Onigashima vs. Novae - Wrestling with the Stars

”She’s trying to get to her partner!” Valerie called out. ”Keep working her over, trap her!”

Tatiana didn’t reply out loud, but she couldn’t resist a groan and a few muttered words at that. ”As if I didn’t know, sheesh…”

Despite what her sister thought, things were well in control on her end, she knew exactly how to keep the two partners separated. She lacked Valerie’s technical know-how, sure, but pure striking was on her side, and she was more than willing to use it.

”Up with you, come on.” She got between Shizuka and her partner and reached down, getting a tight grip to pull her back up, making her stand up. As soon as she was on her two feet, Tatiana would lash out with a quick chop to the chest, and an even quicker one at that, trying to whip Shizuka back, force her to stumble back to their corner. They wouldn’t do too much damage by themselves, but it all worked to the purpose of keeping their opponents under control.

Shizuka's effort to get herself towards her partner, Yukari, was thwarted as Tatiana went around her, getting herself between her and Yukari before she yanked her up, getting her back on her feet. Still aching from all the damages dealt on her, the red oni was unable to stop her opponent from pulling her up, and she was forcefully brought onto her feet, where she would stand on them in a wobbly manner.

Once she was on her feet, Shizuka took a chop right into her modest bust, and her eyes widened as she cried out in pain. "Aughhh!!" Then, she took another one, which she couldn't stop. "Muughhh!!!" Then, she was whipped towards a corner, and she moaned in pain after hitting the turnbuckle with her back. Grimacing in pain, she would try to keep herself on her feet, draping her arms over the top ropes as she would keep her eyes on Tatiana.

Target locked.

With Shizuka solidly stunned after that chop, Tatiana could see an opportunity to pile on the damage, clearly displayed in front of her. It was a little risky, but she could already see her next move, already knew where to go from here.

Could it backfire? Yes.

But that was a big part of the fun, wasn’t it? No guts, no glory. ”Excuse me…”

Tatiana did a quick backflip away from Shizuka, making some space between them. Her foot on touched the ground for a scant second before she launched forward and leaped up with her knee extended, aiming to ram it right into the middle of her opponents face.

Knee Bomb. Nasty move.

Winded as she was at the turnbuckle, Shizuka saw her opponent moving away from her, preparing herself for the big move. The red demon tried to shake off the headache as she mustered her strength to move, and when she saw Tatiana charging towards her, Shizuka would try to jump back onto the top turnbuckle, using the top ropes to propel herself up. Once she was at the top turnbuckle, she would try to jump over Tatiana before landing behind her.

Still, she couldn't muster enough strength to fight back, so she would run towards her partner, who was waiting at the other side. The act of moving was quite a hurdle for the red oni as she would try to reach Yukari, who had already extended her arm into the ring, waiting for to be tagged in. Hopefully, Shizuka would be able to reach her friend before Tatiana could catch up to her and slap her palm, thus tagging Yukari into the ring so that she could take some time to rest and recover.

...what?

It had seemed like a solid enough move, launching herself forward to hit Shizuka while she was stuck in the corner, trapped, nowhere to go...but up? Tatiana hadn’t seen that coming. She kind of did now, because it was actually really impressive, but she hadn’t seen it coming.

By the time Tatiana realized what was going on, Shizuka was on the cusp of tagging in her partner. The blue one. The one Belle had warned her against taking on. Right away, she had two choices.

She could tag Valerie back in, but she’d just left, so that might come off as a weird choice.

She could make a desperate try to stop Shizuka. Not likely.

Or…

She went for the third option and ran towards them, but not at Shizuka - instead, she made a beeline for Yukari, leaping up the moment they made a tag to hit her with a dropkick, looking to launch her off the apron.

Approaching her partner, Shizuka would tag Yukari in by slapping her palm, and the blue demon would try to slip through the ropes to enter the ring. But then, she saw Tatiana barreling in, but she wasn't fast enough to react to this as she was hit by a dropkick from her before she could even enter the ring.

"Guahhhh!!!"

Yukari was kicked off of the apron and ended up falling onto the thinly-padded floor outside the ring. She writhed on the floor, seemingly in pain after taking the dropkick from Tatiana.

"Y-Yukari-chan!!" Shizuka cried out as she saw her partner being taken out before she could enter the fray. Then, she would direct her glare at Tatiana. "W-why you...!!" Despite her body still feeling sore, Shizuka would reenter the ring so that she could catch Tatiana off-guard with a toe kick right into her belly! Hopefully, this could buy her partner some time to recover before she could reenter the ring.

On paper, it seemed like a pretty solid idea. Shizuka was making a tag. Tatiana couldn’t stop the tag. So she did the next best thing and cut Yukari off before she could come in fresh. It wasn’t illegal, didn’t break any rules. It was just a way of taking care of a problem before it actually became a problem.

And it connected, too. Tatiana hit the floor and started to rise with a smile, content with her work, only to have that smile vanish when she heard Valerie calling out to her. ”Tatian, look out-”

By the time she realized what was going on, it was too late. Shizuka was on her as she stood up, launching a stiff kick to the midsection that bent her in half and brought her back down to her knees. The referee moved over to wave her off, but the damage had been done - now she was too winded to properly capitalize on the window she’d created.

Shizuka managed to land the kick into Tatiana's belly, stunning her and making her double over. She was about to follow up with another attack, but the referee waved her off, and the red demon let out a snort as she slipped out of the ropes. Still, this should be enough to buy Yukari some time to recover as Tatiana was still stunned from the kick. Shizuka looked at her partner, who started to pick herself up, groaning as she would then get herself back on her feet, leaning against the apron as she shook her head, trying to regain her bearing after being dropkicked off of the apron by Tatiana.

"Get in, Yukari-chan!" Shizuka told her partner, and Yukari nodded as she would get herself up onto the apron before rolling under the ropes, entering the ring. She grunted as she would use the ropes to pull herself up before she looked at Tatiana who managed to stop her from entering earlier.

"My turn now..." Yukari said as she would advance forward, looking to come closer to Tatiana. She planned to grab her opponent's body while she was still disoriented, and she wanted to smack her forearm right into the side of her head to make sure that her opponent wouldn't be able to recover.

”Tatiana!” She could hear her sister calling out in the distance. Couldn’t be that far away, really, but it felt much further. ”Tatiana, get up!”

Getting up was a thing that she very much wanted to do, but it was an easier thing said than done. The blow had left her quite winded, and whatever else could be said about Onigashima, they weren’t the type to let an opening slip through their fingers.

And so they didn’t.

Tatiana had just started to rise when she was greeted by a forearm to the face, one that knocked her over and sent her down, flat on her back. She stayed there for a moment, reeling, before she rolled and started to push her way back up again. A slow, sluggish process.

The forearm to the face gave a desirable result for Yukari, who sent Tatiana down with the forearm smash. Seeing that her opponent was reeling from the strike, the blue demon would then bend down, seemingly looking to help her opponent back up to her feet, but the moment she got Tatiana back on her feet, Yukari would get herself behind her as she would wrap her arms around her midsection, putting her in a waist lock. The Ao-Oni locked her hands together on her belly as she would prepare herself to execute her next attack.

"Hyaaahhhhh!!!" With a mighty yell, Yukari would try to hoist Tatiana up, throwing her opponent up and over her, slamming her behind her so that Tatiana would land onto the mat on the back of her shoulders and head. Looking for a quick pinfall attempt to add some pressure on her opponent, Yukari planned to get herself on her tiptoes, bridging her own body up for a bridging pin. The referee would come over next to them so that she could start counting for the pinfall.

As for Shizuka, she would get herself back onto the apron, panting slightly. It seemed that things were under control for her partner at the moment, and she would stay there, cheering her partner on.