SS 18 Entropy Title: Valley Doll (c) versus Manami Kuroda (Iron Man Match)

It did Valley’s heart good to see Manami’s face make love to the turnbuckle pads. She’d had this particular counter done on her enough times to know how much it would suck, like taking a hard punch right in the face. A good, simple way to turn things around.

But not reason to celebrate, despite what her fans were . She was still dancing on the razor’s edge with this woman. She could feel the power when Manami came rushing forward, knew how close she was to being put into a rough situation. How many times was she going to dodge fate like that?

She had a good thing going with the damage to the She-Wolf’s back. That was the target. She just had to deliver enough damage to make it mean something, and with them both in the corner, she saw a golden opportunity to do so, in the most wrestling way possible - she was going to get Manami up high and throw her down on her back. Maybe a powerbomb, maybe a suplex, maybe an elevated backstabber. Hadn’t decided yet.

Easier thought than done, naturally. But she’d come this far, risked this much. Might as well go all the way.

”Come on, up we go…” She reached down, wrapped her arm around Manami’s head in a tight lock, and began to scale the turnbuckle, one wobbling step at a time, forcing her opponent to rise with her. Getting her up there would be a small trick in itself, but once they were secure, she could stare working on the second part of her plan...

That wasn’t what she intended to happen.

Manami had assumed that the grip of Valley’s arm would have given her enough leverage to keep the champion in place. She was hurting, tired, only had a slight height advantage. Nothing that Manami was unfamiliar with. But once again, she was fighting a battle one step removed from her area of expertise. In a split-second, she found herself in yet another situation where the Californian’s superior knowledge of the ring was the factor that saved her, and the Wolf Girl was the one in pain.

She could worry about all of that later. The first item on the agenda was standing back up. It was only a moment after she started doing so that she realized Valley was helping her along. To what end, she didn’t know until she felt her feet left the canvas and her destination became infinitely clearer. A flyer to the end, this hopeless little bird.

The Wolf Girl put up some effort to escape the hold, but it was too soon from her little crash. Her movements were minimalist and could barely be classified as actual resistance. One hand reached out the nearest rope she could grasp to halt their advance, but a jerk quickly rattled it free and continued on their way. No helping her predicament from as far as she could see. Manami gnashed and gritted her teeth from behind closed lips. The frustration was mounting and there was nothing she could do about it.

Yet, that was. She had a tickle in the back of her mind, a little nudge that might work with the right opportunity. She just had to hope it presented itself.

Patience. A true hunter’s virtue.

Death Valley Driver.

It was her mother’s move, the one she finished all of her toughest matches with, the one she’d finished off countless opponents with in her career. That was the legacy aspect to it, but it was also a move that Valley could do but hadn’t done in her entire Friction career, one she’d saved for a special occasion.

It didn’t get more special than this, so that was what Valley was going to do to Manami. Off the top rope. Right onto her head, right in the middle of the ring. 1, 2, 3, done.

Valley planted her feet on the middle of the rope and tugged Manami up, fighting off her attempts to struggle along the way. She still had energy left, was getting stronger by the second, but it wouldn’t matter so long as she pulled this off in time. ”Like it or not…” She gave a hard grunt, hefting Manami up as best as she could with the aching arm. ”...this is going to happen.”

The crowd, her fans and detractors alike, grew louder with each passing second, as Valley’s intention became clear and clear. With a yell, she dipped down and hefted Manami onto her shoulders, stood up straight on the top of the turnbuckle, took one deep breath before the final plunge, and-

Such a dangerous life Valley Doll lead. But what a life it was.

Rising to the highest peaks, taking the deepest plunges she could find in the most magnificent descents possible. Moments that became immortalized in the hearts and minds of countless people forever. Risky? No doubt. But wasn’t the thrill worth it? The exhilaration? The second after the fall when one could stand up again, prove that they’d done what seemed impossible? Isn’t that what being human meant? Picking yourself up and moving forward, shining brighter and stronger with every step? Moments like these must have been what she lived for. The chance to be a living miracle, even if it was for a second.

But Manami didn’t believe in miracles. She believed in fate. She believed in luck, that thing that inevitably runs out when one tries to fly too close to the sun.

The chants around them grew near deafening as the decisive moment of the match drew very well near. The damage that the Entropy champion was about to inflict may not only secure her the pin, but could very well secure her reign. A stiff arm, a broken leg, a busted nose? Easy to ignore, even bite off if need be. A busted spine, however, wouldn’t see Manami moving the same way for the rest of the match.

So, as she was hoisted up and over Valley’s shoulders, looking sideways out at the rest of the world, the Wolf Girl should have been worried. Overwhelmed with fear, certain she was seeing the end of the fight unfold in front of her.

She gave none of that. In its place was a gleaming white smile, a toothy grin that devoured all the light around them. “Then go ahead…” She whispered, wrapping her arms around Valley’s head, slowly tucking herself closer. “Fall.” With a sudden snap movement, Manami shot her knee forward, slamming it right into the Slamazon’s temple.

And so began what Valley would, until her dying days, describe as the ‘worst twenty minutes of my entire life’.

It started out innocently enough. She was hefting Manami up on the top rope, intending to hit her with a high altitude version of the Death Valley Driver that would send her head through the canvas when it connected. A critical move. Enough to win the match, keep her title, and hopefully give the Wolf Girl reason to stay out of her life from this point on.

But, somewhere along the line, things went awry. It turned out that Manami still had some real fight in her, enough to not only cling tight to Valley, but send out a knee into her skull, one that left the Slamazon rattled. That would’ve been bad enough on its on, but seeing as she was currently perched on the top rope, with balance that was already iffy at best.

Yes. Yes, she was going to fall. She could’ve fallen in a number of ways, too. She could’ve fall into the ring, which would’ve sucked, but might’ve sucked for Manami more. She could’ve crotched herself on the turnbuckle, which would’ve been oh-so pleasant with the extra weight on top.

Instead, she wound up tottering over to the side, a fall that had them careering downwards, heading towards the floor.

Or, to be more accurate, what would’ve been the floor, if it wasn’t decided that this event would have a pit at ringside. A pit with a tarp over it. A pit big enough for two humans to fit neatly inside.

A pit with a bunch of snakes in it.

The last thing Valley reminded hearing, right after she crashed through the tarp and the darkness enveloped her, was the
loud, overbearing hissing, like the air being let out of a dozen tires all at once.

Manami had a confession to make. A confession she made to no one in particular as the light above dimmed and the hissing around her closed in. Maybe it would reach some Supreme Being that would look down and take pity on her, if but for a moment, to save their child from the most treacherous deed they had employed onto themselves. And it was this:

Manami knew exactly what laid in the pit. Why? Because she planted them.

Oh, the stipulation was always meant to involve snakes. No question there, but harmless ones. Garden snakes, likely. Something that would scare to look at in large numbers, but nothing that would put their ever-so-precious Angel Slayer. Their Chick of 1,0001 Kicks. Their Last Slamazon and potential hall-of-fame inductee in any real danger. It was theatrics. Nothing more than to play into the theme. There would be medical crews nearby just in case, but all the same, every step was taken to ensure nobody would get hurt at the end of the day.

The Wolf Girl had a different vision of tonight. She envisioned herself winning this match. She envisioned escorting Valley to the pit by the top of their head, crawling her along like an obedient mongrel. She envisioned kicking her to her doom and laughing so loud that she’d drown out the screams that echoed out from the hissing netherworld below.

She did not envision tumbling into it herself. Excellent job, Valerie. Your inane recklessness knows no bounds.

Now, she and her adversary lay in a trap of her own design. A pit full of green whip snakes, her own personal collection. Normally harmless when left to their own devices, but when disturbed, the flurry can be...rapid.

She’d been a bit more conscious than Valley when she’d taken the dive by some odd coincidence. Maybe she’d fallen on a thicker portion of the bed of snakes than she’d had. Call it a lucky or unlucky, Manami was at least aware of some degree of where she was, and that she needed to retreat. It was too bad, in that case, that taking a tumble from the top rope hadn’t been as pleasant as she’d hoped for. Her body refused to move to any significant degree. All she could feel was the floor moving and sliding in ten different directions at once. A million hisses surrounded her; up, down, left, right, inside, outside. It came from everywhere.

She reached up towards freedom, seeing a couple members of the medical team poking their heads over the top of the crevice. One offered their hand, one that she had to lean forward to grab. Her hand reached higher and higher...until a snake bit her on the side of the palm. She reeled it back, close enough to see her eyes reflecting in its sharp pupils. “Traitor…”

Her eyes narrowed and she fell back unconscious.


...


“I think she’s coming to!”

It hurts...

“Kuroda-san! Kuroda-san, can you hear us?!”

It hurts...everywhere.

“Manami!”

Her eyes sprung open, flooded by an overwhelming light from above. The medical officer put her flashlight away, keeping a hand placed on the Wolf Girl’s shoulder as he looked over her once, then went back to rifling through her bag. Ten minutes? Twenty? How long had it been? They were in the ring, clear of the pit, though she couldn’t tell where Valley was. She may have been on the opposite end of the ring, maybe just beside her, she had no clue and for a moment she didn’t care. Because in that same instant, she heard something far worse than the hissing that still echoed in her ear, the one thing she didn’t want to ever hear...

“Call the match.” The nurse told to the official. “They can’t continue in this-”

“NO!”

Manami snarled, shakily bringing her head up off the canvas. Her eyes were blinded in fury, shaking irrevocably as she burned holes into the referee. “YOU DON’T DARE!”

“B-but Kurdan-san! Y-you’re both injured. You can’t-”

Her hand gripped the official’s shirt, pulling her close enough to feel the heat from her breath. “End this match, and I will rip out your clavicles and send them to your children to burn on your fucking pyre!” She released the referee and immediately let out a cry as her arm flared with pain. Her arms felt as though they were pierced by a million, pint-sized knives that kept embedded in her skin. The slightest movement sent razor blades up and down her length.

But she pushed on. She had one image in her mind driving her the whole way, through the pain and fatigue and beyond: the image of Valley standing beside her, just out of view, being handed her belt. Not a chance. She rose slowly, unsteadily, with little energy, but she did make it, even if it cost every last piece of her lifespan.

Destroy more. Fight more. Kill more.

Valley hated snakes.

Note, she wasn’t afraid of them. Despite the whole valley girl persona that she’d leaned into her whole life and fostered, she was actually outdoorsy as a child, taking hikes every other weekend, spending lots of time in the forest. She’d come across more than her share of the slithering bastards in her life, and she didn’t go screaming every time she came across one.

So not fear. Just loathing. She hated the way they looked, they way they moved, the way they just popped up out of nowhere and snapped at you liked they owned the forest. She could’ve had a nice, long, happy life without ever getting near them, and she’d thought she was on her way to doing just that.

And yet, somehow, fate saw fit to throw her into a pile of the damned things. Such was life.

Valley awoke with a screaming shriek, as consciousness brought with it a surge of mind numbing pain. All at once she regretted opting for a more revealing outfit to replace the one that Morrigan ripped up. She could feel the pain coming from dozens of cuts over her body,  and for a moment she swore that the snakes still had their fangs in her, were still digging into her, still tearing at her flesh. They were, thank God - she was out of the pit now, back on level ground, away from them, but the sensations lingered. Even as she jerked about and spasmed, twisted in agony, her body dancing to a silent tune…

Snakes. Snakes. She was never doing a match like this ever again, she swore that, no matter what they threatened to do to her belt.

As if it had been summoned by her thoughts, the belt was there all of the sudden, coming in through the corner of her view, as the referee worked her way through the nurses. There were solemn looks all around, the official gazing over Valley with a sigh on her lips and despair in her eyes. ”Valley? Do you know where you-”

”I’m in-” She groaned, as one of the nurses rubbed some sort of ointment into her skin. ”I’m in Rome, Greece, Italy, wherever. I’m at Summer Splash!” Valley closed her eyes hard, forcing the tears out, and sat up to look at the referee through her squinting gaze. ”What are you doing? The match isn’t over, we-”

”Yes, it is!” The referee stared at her, wide-eyed. ”We need to get you to a hospital, we need-

”No.” Valley slammed her fist into the floor and started to rise up, pushing the nurses out of the way as she rose up to her feet, only to fall back to her knees a second later. They were not going to hand her the belt again, they were not going to just give her the win. Not like last time. Never that again. She’d fought too hard for that, and as much as it pained her to admit it, Manami fought too hard for that. They both deserved better. One way or another, they were finishing this, and she didn’t have to guess what her opponent would think on the matter.

Growling, coughing, dripping blood, Valley made her way to the ring and apron and crawled her way up to her feet, dragging herself in under the ropes as she went. One of the nurses tried to pull her back in, but the Slamazon promptly gave her a kick in the chest for her troubles. She was finishing this, and she was beyond the point of caring about anyone else. There was only one individual on her mind right now.

”Manami!” She shrieked at the top of her lungs, her voice carrying over the roaring crowd. ”Manami Kuroda! Get! Up!”

Just stand up. Just stand up. Just stand up.

Manami couldn't quite recall a time her body felt like such absolute hell, nothing in the far past nor anything she pictured in her coming future. Not even that...fond memory of being dashed into the cement by that repugnant gorilla Sanders. Fresh cuts and slathered blotches of blood lined her body. The slightest twitch was enough to send a shock to her system. Every step had the threat of bringing her to her knees.

The wolf was a mixed bag of different emotions, sensations, and just general thoughts altogether. She secretly hoped Valley was just as worse off as she was and hadn’t somehow avoided the ire of a million serpents at once. She wondered what this meant for the rest of their match. Would there be interference? Would management's worry get the better of them and quash their little encore before it could begin? Would she be able to battle them off, all of them? There was a temptation there too. An ever so faint desire to just fall on the floor and be done with it. Surely Valley couldn’t be in a much better state than herself. She was probably still unconscious, praising the divine that tonight was over and done with and that she was still their lucky little champion at the end of-

Until she heard a voice. That voice.

Suddenly, her pain didn’t matter. The audience, the referee, the match, this entire federation. It could all go up in flames for all Manami cared. Her eyes were set only on the ring and her adversary waiting for her just beyond the ropes. She limped and dragged her body far enough just to grasp the bottom rung, but didn’t enter straight away. Someone tried to stop her, the little nurse tending to her wounds but a moment ago. Of course, she did. No one learned their lesson in this arena.

Manami backfisted her way, leaving her to stumble into the barricade, but she didn’t enter the ring straight away. She instead cast her head down and flexed her muscles, channeled her energy inward and, with a shrill cry, shouted it outward in every direction, casting all the pain and suffering into the void around her.

She didn’t want it, any of it. The scent of blood that raced past her nose was what pushed her body forward now. That scent led her inside of the ring, crawling beneath the bottom ropes on unsteady limbs. She brought herself to one knee, casting a lone eye to the blonde veteran off to her side, letting out a snicker before she gazed forward again. “I was going to mention...how this is entirely your fault…” She groaned as she stood upright. “...but I couldn’t care less now.”

Without looking back at her adversary, Manami stepped her way to the center of the ring. Her eyes lifted slightly to the titantron, catching a glimpse of the time remaining just beneath the projection of her sweat-clad face.


Her trademark grin returned in a flash, an intense aura overwhelming the agony her body was truly in. She pivoted on the spot to face Valley, dropping into a low stance, her arms raised beside her head. A cut from her eyebrow fully opened, sending a fresh line of blood down the side of her face, running down her eye and past her cheek, dripping to the canvas below.

“Let’s just kill each other.”

Valley couldn’t tell how well Manami was after that fall. Truth told, the whole thing was kind of a blur, now, and she was having distinct trouble remember specifics, like what had led to them falling into that pit in the first place. What had she been going for, again?

But it didn’t matter much, really, because she did know two core facts: 1) she’d survived itand gotten back up and 2) if she could survive it and keep going, then Manami could survive it and keep going. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind on those points, and it meant that, if Manami had an ounce of life left in her body, she was going to get up off the canvas. The fight wasn’t over.

Sure enough, that was exactly what happened.

Maybe it was the blood loss, maybe she’d taken a head injury, maybe those snakes were as non-poisonous as management had swore they were - something she was definitely going to investigate later on. Whatever the reason, she couldn’t keep herself from cracking a grin of her own when her opponent shrieked and showed she had life left - enough life to finish this, anyway. There was some relief, here. The match was still on, there was still time to turn this around, and most importantly, win or lose, the belt was going to be decided by their own hands. No judges, no decisions, no disqualifications, no technicalities. The better woman was going to leave with the championship. That, she could live with. That, she could accept.

She started to make her way up as Manami came into the ring, forcing herself up to one foot, then the other, doing her best to ignore all the pain. The slight bit of good news was that her arm was much better now, or at least she thought it was. It was a little hard to tell, what with the numbing sensation coming from multiple parts, but it seemed to have functionality back, enough to work with. Enough for five more minutes. Just five. The world was made in less time.

”Yeah.” Valley followed Manami’s gaze to the clock, then looked her back in the eye, matching her manic stare with one of her own. ”Let’s.”

Manami sunk into her fighting stance, and Valley did the same, though she didn’t stay still for very long. She was in a weird state of mind, but not so out of it that she didn’t remember the score, and what she needed to do in order to claim victory, here. There was no time for subtlety, here. She had to take the fight to Manami, full on.

She raised her foot up, looking like she was going for a low kick towards the stomach, only to jerk it back before it could connect and make a feint. The real attack was a straight punch, a type of attack she hadn’t used once in this match, hoping the sheer surprise would take Manami off guard and start things off in her favor.

What a surreal feeling.

It could have been the multitude of snake bites riddling her body, or the blood loss pouring through her wounds, or the pain she shut away making her delirious, but she could have sworn she saw her reflection looking back at her on the other side of the ring. This must have been what a mirage felt like. Her head was light, adrift between realms as she found herself momentarily in a different reality. It was a flash, what felt like a momentary headache before the light realigned and Valley stood in its place.

She wasn’t sure what the truth was. The only that she was certain of was the winding down of the clock. And that Valley was charging toward her.

Not entirely unexpected, but not unsurprising either. Manami knew she was the one in the lead, and with a narrowing margin of error, Valley was going to have to work to simply tie things up let alone win. Those conditions didn’t call for idleness, but to actually see such boldness in her eyes was...interesting. Foolish, but interesting. The kick coming her way was as predictable as could be, and Manami brought a fist down to check it as she moved away.

Now, what was that English saying? Hook, line, and sinker?

Manami drew her stomach back in the motion, narrowly avoiding the kick that came her way if blocking it wasn’t enough. That, unfortunately, brought her head into the perfect range for Valley’s fist. She had scarce a second to blink before the champion’s knuckles buried themselves in her face, snapping her head back and forcing her back a step. If the impact didn’t unsteady her, the recoil certainly did, leaving her to stumble for a moment behind the most haphazard guard she could devise.