Friends Like You

Kaede was ready, Kaede was ready, Kaede was ready.

The knob turned, the door opened with a sound that was not unlike a guillotine sliding into place, and in came Yuki once more, standing there, all confident and sure and like she didn’t have a single thing to worry about in the entire world. Probably because, well, she didn’t. She was facing a woman she knocked out in three seconds.

But that was last time. This time would be different.

Hopefully.

Maybe.

She stood up straight, waiting for Yuki to enter the room, then went down into her stance as her opponent/executioner did the same. Kaede chewed her lip, then found some bass for her voice. ”Yeah, and JESUS!”

Her opening words were cut short when she had to duck like her life depending on it, because a decapitating kick was coming towards her skull, the same one that had taken her down before. This time, Kaede employed the ancient art of ducking, and didn’t just do that - she actually tried some offense this time, as she dove forward attempting to tackle. Yuki’s other leg before she could reload.

Kaede was not ready, Kaede was not ready, Kaede was not ready.

And a one. And a two. And a...what?

Yuki was expecting something more along the lines of a ‘crack’ or ‘smack’, or perhaps ‘whap’ when her leg extended. What she got was ‘whiff’. One big, loud cut in the air that surrounded her kick, but not face. Nothing she was looking for. She went to retract the leg and unravel this mystery.

Only to be met with a scampering little pinkette clamping onto her leg. Well, shit. She expected for Kaede’s kisser to be caved in about now, but she seemed to showing some initiative this time around. It was about now that she noticed her hair was tied into a ponytail. Huh. Always thought she kept it loose.

Yuki fell back. That was a given. There was only one way for her to go, plain and simple. Her arms flailed behind her, more out of reflex than anything else, before she landed hard on her back. Not the best form, either. The impact knocked a bit of wind out of her, but nowhere near knockout territory. The most it added up to was a slightly rough cough and a curious look down at Kaede.

“Hm.”

Let’s try that again.

After that little tumble, Yuki brought the same leg back into position. This one would obviously be lighter. A simple push kick just meant to make some distance than do damage. That was all she could manage because, as much as she hated to admit it, Kaede surprised her.

The way Kaede ducked under the kick, you’d have thought Yuki was swinging a scythe. In a small way, she might as well have been.

But it worked. She avoided the kick. In part because she was expecting it, figuring Yuki wouldn’t give her enough serious thought to change a simple tactic. What was more of a shock than that, though, was her counterattack worked, too - she succeeded in putting Yuki on the mat and gaining a momentary advantage. Granted the move she did was only a step above a snapmare in terms of damage dealing, not something that would knock out Yuki if she did it to her for a day straight, but hey - she’d take what she could get.

After taking half-a-second to celebrate, she started to scramble up Yuki’s body, crawling forward, trying to work her way up, and managed to get halfway to a mount before a boot in her chest shot that shit down.

The kick sent Kaede rolling away, getting a full rotation out of her before she came down on her knees. Ticked, but growing more determined by the second, she grunted and scrambled back to her feet in a mad rush, pushing forward as fast as her legs would go. Eager - maybe too eager - to get back into the fight, she came dashing at Yuki and pounced, trying to get on top of her before she could fully rise.

Spunky.

This was something she wasn’t expecting from Kaede, at least not from what she saw last week. A lot of the signs were still there, of course. The hesitation and the trembling hands. The frantic clawing as she went to go for the pin. They all spoke volumes about how she would much rather be anywhere but here, desperately fighting to stay standing in this bout. But there was plenty of determination behind her actions that Yuki couldn’t help but pick up on.

Even if that foot to the chest put a damper on her plans, the pinkette was quick on the recovery. One tumble head over heels and she sprung right back. She was playing things smart. Kaede knew that she was going up against a stronger opponent that could take more than she could dish could out, so keeping Yuki on the ground was her best chance at winning this.

It was more planning than she’d expected from the scrapper. Not that it was that far a step above the obvious, but hey, what little she earned.

Yuki’s legs shot up. Not straight out, but spread apart as they went out like a fan. Her intention wasn’t to kick Kaede back. She didn’t have the time or distance for that. No, she’d snag the punkette out of the air by catching her between her thighs, slamming the rookie down to Yuki’s side with only a pair of bodyscissors and a twist of her hips.

There wouldn’t be a follow up quite yet. Just a bit of pressure to work the air out of her lungs as she kept Kaede’s back on the canvas. In the back of her mind, she was curious to see how she would get out of this. Yuki wasn’t holding her breath, though.

Did Kaede have a plan? Kind of.

Step One: Don’t get knocked out
Step Two: Get on top of Yuki
Step Three: Knock Yuki our...somehow.

It was a work in progress. Still had a few kinks to work out. For the moment, she was a little preoccupied with making step 2 work.

On the surface, it seemed like she was making good headway. She was climbing up Yuki’s body, and while she wasn’t on her way to locking anything in, it looked like she could hold this position. She was getting thrown off, she was getting tossed away. She was on top. She was in control. She was doing-

”Grk!”

That cry came unbidden from Kaede’s lips, as an intense, searing pain assaulted her sides. She looked down, startled, and saw two powerful thighs clamping around her waist. Squeezing. Crushing. Taking the life right out of her. She groaned as she was rolled over, and her plan went out the window in an instant. Now, there was only the thrashing, the squirming, and the pain.

Knowing where this was likely going, Kaede went into fight or flight mode. She brought up her arm and sent it down as hard as she could, trying to drive the point of her elbow into Yuki’s thigh. She’d keep doing it, too, until Yuki gave up the hold or made her give up. ”Getoffgetoffgetoff-”

Right. Now this was a position she was used to.

Fumika may have had the steel thighs, but Yuki wasn’t far behind in that department either. When the pinkette fell towards her, it was like picking a fly out of the air with a pair of chopsticks. She was content to just keep the spunky wannabe there until she tired herself out. The less work for Yuki, the better in her mind.

But if there was one thing Kaede knew, it was striking. Hard, rough, sloppy strikes. That’s why the elbow drops were giving Yuki a bit of a hard time. The elbow was bad in itself. Edged, mostly bone, no muscle to soften the below between it and your own. When it was being hammered down by a scrappy punk convinced their life was on the line? Yeah, it hurt. She could give the rookie that because she wasn’t going to give her much else.

Yuki withdrew the hold, unbinding her thighs and taking the pressure off Kaede’s ribs. She wasn’t letting her go, of course. No chance. Instead, she kept her legs close before pushing herself. With one heave, the punkette would suddenly find the She-Wolf straddling her midsection, lazy eyes focused on her prey.

“Fine.”

Putting a firm hand onto Kaede’s throat, Yuki would reel her fist back, hanging it there for a second to tease a reaction out of the young woman before sending a firm hook into her cheek. Then another. And another. Until she saw her go. Simple but effective, just the way she liked it.

”-getoffgetoffgetoff-”

In some ways, Yuki’s bodyscissor was worse that an Fumika’s. She didn’t have that same raw power, but it seemed like Fumika was more interested in holding back - at least, when she wanted to play. A broken toy wasn’t much fun to play with, after all.

Yuki? Yuki seemed more interested in making her snap. Dragging it out. The longer Kaede spent in this hold, the worse things would get, no question. Kaede fought like an animal trapped in a snare, because that was basically what she was. Until, out of nowhere, she wasn’t.

She was confused as Yuki rolled her over and mounted her, but that confusion turned to sheer fear when her neck was grabbed and the She-Wolf raised her fist. She wanted to make sure Kaede knew what was coming. Mission accomplished. Kaede shook her head as best as she could with the choke on her, even though she knew it wouldn’t do any good.

The first blow came down, crashed into Kaede’s face. She saw stars.

The second came down, just as hard. The world went mute for a second.

The third landed right on her eye, made it close. Couldn’t open it again, no matter what she tried.

The fourth knocked her out...for a second. A flash. By the time she was back in reality…

...the sixth was crashing down. That was the one that did it, taking all of the fight right out of Kaede and putting her to sleep. There she stayed, there she laid, unmoving and unfeeling.

One punch.

Nope, she was still squirming. Had a bit of life lingering in her eyes too. Damn. Yuki was hoping to perfect her single-punch technique for a while now. Ah well, she still had a few more weeks to keep testing.

Two punches.

Kaede was still in it, albeit a bit more boggled. The problem was she was still fighting. Not that Yuki was going to stop even if she just laid down and took it, but it was making it harder to get a good shot at her with all the shaking around. Better get a bigger windup for the next one.

Thee punches.

Case in point, that next shot was meant for her nose. That was going to leave a bit of a shiner.

Four punches.

Wow. Punk actually came back from that. Pretty tenacious this time around, wasn’t she? Let’s see her come back from this.

Five and six punches.

That’s what she thought. The last one was just for good measure. It was better for her to be fully conscious than half-conscience and having to deal with all that pain when her body was half asleep.

Not that Yuki cared.

She merely stood up after she saw the lights had gone out and slipped back through the ropes towards the door. Just as disappointing a workout as the last time around. She’d have to pick up where Kaede left off as soon as she was back home. She picked up her gym bag and opened the door. When she went to step out, she felt a bead of sweat run down the side of her cheek. She wiped it away, gazed at her fingertips for a moment, then walked out into the hall.

As she went to close the door, she stole a glance back at the pinkette lying still in the middle of the ring. She eyed the subtle rise and fall of her chest, the momentary peace she had to herself with her lifeless head canted towards Yuki so the blonde could fully see her face. With a taking in a light breath through her nose, she’d turn the lights off and close the door behind her. Just three more to go.

-Week 3-

A few things happened in the past week.

First, Kaede decided to sort of refocus her training and took something of a short karate refresher course, going over the lessons she’d learned years ago. It wasn’t anything new, really, but she figured it couldn’t hurt to brush up, remind her body of what it could do.

Second, several bruises had developed across her face, souvenirs from her time with Yuki. Normally wouldn’t be that big of a deal, but she a small family reunion where it made things awkward. So that was fun.

Third, she went out and bought herself some new attire and, most importantly, a damn mouth guard. One that she was sticking into her mouth right now, as she stood in the middle of the ring and waited for Yuki to show up.

When Yuki entered the room this time, she’d find Kaede waiting there, already done stretching, in her fighting pose. Hair-tied back, barefoot, fists and feet taped up. Amped up. Maybe a little too amped up, if she was being honest. But she had some reason to be confident this time, far more than before. Yuki wasn't invincible, she could be hurt, she could make mistakes. Kaede had made mistakes, too, but not this time. This time, she was going to learn. This time, she was going to win.

That was what she kept telling herself, anyway. How long that bravado would hold out when the She-Wolf pounced? They were about to find out.

Quite a schizophrenic few weeks she was having this time. At first, she was feeling pretty pissed off about this whole thing. It was a waste of time and so was Kaede. Why did she have to bother with it? Then, she was feeling pretty good about it. She was starting to see the light Now, Yuki was experiencing some degree of anticipation as she made her way to the usual spot. On one hand, it was business as usual, and she knew there was no way that their little recruit could have gotten any better over the past week. At least not enough to turn the tide, and she did still get a kick out of flooring Pinkie. On the other hand, the punkette had left her with a bit of an impression. She was trying, which was good to see in a way, but would it be enough?

It better be, or at least should at some point in these next couple weeks. Unless Kaede had a thing for being strung up the arms and eating through a straw.

Yuki threw open the door, same as always, and dropped her gym bag to the side before locking the place down. Then she looked at the ring and saw exactly who she was hoping for. The faintest hint of a smirk grew on her face as she slipped into the ring. It didn’t look like Kaede was running. Quite the opposite, in fact. Already in fighting position with a hard look about her.

“Cute.”

No point in asking her if she was good to go this time around. That mouthguard would just make her sound all mush-mouthed. Similar to last time, Yuki took her time circling about Kaede with her arms up. One foot forward, then the other, switching her footwork to keep the karate kid on edge.

The She-Wolf knew she should probably change things up this time around. Her opponent must have that kick burned into her mind by now. Her curiosity, however, got the best of her. That was the one thing Kaede had going for her at the moment. She could be a very interesting pupil when she wanted to be. So, with a bit of a feint, as she brought her leg up then back in the blink of an eye, Yuki swung her leg wide, straight towards Kaede’s temple to flatten her once again.