Suzuki Adachi vs. Carmen Rodriguez - Blood in the Water

And there was the benefit of cross-training. Carmen knew she had a wider moveset to work with these days, but it was nice to have confirmation. Especially given how rusty she’d grown through inaction - she wasn’t sure if she was at the top of her form, didn’t know if she would be able to perform at her peak. In a way, it was a good thing that Suzuki decided to step up and take the challenge, giving her a chance to fine tune things before she took on the younger shark.

So far, though, things looked promising. As she moved in, her footwork was solid, her body knew where to go and how to get there. No lag, nothing held back, left and right and left again, closing in, and…

Strike.

Carmen’s ruse worked better than she’d hoped. Her first guess was that the kick would be blocked, that Suzuki would be able to tank it and she’d have to followup to make the whole thing worthwhile, but no. She caught the other woman off guard and sent her reeling. Suzuki did guard, but she went too high, and the blow took her in the sternum. Over the couch she went, into the wall, hitting hard enough dislodge a family photo that had been hanging a few feet away and send it crashing to the floor.

Carmen only spared that briefest glance as she moved in, wanting to seize the moment before it got away from her. Reaching out, she grabbed a handful of her opponent’s hair, held it tight, and used it to lift her up, forcing her to stand against the wall whether she was willing or not - especially if not. With her up and pinned, Carmen took the opportunity unload a solid uppercut into her chiseled abs, making sure to drill it in deep. ”Welcome to Tension, by the way.”

Suzuki was reeling after that kick. Her ribcage could take it, but having smacked the back of her skull against Carmen's apartment wall...rebounding was gonna take a little more time. Time she didn't have as her opponent grabbed the older woman's hair. Pulling her up by force, Suzuki would both groan and growl angrily as Carmen stood her up and kept her back against the wall. Honestly, she knew Mako must have been having the time of her life fighting women like this badass. And now that she got a taste of her daughter's life, Suzuki was sold. She was going to stay on the roster and make the most of it.

Receiving an uppercut to her abs snapped the older woman out of her haze. Immediately feeling the awful sensations of nausea and air loss combined, Suzuki barely managed to stay standing. Luckily, she'd been taking gut shots before Mako was conceived (Something she actually says pretty often despite all the protests from her mortified daughter). So a sudden burst of nausea was nothing to the yakuza high roller. If she wasn't used to it, then a blow like that would probably have the older woman vomiting.

"Thanks...I always enjoy...rough welcomes~" Suzuki laughed despite still being in pain. Of course, she already had a plan to repay Carmen for this 'warm/rough welcome'. Doubled over from the uppercut while holding her midsection, the older woman looked pretty helpless. But then, Suzuki would swing herself up to stand straight. And in doing so, try to catch her opponent off guard with a  headbutt to Carmen's jaw from below. This wouldn't be fun considering she'd smacked her head just a minute ago. Still, this was supposed to be a brutal fight. And Suzuki could do brutal better than anyone else she knew.

It was rare that Carmen thought much of the bodies she plunged her fist into, but she had concede, Suzuki had one of the better ones she’d ever pummeled. A solid, taut midsection, one that could even rival her own. How old was this woman, again? If she was Mako’s mom, that had to put her in the forties, right? Carmen hoped she could boast a body like this one when she reached that age.

Still she wasn’t invincible, and the blow had an effect, even if it wasn’t as stark as what would’ve normally occurred. Doubled over, gasping, it left her wide open for just about anything Carmen could’ve wanted. She decided to go for something devastating, and rose her arm, ready to plunge it into the back of her foe’s head with a sharp elbow.

Suzuki had other ideas, however. Ideas that involved ramming their skulls together.

Carmen wound up taking the blow in her jaw, which would’ve sucked under most normal circumstances, but was made infinitely worse by the fact that her mouth had been open at the time and she wound up biting her tongue. The blow didn’t just leave her seeing stars, but threw in a sharp burst of pain, and she wound up staggering away from her opponent towards the hallway with wobbly legs, grasping her mouth. She hadn’t been cut, wasn’t tasting blood, but it still stung like fire and left her in a haze.

Suzuki was glad to get Carmen off her finally. She wasn't all that glad about the headbutt, though. Nobody wins with headbutts. If people think that's a good plan, they'll end up losing their minds from repeated concussions. That's why Suzuki aimed for the jaw like she did. It softened the 'recoil', or in other words, lessened the damage to herself a bit. Still, she wasn't ready to capitalize just yet. So it was really a good thing that Carmen stumbled away and retreated to a hallway inside this apartment. Despite being on wobbly legs herself, Suzuki managed to stay standing long enough to follow her opponent. But then she dropped down on one knee suddenly. Suzuki probably should have given it a few more seconds...because she was still off balance enough to accidentally slip.

Cursing under her breathe, the yakuza queen would push herself back up and get back in control of herself. Her body hurt all over, but Suzuki didn't need to stop the pain to get moving. She just needed to get used to it. "Ugh...well...it's a good thing that...you don't have a glass jaw...Heh...It'd be a waste if this ended too soon..." she chuckled as she entered the hallway and went after her 'host' with a sadistic grin. Looking very eager to continue the fight.

Carmen was a little surprised that she didn’t get clobbered after getting stunned like that, leaving herself open. While she didn’t know Suzuki that well, she seemed like the serious sort, not the type to let an opening go unpunished, and she fully expected to be taking it hard on the chin after something like that...but no. No, it seemed like this match was wearing on her, too, putting on a reset as she struggled to find her footing. A good thing for the Puerto Rican pugilist, but she knew better than to rely on that in the future.

Gritting her teeth, she pushed hard on the knee and rose up, moving in to engage with her opponent once again. This time, she wanted to try something a little different - as good as she was at striking, there were other tools she could employ against the other woman, and it was time she worked on making use of them.

Carmen moved in for a collar and elbow tie up, locking horns with Suzuki , but she didn’t stay with it for too long. Instead, she reached up to grab her with a headlock, then twisted about to whip her foe over her leg, looking to slam her on the hard carpet with a hip toss and take control on top.

Suzuki was more than thrilled to lock up with Carmen. She couldn't help but feel the urge to drool while thinking about struggling with the woman. How both of their strong, muscular bodies would press together in a sweaty clash for dominance between the two badasses. And it was thoughts like that where Suzuki wondered if Mako got her female muscle fetish from her...or if it grew on her from years of watching Mako's lustful rampage across Tokyo, Kyoto, and beyond.

But Suzuki may have gone into this a bit too confidently. Sure Carmen was a boxer, but she was still a veteran wrestler. One who wouldn't have got where she was today if she didn't pick up some actual wrestling skills. One of which, grappling, would catch the badass mother by surprise. During all the struggling of lock up, Carmen would suddenly hook her arm around Suzuki's head. Without fail, the woman then twisted so suddenly and fast that she'd manage to toss the Yakuza woman up and over. Resulting with Suzuki flipping down hard on her back. The impact stunned her instantly. Suzuki's head really felt that one too. It almost felt like having a hangover and falling down the stairs. It hurt a ton as it happened, but afterwards everything would just feel numb (before hurting about 100 times worse a little later).

"Aah f-fuck!" Suzuki growled in a lot of pain. "What...what the fuck...is this floor...made of? FUCK! I've gone through tables softer than this..." she added, really wondering why that little toss had hurt this much. Was she actually getting that old? Honestly, Suzuki would rather die than learn that was the case...

Army and Felina were always trying to get Carmen to learn fancier moves, spice up her moveset. Cutters, moonsaults, flips and topes, all the sorts of things the fans loved to see. While she liked to learn and improve, she tended to keep things grounded, or as they liked to describe it, ‘boring’.

Whatever. It worked for her, and the effectiveness of her fighting philosophy was on display here. Her hip toss, simple as it was, not only managed to get Suzuki down into a position of weakness with her on top, but it had the added benefit of putting some heavy damage on that body of hers. Carmen clinched the hold tight, giving the older woman a good squeeze as she poured on the pressure, doing her best to keep her foe under control.

”Tables, huh? You don’t say?” Carmen whipped around and pulled Suzuki with her as she sat on her calves, adding some height to the equation. She kept the hold on her opponent’s neck, not hard enough to make it a true chokehold, but solid enough to keep her under control for the moment. ”What’s your story, anyway? You’re a wrestler?”

Now might not have been the best time for questions, but Carmen’s curiosity was giving her a serious itch. She was finding it hard to believe that a woman like this could’ve slipped under her radar. She clearly had the combat experience, but where was she using it?

Suzuki struggled as Carmen took control by getting on top of her. Still a bit dazed by the woman's hip top, escape wasn't possible. However, she could slow Carmen down. Squirming against every attempt her opponent made to 'out-grapple' the badass mother, Suzuki was hoping to delay a submission hold until she could properly escape this position. Carmen had skills, though. And she wasn't making anything easy for the woman who made this challenge in her own home. Soon enough, she would manage to get Suzuki trapped in a chokehold. She wasn't pouring on the pressure to make it effective, though. It seemed like this was just a step towards the woman's true intention. Must've been a good one too...which meant it'd be big trouble for the badass if successful...

"Urk...Among other things...yeah...I'm sure you've...gone through tons of weird stuff..." Suzuki said back, groaning from her own attempts to break free, rather than pain being inflicted by her opponent. Soon enough Carmen was asking for her life story. An odd thing to ask, considering most people barely talked while fighting. Luckily, Suzuki was always talking during fights. Whether just to chat during enjoyable fights. Or to mind-fuck the people she really hated and beat them without remorse.

"Nah...that's Mako's thing...been thinking about that though...which is why I'm here, actually. Let's just say I still beat people up for a living...but when I do...it's really frowned upon..." the woman said, giving a vague and extremely brief summary of being an underground crime boss. She wouldn't care too much if Carmen or anyone else knew. But if her bad reputation somehow affected her daughter...then she'd never forgive herself. So Suzuki would be vague for a while, at least until she got to know Carmen better.

"What about you? I know you were a boxer...but now you're a Japanese wrestler in a league where public sex can become pretty common? Heh...how'd your parents take that one?" Suzuki said, teasing the woman a little bit. "I'm not judging, of course...I mean, you've been around my daughter. I was already used to her 'interests' before she finished high school...and trust me she has not changed that much." the woman laughed, finding the subject rather humorous.

If Carmen’s father were here - well, if he were here and able to get over the fact that his daughter was wrestling with some half naked woman in the middle of her apartment, he’d likely chastise Carmen for talking when she should’ve been fighting. And he’d be right to. Even in her earliest days as a wrestler, she’d made her bones by being a serious alternative to jokier types in Tension, getting straight and serious where others played around. She’d grown lax over the years, but that was no excuse.

Couldn’t help herself. What could she say? She was curious.

The response she received was worthy of that curiosity, too. What she did was ‘frowned upon’? That could’ve meant so many things, Carmen could scarcely find the time to count them all. The AFW had the habit of attracting types from all walks of society, illegal and legal, so she doubted there was anything she could that would take her by surprise. But fine. If Suzuki wanted to keep it off camera, she wouldn’t press the matter

When it came time for a little quid pro quo, Carmen didn’t answer her right away. Instead, she threw herself to the side and rolled on top of the older woman, taking the moment to transition into something a little more effective. Now that she was on top, she unhooked her arms from Suzuki’s throat and grabbed her by the chin, instead, sitting on her back and pulling her into a tight Boston Crab, eager to see how flexible these old bones were. ”My father didn’t take it too well, not that I care much.” She gave the hold a good wrenching. ”He’s not quite as ‘enlightened’ as you, I’d say.”

Suzuki let out a pained grunt as Carmen caught her in a Boston Crab. After her opponent released her from the choke, the older woman knew better than to feel relief. Sue she could breathe again, but that just meant Carmen had something more painful in mind. So just as she expected, Suzuki found herself suddenly rolled over on her belly before Carmen pulled back on her chin. Now trapped in the Boston Crab, the badass mother found herself in a front view seat to the former boxer's submission skills. Although, in this position, Carmen was the one with the view, while Suzuki was the actual 'seat'. If she was watching this instead of being on the receiving end, then the mother would laugh at such a thought. But right now, she was in a pretty bad angle for laughter.

Groaning as Carmen bent her back to the breaking point, Suzuki mustered her endurance for a long stay in this hold. And despite the pain, she still paid attention to her opponent's response. "Oof! Well...that's...one way to put it...thanks for sugar coating it~" Suzuki chuckled with a few groans. "Honestly...I'd love it if Mako was...a bit more...like you...she only even MET her father...a few years ago." the woman said, sounding a bit emotional now.

"And yet...she doesn't even seem to mind..."

Now Suzuki sounded different. Not like before when she'd been joking. Not even just before when she'd sounded only a bit gloomy. Now, she was getting mad. Honestly, for years now Suzuki was still as mad at that man as she was on the day he ghosted them. The only reason she didn't just kill the bastard was because she didn't want to put in the effort to track him down. She had enough sense in her to use that rage towards her underground dominance and raising her daughter alone. But when her father came back to meet with their child, she was ready to stab him to death. Mako, however, didn't even flinch. They hugged, they went out, they hit a dozen bars, and they even hit on chicks together (Resulting in Mako getting both her targets and her dad's).

It was Suzuki's worst nightmare made real. She prayed this was actually trauma. That a therapist might actually be able to snap her out of this madness so she could burry that bastard in cement. Even after forcing Mako to see a professional, though, her daughter never budged. So now, as she spoke out loud about the situation...Suzuki used her growing rage like a tool for her own benefit.

"Just thinking about them...in a fucking strip club...just makes me...wanna..." Suzuki growled like a living devil. Before she finished her sentence, though, she'd make her move. Her muscles had slowly grown tense over time. Resulting in a suddenly explosion of adrenaline as she tried twisting her entire body with the force of steel wires snapping. All she needed was to get on her side. Even if Carmen was still on top of her the older woman could fight back. Suzuki would try to swing her right elbow at Carmen's head a few times. Hopefully that would jar the woman enough to knock her off.