuyo managed to beat another count, this one before the referee could even hit the mat a second time. Unlike her previous attempts, Valley had a distant hope that this one might be surprising enough, fast enough to surprise her and secure the win. Instead, she not only escaped, but escaped sooner than before. She was getting diminishing returns. Not a good sign.

But whatever. Masuyo was on the ropes now, in both senses of the phrase. She was hurting. They were both hurting, but the Demoness was the one on the defensive for the moment. A window was open now. A small window, sure, but a window nonetheless, and she aimed to jump through it.

It wasn’t easy. It wasn’t fun. But Valley rolled off her back and popped to her feet, setting Masuyo firmly in her sights. Target acquired, ready to fire.

A deep breath, a quick yell, and Valley charged forward at full speed, rapidly coming down on Masuyo. When she was close enough, she leaped up, shot her feet on in unison, and attempted to dropkick her opponent in the chest, hoping to see her flying through the ropes and out of the ring.

Masuyo kept breathing heavily in and out. She stopped suddenly as she saw her opponent charging towards her with that psyched yell. Her mind was busy and her body delayed. There was too much damage to repair. Too much spent energy to renew. Nevertheless, she braced herself for the impact. Putting one arm in front of her while another clutched the rope, she aimed to parry whatever came her way.

That was, until Valley snapped into a dropkick, hitting her square in the chest. In the back of her mind, Masuyo was impressed by her nimbleness. Was she slowing down at all? At the very least, she seemed far from done.

Her grip on the rope loosened and all at once she was sent careening out of the ring. Flying out and towards the hard surface, she landed on her back and felt herself bound off the pavement. She let out a pained gasp and immediately arched her back. Almost instantly, she felt herself rolling over and attempting to face the ground, wanting to put as much pressure off her spine as possible. The pain, however, was still way too harsh and too new to allow her to make extended motions like that.

All she could do was focus on the stage lights fixed upon the ceiling, trying to simultaneously distract and adjust to the pain. The impact of the dropkick was working horrors upon her chest. It stung to the touch and pulsed in agony with every breath, every rise and fall of her upper body. Wiping away a trail of saliva running down her face, Masuyo clenched her teeth and forced her eyes shut. With great effort she slowly heaved herself forward, trying to slowly bring herself back upright, wanting to work to her feet.

An intense heat welled in her hands as she tightened her fists and resolved to get back in the ring.

I’ve taken worse. I’ve taken worse. I’ve taken worse.

Valley managed to hit with the dropkick. That was  good thing.

Doing so forced her to land on her back, which shook up her ribs and reminded her of the brutal squeezing she’d taken a moment ago. That was bad.

The two of them hadn’t been wrestling for longer than five minutes, but Valley swore it felt three times as long. She started to stand, only to stumble a bit as she put too much pressure on her leg - the kneebar coming back to haunt her, another gift from Masuyo. She hissed and pushed past it, getting up to her feet so she could survey the damage she’d done.

Her opponent was clearly hurting, definitely rocked by the experience, but the woman was nothing if not persistent. She was getting up. She’d be back in soon, and once more Valley would have to take her head on. She’d done well so far, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that the Demoness was learning on the fly, getting wise to her tricks as time went on. Which meant it was time she stopped with the old reliables and started bringing out some of the bigger guns.

Valley backed away, taking careful steps towards the center of the ring. Once she reached it, she stopped, and the crowd started to murmur with anticipation. No doubt they were expecting her to run Masuyo’s way the moment she stood up, do some kind of high-flying stunt over the ropes.

And Valley did break into a run as Masuyo began to stand up, but she didn’t go straight towards her opponent. Instead, she ran to the corner, used the ropes to pull herself up to the turnbuckle in a single bound, turned away from her opponent and backflipped off the turnbuckle. She soared in an arc, high and far, throwing caution the wind as she came down on Masuyo with a Golden Triangle Moonsault.

It was taking every bit of energy Masuyo had to bring herself to her feet. She was just barely making her way to a crouching position when she heard the crowd roaring for some reason. Her eyes trailed over to the audience, then snapped back to the ring. Valley had disappeared. Nowhere at the corners, at the announcer’s table, behind the barricades. Where did she-

It dawned on her quite suddenly the next moment. By that time, the champion was already in flight. She looked like an angel, descending on the Demon like that. Arms wide, her outline illuminated against the bright stage lights. It was only a brief image Masuyo caught before trying to get away. The best she could manage, however, was a few inches at best. Her body moved like a giant sack of bricks. Valley caught her head and forced her back onto the ground.

The impact made her shudder. All of Masuyo’s progress had been undone and, at the same time, made to work against her. Her arms and legs were stretched out as if she were a child about to flail them about to make a snow angel. She felt numb and her head was throbbing. Valley was gone. The audience and the ring had all vanished. The only thing she could see through her narrow eyelids were the faint lights above her. For the longest time, she couldn’t even register any sort of danger. She couldn’t register much of anything really.

Still, those words kept repeating in her mind.

I’ve taken worse. I’ve taken worse. I’ve taken worse.

Mustering whatever energy she could, she wanted to get back up. To fight back and be proud of herself. With each breath, she felt herself coming closer and closer back to life.

Don’t do that high-flying stuff, Valley’s mother had said. Stay in the ring whenever you can, her mother had said. Why would anyone jump out of a perfectly good ring unless it was on fire, her mother had said.

There were days when Valley Jr. wished she’d taken more of Valley Sr.’s advice. This, as it happened, was one of them.

She’d landed on top of Masuyo in more or less the way she’d intended, so that was a good turn of events, but the price she’d paid for using such a move was heavy. The Demoness was nowhere near as soft as she looked, and she didn’t really look that soft to begin with. After they crashed in a tangle of limbs, there was a moment where it was impossible to tell who’d gotten the worst of it. They just laid there, not getting up, even as the crowd roared around them.

By a small miracle, though, Valley started to rise up first, groggily getting up to one foot, then the other. She was so out of it that she didn’t even realize the referee had started counting.

”3!”

Not until just now. Her first instinct was to just slide back into the ring and see if Masuyo had it in her to make it back inside, but she brushed the thought aside just as fast as it had come. She was a champion now, and champions didn’t win matches over countout.

After a long, resigned sigh, Valley reached down and grabbed Masuyo by the hair, trying to tug her back up to her feet and roll her into the ring. ”In you go, come on.”

Okay, she was just managing to bring back some semblance of consciousness now. Forcing her eyes to open, Masuyo’s senses steadily returned to her. The lights above her seemed to grow brighter as the darkness receded. Then, all at once, they disappeared and she was left staring at the ground. An outside force seemed to be pulling her back into reality. Quite literally pulling on her, it seems.

With every passing second, familiar images returned to Masuyo. The sounds, the audience, and the ring. Her legs wobbled lazily beneath her as she clung to something for support, which in turn clung to her luscious raven locks. As though she were floating, she was was sent rolling underneath the ropes and onto the mat. The moment she fully realized what was happening, she was already on her back. A bit of relief washed over her that she was managing to avoid the countdown.

Then, the warning lights began to flash in her mind. The potential for danger snapped to the forefront of her thoughts. Her opponent was most definitely preparing for a follow up. Never once did she forget that there was still a match going on. With her senses returning to her for the most part, her eyes hastily darted back and forth, searching for Valley whilst laying still on the ground.

The pain still felt as fresh as it was before that aerial display of hers. It was taking a little getting used to, but she had no intention of surrendering just yet. Masuyo primed her body internally, ready to retaliate whenever the chance arose.

It was no small task getting Masuyo back in that ring, and when she finally pulled it off, Valley had to take a moment to slump against the ring apron. The newcomer wasn't stout, not at all, and she wasn't even that tall, but people often forgot that muscle weighed more than fat, and her opponent was built like a literal brick house. Who knew how much energy she'd wasted in this match simply from the effort of moving her around?

”Okay." She huffed and puffed. "Okay Valley.” She took in deep breaths as she reached up to grab the bottom rope, pulling herself up to the apron. Her body was clearly wanting little more than to take a few seconds of rest, but her mind knew better. This was an opening. This was momentum, swinging in her favor. If she lost it now, would she ever get it back?

Not likely. Strike while the iron’s hot.

Staying true to her high risk style, she didn't give it another thought beyond that. Valley gripped the top rope tight, steeled herself, then yanked hard and slingshoted herself into the ring headfirst, careening towards Masuyo’s downed form. At the last second she whipped her body around into a somersault, coming down with her back to crash on her opponent’s chest, looking to plant her with a Swanton Bomb.