Eka Guramishvili vs Harumi Hazama: A fight with Pride?

It was a high risk, high reward gamble. If Harumi relented now while still trapped in Eka’s guillotine choke hold, there was no way she would be able to free herself. She was depriving herself of oxygen, and her arms were straining to continue to stabilize herself and pull at the Georgian at the same time. She could feel the grappler’s arm start to give way, only a few more seconds and she would be free, possibly in a prime position to take her foe down with a grapple of her own. She just needed her arms to hold out for a few more seconds.

Finally, the arm that was snaked around Harumi’s head relented, but that was hardly the relief she expected to feel. In fact, she felt a stab of dread in her gut, because she didn’t pull Eka’s arm away. The Georgian retracted her arm willingly.

It wasn’t long until Harumi realized why. The Judoka tried to flee, to escape from the grapplers clutches, but it was already too late. Eka had wrapped her arms around Harumi’s forearm and shoulder, closing in the kimura hold! The pain on her arm was excruciating, the muscles already burning from the lactic acid pumped into them due to the constant strain, now doubled by the sharp hold twisting her arm and shoulder awkwardly out of position. The teal attired newbie physically pushed her jaw close against the mat to stifle her scream, trying to regain some sense of control over the situation and think.

Eka had her hands on her opponent, and she was not going to let go for the end of the world. All of the frustration that she had been feeling for the duration of the match now exploded into unbridled rage. She had this annoying, haughty woman right in her grasp, and she could break her arm should she have chosen to. Her blue eyes went wide as she applied even more pressure to what was already a torturous hold. This woman would be shown that Eka was not some idiot rookie who needed an education on how to wrestle.

Her blue eyes then turned to the back of Harumi's head. Her cute visage lit up when she imagined the insufferable pain that her opponent was now suffering. She became aware of herself breathing, with the air tasting that bit much more crisp and sweet as the crowd picked up in intensity. They wanted this. She wanted this. Her nostrils flared with intensity as she pushed that little bit more, trying to find the breaking point.

And then she stopped.

Eka blinked. Once, twice. The Georgian girl did not even know the last time she had felt like this. The last time she was willing to do anything for the sake of the almighty win. The last time she took delight in nearly breaking one of her fellow wrestler's arms. The hand that was bending her opponent's arms so powerfully relented, and Eka's grip on Harumi's wrist also became a little bit looser.

She gulped. That was also not who she was. The Georgian girl was not a psycho who would take joy in seriously harming her opponents, nor was she some coward who would refuse to give it her all. Eka let go totally, and the rigid lines of her body faded into a swirl of black hair and sweat. She was scrambling now, across Harumi's back so that she could plop herself down in position and cinch in a Boston crab...

The pain that was running through Harumi’s arm and shoulder was overpowering. It was if she had been caught in a bear trap, except every moment she stayed the trap got tighter, more painful then before. It was shameful, Harumi could do nothing with the taller woman on top of her, the teal clad warrior completely at the Georgian’s mercy, and it seemed like her mountainous foe wanted to teacher the Judoka a very painful lesson. Harumi attempted to move, but every ill movement she made simply made her shoulder burn all the more, the intensity of the pain causing her to sweat as she clamped her jaw closed, her entire focus was on not screaming out and crying for the pain to stop.

But Eka kept applying pressure to the hold, to the point where it felt she may snap Harumi’s arm. Harumi could not hold her scream of pain in anymore, growling as she quickly clamped her teeth around the scream. She couldn’t take this much longer. What would she do if she broke her arm? What would she say? Could she even compete in any of her usual tournaments anymore?

Those questions scared her. So much so that her other hand began to rise up, getting ready to tap and submit against the painful hold, but she could not bring herself to do so. She did not want to submit to someone who would break another person’s arm just to win. It was a terrible example to set for others, and Harumi would much rather go down fighting then quitting. No matter the cost, she wouldn’t be able to live with herself if she tapped, and she knew it.

However, the last thing she expected to happen…happened. The pressure on her arm eased off. It was slow at first, so slow Harumi began to wonder if she was just losing feeling in her arm but the pain continued to ease itself. The Kimura hold was getting weaker, but why?

It was a question she might have asked had her instincts not kicked in. She felt the hold on her wrist loosen, and Harumi began to coil herself up, getting ready to jerk her entire body in one direction to slip out of the hold. Her arm would suffer, but no more so then if she just laid there and waited for Eka to get her second wind. The Georgian began to move, as if she was shifting to another hold, but Harumi would not just sit idly by. Like an animal out of its cage, Harumi quickly started moving as soon as Eka’s grip seemed to be a t its loosest, her arm felt as if she had been stabbed in it multiple time, but still she thrashed about, throwing a wild and brutal elbow aimed right for the raven haired woman’s chin. She needed to escape! There was no way Harumi could hold out like that again.

If the Judoka was able to get away, she would quickly climb to her feet, holding her damaged arm while glaring defensively at her opponent.

Eka was so wrapped up in her own mind and in her own feelings that it just now occurred to her what was going on with her opponent. She knew that the woman must have been in an enormous amount of pain, that much was obvious. But she just now realized what the growl had meant. A low rumbling of simmering rage and unbearable pain being made manifest. Eka could now see the hand outstretched, ready to tap if the torment continued. But it didn't. Eka stopped, and she now had to bear the consequences of that, just as she had to deal with the repercussions of doing the move in the first place.

The Georgian girl was moving quickly, but as soon as she released the hold she knew that she was in trouble. Harumi had proven herself to be a dangerous and unpredictable opponent, and sure enough the second the hold was released she began thrashing once more. Eka instinctively withdrew a little bit, but it was the wrong move. The blue eyed girl recognized too late that she should have stayed on top of her, if such a thing was even possible. Harumi resumed her violent undulations. Eka did her best to hold on but when an elbow rose up to meet her chin she was thrown back and off of her opponent.

The blow was a mighty one, but not enough to keep her down for long. Her opponent was well out of her grasp now, and after such a confrontation Eka was not dying to enter the fray again. Eka collected herself and pushed herself onto her knees, then all the way up onto her feet. The Georgian girl was not aware of how much that last exchange had taken out of her, mentally and physically, and the look on her face was grim. She eyed her opponent. Her mouth open, then closed again. After a move such as that, she did not know what to say. Harumi was holding her arm. She was not prepared to apologize for trying to win the match, nor was she quite sure how to articulate that she did not want to seriously harm her opponent. The words were not coming to her, but they had to be.

She closed her eyes for a second. "Your arm is not seriously hurt, yes?" Eka swallowed her fatigue and her pride and her anger for a moment and did her best to sound seriously concerned. The usually kind girl who she was cracked through what she was feeling, and Eka was amazed with herself. Even after all of that, she still sounded like Eka, if only just a little bit.

Harumi did it! She got away from such an incredibly painful hold by what felt like the skin of her teeth, but she still had to deal with the perpetrator of the hold. The Judo girl made no move against the Georgian, not yet at least. Her damaged arm still felt as if it was in the hold, Harumi feeling the ghost impressions of Eka’s arm squeezing her limb to the breaking point. Even now, it felt as if one wrong move or a poorly thought out jolt of the arm would make the bone underneath snap like a twig. She would definitely find a deep bruise in the morning, if not sooner.

For now, Harumi was backed into a corner, both figuratively and literally. Still cradling her arm, she new she would have to resort to kicks or light strikes until her arm could become bearable enough to use again, maybe even submission holds if she was lucky enough to knock the taller woman onto the ground however unlikely that was. It was going to be an uphill fight, but Harumi still had every intention of paying Eka back for the hold.

Of course, there was that nagging question in the back of her mind. Why did Eka let go? Harumi was basically helpless in that position, and while she was sure she would not have tapped, she had heard it was easy to pass out from such a large amount of stress and pain that a kimura hold can easily inflict, especially with the force the larger woman was using. Was it mercy, or a sick way of prolonging Harumi’s suffering?

Despite her suffering, Harumi put on a brave face, not wanting to give Eka any sick pleasure at the sight of her pain. Sweat was beading all over her body from the pain, but Harumi ignored it, staring down Eka’s baby blue eyes with her own emerald green.

“No, I’d say you stopped just short of breaking it.” She said in a cold, curt voice. It seemed the last thing Harumi wanted was to hold a conversation with Eka. Perhaps she would feel differently later, but for now the emotions were still too raw to work things out. Harumi was like an animal with its back to the wall: angry, stressed, and a slight feeling of helplessness made her into something of a time bomb. A time bomb that was a prodigy in Judo attacks and had experience in wrestling.

Eka could be patient if she wanted to be. The many nights she had stayed awake plowing through dense textbooks about the ins and outs of international diplomacy. Letting her opponent go through with the move if she saw a counter. Staring at the microwave waiting for her noodles to be ready. But she could not be patient now. If only Harumi knew the power that her words held over the Georgian girl. Eka was practically on her tip toes as she waited for the answer, whatever it was.

The Judoka delivered her reply. It came a little bit tenser than Eka would have otherwise have liked, but she was happy to hear that she had not caused any permanent damage. Not yet anyways. The ravenhaired girl visibly sighed with relief. She brushed her dark hair from her face and looked at Harumi with a frank honesty. "That is very lucky, yes?" Eka smiled. A second later, she regretted saying that. Lucky was the worst word choice she could have possibly made. She wanted to say that it was good or nice or anything else. Lucky made it sound that it was just up to fate, nor did it expound on whom it was lucky for. She took another sigh this time, and her shoulders elevated slightly.

Eka did not want to say anything else, for fear of saying another thing that was stupid or pointless. Eka's arms were raised too, one slightly further forward than the other that she may catch something before it turned into something worse. Her advance was steady, cautious even. She did not want to give her opponent much time to heal, but she recognized that Harumi was going to have to string a few different moves together if she wanted to get back into this match. The Georgian girl knew that these sorts of matches swung on a trifle.

Eka found her legs moving on their own. Her mind wanted to just stand still, to see what Harumi was going to do, to frankly assess what violence she was capable of. But at the end of the day, she was a wrestler, and her instincts were taking over. For better or worse. She did not slow or speed up as she approached her opponent. Her movements came with the pace and the inevitability of the next dawn.

“Lucky” was a very poor word choice in this situation. Harumi’ eyes hardened against the raven-haired woman, gripping her wounded arm even tighter as she glared into Eka’s eyes. The judo girl did not blame Eka for wanting to win, that was part of the business after all...but when it came to breaking someone; really going beyond what is necessary in a bid to score another point to an imaginary score board of wins and losses, that was something Harumi found absolutely disgusting.

Despite the raw, painful emotions Harumi had coursing through her, her face fell into a stoic mask, the emerald eyes glaring at her foe while watching her movements. She was still in a match after all, and it seemed what little conversation to be had was done as the Georgian woman slowly, yet cautiously approached Harumi. Eka had a whole landside of advantages at the moment: she was taller, had Harumi pinned in a corner, and reduced the Judoka girl to one arm. Still, Harumi could not just give up after all she had endured. She needed to show Eka that these types of tactics were wrong, at least morally. Despite what she had gone through, Harumi could see that her foe was conflicted about what she had done, and what road her anger was taking her down. Perhaps it was foolish, maybe Eka was already lost, but despite the hurt and the anger…Harumi still wanted to help her.

Right now, the best way to do that was get through this fight.

Eka was close, nearly upon her, Harumi retreating further and further as she tried to think of what to do to counter her situation, which was indeed dire. It had gotten to the point where her back was nearly against the post, the larger grappler continuously closing in like the sun over the horizon. With only one arm, Harumi knew she would likely have to resort to kicks if she wanted to get through this with minimal injury.

Just then, an idea popped in her head! It would be tough and a bit flashy for her…but it might work. Harumi waited, letting her foe entrap her and get closer and closer while maintain a distance between her and the post behind her. Just as Eka was upon her, Harumi quickly spun around, running towards the post and quickly climbing the ropes. It was a miracle she did not fall over before she reached the top, where she planted one of her feet and pushed off as hard as she could. She had no idea where the Georgian was in those precious few seconds, it was a total shot in the dark as Harumi quickly turned in mid air and fired off a hard, random kick towards a phantom foe whom she hoped was close enough to receive such a hit.

Eka's haunches were raised, and high alert was a bit of an understatement. The Georgian girl felt like she was backing a ram into the corner of its pen, and the only way out was through her. It was the right move, tactically, she thought. After all, there was no way she was going to get her opponent to tap if she did not wear her down first. But she had always found that if she pushed and pushed and pushed that sooner or later, the person on the other end was going to start pushing back. Eka was clearly doing better at this stage in the game, but a rubber band only takes so much before it breaks.

Harumi had nowhere left at this point. If she was going to do anything to try and stake her claim in this match, she was going to do it now. Instinctively, she started crouching a little bit. The ravenhaired girl was anticipating a takedown of some sort. She had done quite a number on Harumi's arm, but Eka thought that she recognized when someone was a Judoka through and through. Even a wounded eagle still had to use its beak.

When Harumi became a tornado of motion, Eka crouched down further still, trying to get her center of gravity as low as possible. Then her eyes went wide. Harumi was going up the turnbuckle in a flash. When she came flying off of it, the Georgian girl was totally unprepared. A lancing kick slipped past her guard and collided with the side of her face. Those precious blue eyes of hers that were only a moment ago wide with shock were now closed with pain.

Eka found herself plummeting to the floor. The swift nature of the kick and the dire pain in her head meant that she could not get her hands up to break her fall. She felt a second blow, decidedly not quite as strong as the first, but still not great. Her head was throbbing with pain and she could not think straight. She was lying facedown now, just trying to breathe. Eka grabbed the mat as she tried to cling to consciousness...

It was a long shot, really a move that Harumi would never try to bank on unless she was totally desperate. It relied on her opponents positioning and complete chance, but right now that was all Harumi could manage, needlessly using her damaged arm could cause serious and possibly permanent injury down the line, and with the size difference between her and Eka, the Judoka needed to be as creative as possible when it came to her kicks if she wanted any chance at all to get through this match.

So, the teal attired warrior quickly climbed up the corner post and launched off in a desperate attempt to take back some control in the match. Her emerald eyes widened in surprise as her foot SLAMMED into the Georgians beautiful face, sending her foe toppling over like a tree. The effectiveness of the blow surprised even Harumi herself.

Harumi’s landing was less than graceful, landing rather awkwardly while rolling to lessen the force on her legs. She was sure to roll with her good shoulder, still very protective of her limb despite her foe struggling on the ground. By the time she stood up, Eka was lying face down on the floor, her limp body moving up and down with every breath she took.

Now was her chance! To pay Eka back for everything she did to Harumi! Twist her arm to the breaking point, or bend her legs until she could not walk properly! Or maybe…no. Even thinking such thoughts disgusted the stoic woman. She could never do such a horrible thing to a downed enemy, no matter who they were. In fact, the only thought on Harumi’s mind was that she had perhaps gone too far. She knew that in this sport it was possible to get seriously injured and that was just part of the deal, but to knowingly hurt someone beyond repair and continue to do so…She needed to make sure Eka was alright!

“Ms. Eka? Are you alright?” Her voice was concerned, yet strangely professional.  It was clear she was concerned for her opponent, but still on guard. Despite what had happened, or perhaps because of it, Harumi had realized she wanted to give Eka a second chance, perhaps extend her hand one more time, but if she had seriously injured the Georgian, the judoka would never be able to forgive herself for what she had done.

Eka's world was spinninig. The colors and sounds of the world had been dulled by the powerful kick, and Eka had her bell rung pretty damn hard. The surprise of the blow made the pain far worse, she reckoned, and that was quite a lot given the sheer force of the blow. She grimaced. The only one to see it was the canvas, as her long dark hair shrouded her face from the world. She was fairly happy for that. The Georgian girl felt fairly stupid for walking into a trap like that. Sure, it was a move that no one on the face of the earth had expected, but Eka was tired of having low standards for herself.

Then something very curious happened. Harumi asked a question. It wasn't one of those threatening questions, like are you ready to get rocked? It was a genuine question. It must have been that the kick to the head had robbed her of her senses. Eka pushed herself up to her hands, and held the side of her face that had gotten kicked. Her bleary eyes could only make out Harumi in the vaguest sense. She was a teal streak in a blurry world, whose presence could not be denied. The words played back in her head, and Eka tried to blink the fog away.

Harumi was not attacking her. She was not taunting her. The judoka was asking if Eka was alright. That had really happened, just as real as the kick and almost as shocking. The Georgian girl got all the way up, teetering for a bit before finding her two feet. The blurriness was gone now in its completeness. A world, stark and forgiving, appeared to her again. Eka took a deep breath in. "I, uh, I think so." She produced, weakly. Eka gulped. "As alright as you can be after you are kicked very hard in the face, yes?" She smiled a bit, letting her opponent know that she was okay. Eka rubbed her face a little bit to play up the situation in a lighthearted way, and then she brushed her dark hair from her face to show that she was ready for the bout to begin once more.

She crouched into her stance, legs shoulder distance from one another and her arms out in front of her. It did not seem quite sporting to go after Harumi immediately after she let her get up from a powerful kick, so Eka was going to sit back a little bit. "And that was a very good kick." Her voice had that sing song tone to it that she once had always talked with. And her smile was as bright as ever.