Kyoko Akan vs. Masuyo Ai - Iron Sharpens Iron

She was about to win. Her heart felt like it was about to burst inside of her. Her stomach was burning from the inside out and her abs singed with an unsightly red. She was no doubt walking away with more bruises than she could possibly count with an extra hand. But she was winning.

Kyoko was stuck. Helpless in her grip. While they were both pretty worse for wear, Masuyo’s grappling skills were second to none in her local circuit. She could stop the Belly Queen with one hand if she needed to. But all she needed was a second, an instant to breath before she threw her head forward and put everything she had into the follow-through, bracing herself for the impact.

In the same moment that her mind pieced together that Kyoko headbutted her, it fell apart. Her eyes went blank as the Demon fell back, hitting the canvas with all the life of a discarded board. Two cloudy, gray orbs looked to ceiling with a wide gaze. She wasn’t sure how much time had passed before a shadowy hand drifted past her gaze. Left and right. Left and right. She didn’t so much as blink before it disappeared again.

Her vacant eyes and ears carried her further away from her true self. She heard sounds and noises that her conscious mind kept at a distance, absorbing the truth into her head and not being able to make a scrap of sense out of it.

“...SIX!”

“SEVEN!”

“EIGHT!”

Kyoko’s head was a blurry mess. Ringing and blanking out as Kyoko felt her eyes opening but her vision not coming back, and it was another minute before Kyoko realized she wasn’t even sitting up but laying on the mat still mostly out of it. The Belly Queen was laid out and letting the count continue but he kind and body was still completely out of it.

The ref was counting but neither girl seemed to be in a state to move. Kyoko was start to twitch a bit but that was more reflex then anything else. The Queens body responding to her desire to fight but lacking the cohesion to do so.

“TEN!”

DING! DING! DING!

It went as quickly as it came. Masuyo was just barely managing to comprehend the countdown let alone fight against it. Her mind was a fog, dazed and turning on and on in a blurry gray static. Thoughts and impressions from the match barely touched her mind inside of its stupefied prison. It was only the strong beat of her burning heart that guided her from the mire, through the confusion and past the gloom to a dim light that shone down as she parted her weary eyes. The ring of the bell called to her, forcing her eyes apart into the present.

Her steel eyes widened and softened all at once, breathing hard yet steadily as she relaxed into the reality of the moment. The match was over. She didn’t win. She knew that much. Did she lose? Did something else happen while she was out?

She didn’t know. All Masuyo could do was raise her heavy head a couple of inches from the floor to see her opponent on the other side of the ring, flat on her back like her. Barely moving.

Masuyo’s head fell back and she closed her eyes tightly, breathing deeply and exhaling into the hot and humid air around them. The referee came walking over to her, saying something she missed with her eyes closed and her head still a swimmy mess. Her hand pinched her nose for a moment before she opened her eyes and let it fall again to her side. As the official turned to call for the nurses, Masuyo slowly sat up, sweat dripping from chin to the canvas between her legs. She didn’t know why she was doing what she was doing. It was only a small, burning fire inside of her that compelled her to move where she wanted, allowing her body to stand up tall and walk over to Kyoko’s side.

She didn’t get that far at all. A couple of small, half-steps forward and the Demon flopped down face first at Kyoko’s feet. She laid there for a second before she resolved to crawl the rest of the way, practically dragging herself until she flopped down at the Belly Queen’s side. She craned her head to the bluenette and slowly raised and hovered one hand over the woman’s face, sticking out three fingers in a ‘W’.

“How…” Huff. Puff. In. Out. “...how many fingers?”

The fact that she ended could barely see wasn’t doing much for her. It was infuriating being barely able to see yet knowing that you had to it you wanted to actually do anything. She felt helpless while laying there waiting for her senses to return to her and she wasn’t exactly mobile after that horrible hit. Though she stayed out she noticed out of the corner of her eye Masuyo moving around as Kyoko finally started to do so. The Demon flopping about but not stopping as the ref went about checking on her. She felt her hand on the back of Kyoko’s head with the nurses coming to get the two of them as Masuyo moved to her side sitting up again and putting her hand up. Asking Kyoko a question that took a minute to register, then she felt her eyes squint looking at the hand as if trying to focus.

“Uhhhh...six?....no wait..th-three? Uhhh...four?..n-no I think...three was right...” Kyoko’s head was swimming even though she was sitting up again. The lack of cohesion was making her entire body fail to achieve simple things and she almost wanted to fall back but soon the nurses would be there and she could get some kind of help with what she was doing.

Masuyo didn’t realize her forehead was bleeding until the nurse pointed it out to her. Her eyes peeked up as she reached two fingers above her eyes, finding the proof on her fingertips not a second after. Huh. She knew she was pretty hard-headed - they both were, really, but...

Actually, when did this nurse get here? Masuyo pushed herself up to all fours and almost immediately found herself surrounded by women in white with gloved hands that were getting a little too close for comfort. She scrambled off the floor, feeling some fire well back up inside of her. “I’m alright, I’m alright! Man!”

Masuyo waved them away from her as best she was able, turning her attention back to Kyoko. And snickered. It wasn’t intentional, honest. The Demon was fairly worse for wear herself, but it seemed her hard-noggin had left her a bit more cognizant, being the one delivering the headbutt than on the receiving end of it. Seeing the Belly Queen like this though, the same person that nearly knocked her head off two seconds ago well and truly out of it, couldn’t help but draw an exasperated laugh from between Masuyo’s lips.

“Ha!” Oh...oh, laughing was a bad idea. That made her dizzy. “Heh heh. Good enough. And if it makes you feel better...I think you grew two eyes and a nose.”

She finally sat back in front of Kyoko, putting her hands behind her as she let out a heavy sigh towards the sky and let the nurses tend to them, trying to keep the two of them from overheating. One pressed a cold compress to the MMA fighter’s cheek while the other snaked a hand from behind her head, running a cloth over the smeared blood on her forehead. Masuyo couldn’t lie. It felt good, all over.

But her eyes were only on them for a second, letting her mind mull on the bruises on the match that had brought them on. How strong her heart pumped, how long she’d really been standing in this ring, and the person that walked all that way with her. Her steely gaze trailed over back over to Kyoko, barley a foot away. She slowly reached out with a trembling and a weak smile across her pale cheeks. “Good fight?”

Kyoko felt herself being partially helped up, and she felt herself shoving some of it away in annoyance as she wanted to stay up on her own, ignoring how things tended to blur and how she was was kinda out on her feet regardless. She was up and watching the mma fighter she battered to all hell, she was bleeding as well, her stomach was a mess after what Kyoko did to her and afterall of it she was still standing and trying to talk. Offering a hand, either in friendship or whatever else it could have been. Kyoko brought her hand out to take it.

“My best fights..usually have a winner. But tonight...I’ll make an exception.” Kyoko muttered trying to stay up as she took the fighters hand, she didn’t want to look weaker then hers here. She knew it was a minor thing at best considering they are both beaten senseless but it still made Kyoko keep herself going.