AJ Shay vs Remi Tachibana - Determination vs Grace

The audience let out a collective cringe, recoiling back in their seats and Remi's kick slapped against Alexa's chest like a crack of thunder, throwing the rookie back to the canvas hard with a horse cry of surprise. She winced, jaw clenched as her chest throbbed with the aftereffect of the stiff kick that laid her out. She noticed her opponent taking a step back before suddenly faulting up, casting her in shadow as she blocked out the overhead lights. The movement was fast, perhaps even elegant. It was hard to tell from this position, she had never had this move done on her until today. She was thankful for that though, as Remi came crashing down over top of her the blow was devastating.

Alexa went wide eyed as her lunges emptied out with a forced exhale, leaving her body feeling numb and shaky. Certainly not what she wanted when Remi was already on top of her, primed for a pinfall. "N-neh... N-no..." Her leg was scooped up, the first count slapping against the canvas. She gave a weak kick with her free leg, jerked her shoulders to try and push back up against the woman's weight on top of her but she was coming up short. Remi was no larger than her, but right now she felt like she was five hundred pounds. Her sense of panic wasn't helping. She needed to focus, make one large effort and not simply flail.

"Two!"

Time was up, she had to act now. Alexa clapped her the sole of her boot to the mat, hands reaching out to grasp for Remi's shoulder and side. With on final concentrated effort, she bucked hard, pushing off the ground and shoving out at her opponent just hard enough to halt the count with a shoulder raised. She fell straight onto her back, throwing a sloppy forearm strike at her opponents side, trying to get the other woman off of her.

When Remi thought that she almost got her, Alexa managed to kick out at two, much to her displeasure. Then, as she thought of what to do next, she was pushed off of her before she took a sloppy forearm smash to her side. "Hey!" She said, more annoyed by the fact that her opponent had the audacity to hit her in that position rather than be hurt by said attack. So, she would get back up on her feet, grabbing Alexa by her head and pulling her up as well, getting her on her feet. She needed to soften her up even more if that attack from earlier wasn't enough to take her out.

First, Remi would grab her by her body before she tried to lift her up. Then, she would prop up one of her knees so that she could bring Alexa down onto it, having her land back first into her knee for a backbreaker. She figured that Alexa would be more compliant and docile after being softened up by attacks like this.

Alexa had barely managed to muster up the strength to break the pin, but having Remi’s weight off of her was a Godsend, letting her suck in much needed air to fill her lungs. The brunette winced and her opponent gripped her by the head, roots of her hair being tugged uncomfortable as she was dragged up to her feet. She reached up, grasping at the other woman's wrists, trying to release some of the pressure as her legs fumbled to help her rise without being yanked.

In a deft .motion from the more veteran woman she was scooped up, letting out a gasp of surprised which was quickly interrupted when she was brought down hard across Remi’s knee. Her body bend unnaturally with the impact, immediately ripping a scream of agony from her. Sher bounced from point of contact to flop face down onto the mat. Reaching behind her, she clutched her back, rolling back and forth with her legs kicking wildly as she tried to manage the pain.

Hearing the scream of pain from Alexa, Remi smiled, knowing that the backbreaker had dealt quite a damage on the younger woman.  For a while, she would consider her next move before she got up, pulling Alexa with her, dragging her towards the nearest corner where she would put her on the canvas. She seemed to be going for a high-flying maneuver next as she headed over to the turnbuckle, climbing it up.

Facing away from her opponent as she stood on the turnbuckle, she would raise her arms in preparation for her next move before she leaped back, attempting to execute a picture perfect moonsault, looking to land right onto Alexa's body belly first, in which she would quickly go for a pinfall attempt.

She could feel some tears welling up from the sharp blow to her spine. No amount of practice bumps had prepared her for that. It left her temporarily crippled in the center of the ring, no amount of willpower could get her to move to escape, not when she was in such tremendous pain. She let out a small cry as Remi grabbed her by the arm to drag her along the mat.

Twisting and turning, she was jerked along with no real resistance outside the unwieldy nature of moving her flopping body along as she bowled with pain and clutched at her back. She had to close one eye, vision hazy from the tears building up. She blinked it away, trying to keep track of Remi.

The other woman was climbing the ropes… this was bad. Alexa’s mind screamed at her to move. To do something defensive. If she stayed here she was a sitting duck. The pain was so bad though… she watched helplessly as Remi made her way to the top turnbuckle. This was it… Wasnt it?

As Remi jumped back off the turnbuckle, something stirred within her. A primal need to escape her impending doom. She threw her body to the side, rolling off to the right to leave The intended landing zone for the moonsault as open canvas. She couldn't muster a good counter to the woman, but risky move like that came with hard failure states attached. Hopefully she would be able to take this time to recover.

One of the dangers of performing a high-flying maneuver like a moonsault was that once one got off into the air, one would not be able to keep track on the opponent. So, when Remi leaped off of the top turnbuckle to perform the moonsault, she kept track on Alexa's location, looking to land on her belly first. But, if Alexa managed to move out of her way, Remi would have no way of stopping her momentum, and she would land onto the mat, which would surely hurt herself.

"Aaaaaghhh!!!"

That's exactly what actually happened when Alexa moved out of her way, and Remi landed on the mat without even hitting her opponent. Her landing caused significant damage on her, leaving her stunned and disoriented, writhing on the mat after missing her opponent. "Aaaaghh... ooww..." she groaned, cradling her belly as she would roll over onto her side, trying to recover from her landing earlier. At this rate, Alexa would be able to take advantage of her, and there would be nothing she could do about it.

She hadn't gotten far, but managed to escape with just enough distance to free her from the landing site of what likely would have been the end to her match. The sound of Remi's body impacting on the canvas make her flinch, her body shaking with the ripple sent through the entire ring. her brunette hair swayed with the gust of air thrown out from where the moonsault touched down, making her squint her eyes. There was no cloud of dust, no flash explosions, but she could almost feel that was what would have happened if she was unable to get away in time. Watching Remi with a look of shock etched across her face, she breathed hard trying to collect her thoughts to properly take advantage of this...

She hadn't really faced an avid high flyer, her own fear of heights having limited her own experience as well. Remi made a good case for why such fears were warranted as she lay across the mat in self inflicted agony. Alexa bit down on her lip, feeling a twinge of pity for the other woman, her mind racing with how she would feel if the roles had been reversed and that choice and failure lead to defeat... The thought held her from acting immediately. Her empathy, while an endearing quality of who she was, had no real place within a competitive environment like this. Pushing herself up, she made her way over the short distant towards the other woman, crawling on her hands and knees.

With a hard shove, she attempted to roll Remi onto her back, draping her weight across her opponent's body to trap those arms clutching her abdomen in place to prevent her from making use of the limbs. With a wide sweep she aimed to collect one of the girl's legs with her arm, hooking it into a tight pinfall attempt. The opportunity was too good. While she could have gone for a submission, her real strength, she had a chance to end things here and now. All she needed was three counts...

Moaning in pain on the mat, Remi was having trouble thinking straight thanks to her missed attack earlier. Her moonsault might seem impressive, but it was also very risky, as evidenced by her missing Alexa earlier in her attempt to land her moonsault on her. Due to the pain, Remi was unable to stop her opponent from rolling her over, and due to her clutching on her hurt abdomen, her arms were trapped underneath Alexa, preventing her from using her arms while being pinned under the girl.

And to complete the setup, Alexa grabbed one of her legs for a pinfall attempt, and the referee made her job counting for the pin next to them, slapping the mat as Remi was under her opponent as she was pinned. Still reeling from the pain, Remi could barely hear the voice of the referee counting for the pin.

"ONE!"

"TWO!"

Right at two, Remi regained her senses and realized that she was in grave danger. Desperation kicking in, she would thrust out both her legs, kicking out of the pinfall attempt, stopping the count. Still, she wasn't in any shape to bring the fight back into the mat, and all she could manage at the moment was trying to roll herself aside in her attempt to throw Alexa off of her.

Alexa had leaned her shove into Remi, pressing her palms into the woman's side to roll her over as if she were simply a log. There hadn't been much time or strategy involve past flopping herself over her foe best she could, using the gut reflex of lifting her leg. The momentary pause in action was welcome as she lay still across the woman beneath her, counting along with the referee in the back of her mind.

The sudden buck of Remi under her, not even allowing her the humor the idea of reaching a third count caught her off guard. She wore a confused expression on her face as if her mind was struggling to make sense of how it were even possible. Left on her knees, slightly hunched beside her opponent she breathed heavily, blinking her eyes as thoughts began to return to her.

Her opponent lay before her still, turned away… exposed. Alexa’s chest heaved with her breathing as her eyes traveled up along the prone body of her foe, so many ripe possibilities lay before her. She was tired though, still hurting. Rather than doing for something intricate, she scooted herself forward, dropping herself down to lay beside Remi.

Sliding up along the other woman back, it almost looked as though the two women were spooning for just a moment as Alexa situated herself. Her arms extended out, attempting to wrap themselves around Remi’s throat to draw the woman back into her, attempting to cinch in a rear naked choke. If she managed to lock in the hold, she would twist, trying to roll herself onto her back to bring Remi on top of her for just a moment.

It would be in that moment Alexa would then move to coil her legs around the woman as well, to scissor her midsection, trying to make escape as hard as possible. Her thighs would squeeze in tightly, trying to provide enough crushing force to cripple her foes motion while her arms tensed, cutting off the vital supply of oxygen and blood. Hopefully Remi was just as worn down as her at this point.

Still not in a good shape after taking quite a bit of damages thanks to her opponent, Remi was unable to fight back at the moment as she was on her back, panting heavily. Despite throwing Alexa off of her, she couldn't bring herself to get herself moving, which was something that her opponent was quick to capitalize as she went for a rear naked choke, wrapping her arms around her neck. Upon having Alexa's arms wrapped around her neck, Remi's eyes widened as she found it difficult to breathe.

And to make it even worse, Alexa coiled her legs around her midsection, scissoring her. Groaning out, Remi would try to escape, but those legs were making it hard for her to act, and her own exhaustion worsened it. With her opponent's arms cutting off her oxygen and blood, Remi was starting to feel lightheaded, slipping out of unconsciousness. But, she knew that there had to be something she could do in order to escape this predicament.

Mustering whatever was left in her, Remi would move her hand up, first to Alexa's arms. Then, she moved it up before attempting to catch her opponent off-guard with a surprise eye-rake! Remi wasn't one to always do a dirty move, but as people would say, desperate times call for desperate measures!