Dire Straits

...wolf’s paw? Wolf’s ear? If they wanted her to be the wolf’s ass or the wolf’s sphincter or something like that, they could just go ahead and beat her up, because there was only so much even she was prepared to take...

She mulled that over as she continued with her squats, picking up the pace a bit at Yuki’s urging, and listening close - real close - with the way Yuki described their whole relationship. The more the blonde talked, the more she got the feeling that her earlier cult label hadn’t been too far off the mark. The way Yuki spoke, those reverent tones, were a lot creepier than Kaede wanted to let on. She didn’t want to go into details? Fine. She wasn’t all that sure she really wanted to know exactly what brought people together like this, what made them worship someone like Manami.

Though she had to admit, she still more than a little curious how someone nice and charming like Fumika had come to fall at Manami’s feet. That sounded like even more of a story.

But she’d save it for when she was alone and having sex with Fumika, when they hopefully reached that point. So far she wasn’t doing too bad, her body pulling through well despite all the trauma it had been through recently. She managed to get to 100 after a last minute spurt, then stood up straight for the final time and took another moment to catch her breath.

”Okay,” She gulped. ”Okay. I’m good, I’m good.” Kaede wiped the sweat off her brow and turned to Yuki, nodding. ”I’m ready, I’m not running. What’s next?”

Again, this girl was showing some serious tenacity. She blew through those squats like a champ, albeit faltering a bit towards the end. Yuki was starting to feel embarrassed for having doubts. This loud-mouthed brawler might actually be able to pull through. Only one way to find out, though.

“Hmph. Get ready, kid. This is where things get heavy.”

For the next couple of hours, time seemed to slow to a crawl as the two worked through one exercise after the other. Stretchers, presses, flexibility, everything Yuki’s mind could conceive she put Kaede through. It was getting hotter and hotter. Sweat was pouring off the both of them, despite Kaede putting in all of the effort. By the end of it, the room stank with concentrated effort. It was practically turning misty in here despite the open window. And it was still raining. Not that Yuki minded. She just leaned an arm against the pane, letting the cool air waft past her. Then she looked back at her watch. Almost done. Time to get ready for the last hurdle.

They didn’t have a ring, but the trio had always had their fair share of triple threat spars. Yuki brought in a mat while Kaede was occupied and managed to clear some of the equipment. While the karate recruit was pumping her legs with some leg presses against the wall, Yuki would lay out the mat, bringing the edges just beside her head.

She glanced at the girl before taking another look at her watch. Five. Four. Three. Two.

“And stop.”

Letting the would-be burglar drop her legs and catch her breath, she’d stretch her arms and legs out in preparation for their final workout. The one she'd been waiting for for a long time now. As soon as the punk finally got to her feet, that is.

So far, so good. At least, it could've been a fuckton worse, like what she was actually expecting.

It was hardly a fun, happy time for Kaede, no walk in the park by any decent definition.
Yuki worked her hard, pushed her to the max, and made she never gave an inch less than 100% - but, truth told, it was just a workout. Intense, sure, maybe hardest she'd ever done, but nothing she couldn't handle.

They went at it for hours, and when they finally reached the stopping time, Kaede was a sweaty mess, soaked from head to toe. But she was good, could still stand, and had some stamina left to spare. On top of that, the aches from her pulverizing punishment had mostly subsided, leaving her with a body that was as fresh and ready as it was ever going to get.

A good thing, too. For what came next, she would need every muscle she could spare.

She stood up and stretched as she looked at the mat, biting her lip with a bit of nervousness. Fighting Yuki in the ring wouldn't have been the greatest idea, but taking her on so close seem like an even worse one. With confines like this, there'd be nowhere to run, no space to maneuver, and she could just tell the blonde was ready to unleash hell.

Then again, it couldn't hardly be much worse than the alternative. In for a penny…

Kaede kicked off her shoes and stepped on the edge of the mat, letting her bare feet sink into the plush surface. After a deep breath, she took a bold step forward and raised her fists into a traditional karate stance. ”So what are the rules?”

This was going to be the toughest challenge for her. No doubt about that. Yuki had no intent on letting up and Kaede had the disadvantage of not having a whole ring to run away from her. In fact, she was within arms reach with her height advantage. She was brittle, small, and tired. She was practically begging to be slaughtered stepping up to the spar like this. She was twitching slightly, but that was more or less expected.

What was less expected was her readiness. The flare in her eyes and the composure across her face was one thing. But when she took that stance, the blonde bruiser's doubts were lifted. Albeit only by a smidgen, but still. If she was ready to rock, then Yuki was ready to roll. Honestly, if this girl actually managed to survive this, then there was some level of appreciation due.

“I want you to try and knock me over. Do that, you pass. No rules. You can punch, kick, and bite to your heart’s content. But I swear to god, if you’re one of those hentai sluts just keep your hands to yourself, or I’ll chop them the fuck off.”

With that, she raised her fists and edged a bit closer to the karate girl. Her eyes were glued to her opponents. Every inch of her muscles tensed beneath her skin. Anyone could feel the bloodlust radiating off her. This woman had no intention of holding back. And if this girl was smart, she would have already known that.

“Ready?”

Kaede wouldn't be given the chance to answer, however. Yuki instead would throw a strong right hook across her cheek. Time to test that little stance of hers. Was it just for show, or did she actually have some kind of technique hidden underneath that rough and tumble exterior?

It was a testament to Kaede’s growing self control that she didn’t mention how she’d already knocked Yuki over. See? She was learning. She was tempted to say it, but she didn’t.

A good thing, too, because she could tell that Yuki was pissed enough as it was. The woman clearly liked dishing out the pain - maybe not to the insane level of Manami, but far closer than most any sane person should’ve. Enough that she believed her - and gulped - when she said about cutting her hands off. Aside from that, though, the rules seemed doable. Just knock her down. All she had to do was put down the giant woman with more strength in one arm than she had in two. How hard could that-

”Guh!” Her thought train was derailed when a punch came her way, slicing in from the side. She had her guard up and managed to block it, but it was like trying to stop a bullet with tissue paper. The blow came through like her guard wasn’t even there and crashed into her cheek, with only a minimal lost in force.

Kaede spun about on her heel, stumbled to the side, nearly fell - but a second later, she was gathering her bearings and coming back on the attack. She went high, swinging out her arm in a wide arc, attempting to hit Yuki in the head with a quick backfist.

Huh, this girl could actually take a hit. Her fist connected with a pleasant smack and the girl took a tumble. Her skin rippled and she ler out a nice little cry to go along with it. Yuki almost give a smirk at the damage she was dealing. This punk wasn’t so tough. Her only talents were hiding in corners, waiting for someone as weak as her to take advantage of. But the woman before her was anything but an easy mark, and she intended to prove that here and now. With the girl's blood if need be.

Then came the backfist. She more or less saw it coming, somewhere in the back of her mind, but she more or less underestimated the speed of this girl. She was getting her second wind clearly and her lightness was working in her favor. Forgot to take that into account. And her fist came careening into her cheek with an audible smack. She winced a bit, and staggered back a step.

“Tch. That all you got?”

Without even bothering to close the distance, Yuki swung her leg wide while Kaede was still off balance. The air sliced between the motion of her powerful, tanned legs as they closed in on her adversary’s side. But she wasn’t satisfied with that. Once the kick connected, she’d follow it up with a powerful, downward strike, wanting to put her reeling opponent into the mat. The blonde bruiser had plenty of aggression to still let out, and she wanted this girl to get the message.

She was going to drive her into the dirt before this day was done.

Huh. That actually hit.

Kaede had wanted it to, obviously, so she supposed she shouldn’t have been surprised, but the impact of a blow like that wasn’t something that she got to experience too often. It probably wouldn’t have worked on Manami, and even though Yuki looked a bit bulkier than the Wolf Girl, she still seemed light on her feet. But no, the blow got through her defenses and landed with a solid, satisfying smack.

A direct hit. One that didn’t do much of anything. ”Shit-”

She’d already started to backpedal after the blow failed to do real damage, knowing that some retaliation was coming, but she wasn’t able to get far enough fast enough - the kick crashed into her side with a dull thwack, feeling like she taken a hit from a baseball bat. That would’ve been enough to put Kaede on the floor be itself, but Yuki ensured that would be the result with a strike to the top of her skull. It hit with tremendous force, enough to make Kaede flip forward and come down on her shoulders, legs flopping in the air.

That was where she stayed for a moment, too, reeling from the blow, before she rolled over to her knees...then promptly crawled forward, grabbing at Yuki’s legs in a mad attempt to drag her down to the floor.

“Are you fuckin’ serious?”

Kaede seems to have that she was down one arm. Not that it would really make that huge a difference, though. Her arms were too skinny. Not to mention, the muscular blonde had a good, let’s see, a good twenty pounds on her or so? And all of that weight was pure iron. Pure, unyielding, severely pissed off iron.

“You wanna play around? You seriously wanna play around?! Fine!”

Yuki was under the distinct impression now that she was being messed with. This girl was given the distinct freedom to do whatever she needed to topple the tanned bruiser towering over her. The punkette just couldn’t bounce back. Seems like Manami wasn’t wrong about this girl. She really was hopeless. They had come this far, invested this much time, and all that potential was starting to dwindle beneath her feet. It was making her mood even worse. This was the girl that almost got one up on her and gotten away clean.

Unbelievable.

She’d been flattened by this urchin? This whelp? It made her stomach turn. Her eyes twitched and brows furrowed with abject fury. That shameful moment from hours earlier was flooding her mind again. That humiliating, mortifying moment. She wanted to tear this girl apart. With rigorous effort and disdain, she slammed her foot down onto Kaede’s skull. Each one heavier than the last. Her rage reverberating with every slam.

“What’s the matter with you?! Go on! Die! Die, you trash! Hurry up and die!”

Gradually, she started to move away from her head and towards her arms, specifically that cast. It would be nice to hear here scream a bit before she gave up. If the arm broke again, then that would be even better. Whatever could satiate her anger. This girl flipped her switches just like no one else could. She wasn’t even doing anything and it was still making her go crazy. This was one talent that Yuki bet absolutely no one could deny Kaede had. Pissing people the fuck off.

And so, on she went. Stomping on her until she was nothing but a red smear beneath her bare feet.

Yeah, Kaede could admit, she might have seriously messed up, here. At the time, it seemed like a good idea - she was already on the floor, so instead of slowly getting back up only to be knocked down again, she would try to catch Yuki by surprise and take her down. A good tactic.

Only it didn’t work. At all. Not only did it fail at bringing her down, it succeeded at something Kaede had been trying hard not to do for the past several hours: pissing Yuki off.

Down came the rain of pain, pour all over her. It started with a brutal stomp to her skull, one that left the pinkette dazed and seeing stars. The blows that came after that were kind of a blessing in a weird way: they woke her up, let her think clearly. Of course, she still had the pain to deal with as Yuki continue to bring the hammer down on her in a relentless frenzy, but at least she had the presence of mind to do something about.

She needed to act and act fast, though, because it didn’t seem like Yuki was apt to stop the assault anytime soon. Stomp after stomp came down with Kaede’s grunts growing louder and louder, as she felt her body caving in more and more. She needed to do something, now. Now.

Kaede rolled over to her side as the beating continued, seemingly going into the fetal position to protect herself - and that was exactly what it looked like. At the same time, though, she was waiting for the right opportunity, waiting for Yuki to raise her leg, just high enough, just at the right moment…

In a mad scramble, Kaede pushed her way up as Yuki was going for another stomp, rising between the blonde’s legs in an attempt to take her off balance and bring her to the floor.

I'm gonna kill her. I'm gonna kill her. I'm gonna kill her. I'm gonna kill her.

Those were the only thoughts that passed through Yuki’s mind as she laid stomp after stomp into the girl. She was going to break this girl in half, from the spine up. Tear her apart, destroy her, and leave the scraps in an alley. Let the dogs and cats have their way with her. Then there'll be nothing. Nothing but the rain to sweep the mess away. And then she can finally forget about all of it. The humiliation. The hatred. The utter audacity of this feeble runt thinking she could become one of them. She could forget that this filth ever came into her life. One way or another, this would all be finally over.

And that was true, for the most part. It was over. But perhaps not in the way she intended.

“Just. Fucking. Die. You hear me you-" The words died in her mouth when she felt something hook her leg.

The surprises this girl had in store had no end. One second, she was curled up on the floor like a baby, ready to cry for mercy that she knew would never come. The next, her arm was tucked under Yuki’s leg, and she felt her body hop off the mat. It all happened in a blur. The only thing that she could make out was her head slapping against the mat with a loud thud. Her eyes went wide and the only thing she could see was the ceiling above her. And then the warrior that did this to her.

In some weird way, it snapped her out of her frenzy. It was like getting a nice, refreshing slap to the face. She was still ticked, but the bloodlust was satiated for the time being. It was sudden, quick, and sent her into a bit of panic as her head collided with the may. By the time she realizes what had happened, where her back was lying, what position Kaede was in, it was already too late. She let out a bit of a sigh as she eyed the punk with half-hearted sincerity. Fine, whatever. So long as she didn't boast.

“Okay. Get off.”

Fuck this girl.