Reiko Ishida vs Lilliana Reynolds: The Hard Road

There was some irony behind Lilliana's words about a former member of the military talking to the eighteen year old girl she was on top of about fair fights, but pointing that out wasn't really Reiko's top priority at the moment. In her world, getting put on the ground like this was certain death. Someone would climb on top of you and wouldn't stop punching until you were a bloody mess... she had seen Mako do it enough to people in Tension to be just a bit frightened of it, especially when she found herself unable to shake the Captain. She shoved at the other woman, digger to palm up into her face only to have her slip free and lean in.

There was some real confusion when Lilliana hunkered down on top of her. It almost seemed like the brunette was trying to hug her. Did she not know this was a real match or something? She wouldn't find a very good reception if she tried to get up close and personal as Reiko was not all to thrilled about being intimate with someone like the Captain. That turned out to not be the case of course, as forearms closed in around her throat like a bear trap, pinching her into a hold. It left her gagging as she struggled, buckling wildly to try and somehow slip free to no real effect.

One of her arms flailed blindly while the other felt out for Lilliana's face in desperation. She hadn't been in the choke for long before her vision started to blur and sounds seemed to bleed together. Her fingers traced the brunette's features finding her mouth... her nose... before finding what she wanted. Her fingers curled into tense claws, raking her nails across Lilliana's eyes. It was the only move that she thought could help her in this panic, unsure if the referee was even in a position to see it or not.

Lilliana had a deep background in combat training. After all, she got some lessons in close quarter combat while being a part of the military. Her area of expertise was reducing a rival and submitting it with limb dislocations or rendering them unconscious with chokeholds, just as she was doing right at that moment.

Without knowing about this array of skills coming from Lilliana, the simplest and more brutish Reiko was expecting for the American to have sunk to her level. The biker was expecting some kind of uncivilised beating until she lost consciousness and that was why she prepared to defend against that. Few things could her arms do when Lilliana just leaned in and slipped between them before locking a powerful choking hold around Reiko's neck.

Only seconds after Lilliana locked her arms around Reiko's head the biker started panicking, wildly gagging and gasping for air as she bucked her body wildly. All of that was to no avail since the lock was tightly hold and the only escape to that would be applying a lot of strength in order to pry Lilliana's arm open.

The irony was that the longest the biker would be locked in the hold the weaker she would get, her reaction window long gone and being her only way of resistance some pathetic pats with her hand against Lilliana's face, and even that would come to a full stop when Reiko found herself between giving up or losing consciousness. Lilliana only had to endure that stupid hand reaching for her nose for some instants and it would be over.

Then the unexpected happened as Lilliana released her rival with a wail of anguish, her hands going at her eyes as she rested on her side while crying in pain, and not in a way that went along with the show. Lilliana's voice gave away the desperate pinch she was experiencing as she cupped her face with her hands as she kicked wildly the mat. The referee wasn't sure about how to act and the crowd looked confused, but not stupid as it started booing at Reiko and the ref while for Lilliana there was nothing but a world of pain coming from her eyes.

Her fingernails dragged with a swift sharp motion, coming away with a wide arching follow through. She had thrown her all into raking Lilliana's face and it had proven fruitful. The biker punk took an immediate gasp of air, choking on the sudden intake with a fit of coughing. In a frantic bid for escape she scurried backwards on her backside, getting out from under the brunette as she wailed in pain and clutched her face. In no real shape to capitalize on her food fortune, Reiko did the next best thing. Pulling a leg in she lifted her foot up, aligning it with the former shoulder's chest to give the woman a hard push kick, wanting to topple her backwards onto the mat while she was unable to fight back.

Reiko clutched at her own throat as she let out ragged breaths, inching further and further back by pushing her heels into the canvas and scooting away. Her heart was pounding in her chest, face slightly paled at what had just happened. She almost lost... just like that. The corner of her eye twitched a bit as she let out a struggled wheeze, catching her breath. Slowly she pushed herself up, weary to charge the brunette outright again even if she appeared wounded. It was like someone who had played with fire and been burned. She seemed to now understand just how dangerous her opponent was... and while she would never admit to being intimidated, the change in her behavior was showing it.

"Stupid bitch..." She had wanted to say something witty or something more personal to try and dig at Lilliana, but as she rubbed her neck nothing really came to her so she resorted to the first thing that came to her mind. She found herself wishing she had backup at ringside. Any of the girls in her corner would have given her a nice leg up in this situation. Her eyes drifted between Lilliana and the referee who was now leaning down, checking on her opponent. Blow for blow, she wasn't sure she could take the former soldier. What would Mako do in this situation? Her eyes narrowed in intense thought, briefly peering over her shoulder. She had an idea... but it would take some finesse, something she wasn't terribly good with.

Reiko had proven that she was more than willing to resort to the dirtiest of tactics in order to get the upper hand and get a win that night, but what she just did was even beyond Lilliana's capabilities of forgiveness. She wasn't a woman to hold grudges easily, but Reiko had crossed all the red lines now, overstepped every possible boundry. Up until now the biker had acted like some kind of thug wannabe, using every foul play she could to try to achieve victory, but never putting her rival in a real danger situation. That changed the very moment her fongernails clawed at her eye. The risk of getting severely injured from that kind of move was too big, and Lilliana was in total distress as she wasn't sure about the state of her eye.

Whimpering from the pain and trying her best to hide her sobbing, Lilliana made an attempt at opening her eye, tears flowing freely as the irritated eyeglobe would take some time to heal. It burnt like hell and Lilliana would most likely have to end the match without using it.

When she finally managed to compose herself Lilliana slowly crawled to her fours and after that to her feet, eye still closed as now she noticed the referee checking at her with a confused face. "Where were you looking at? The bitch almost plucked my eye out!" She knew that venting her rage against the ref would be to no avail, but she was too frustrated with this match. Reiko had managed to take all the excitement about her debut, all the eagerness and emotion, and turn it into ashes inside Lilliana's mouth. Lilliana remained still for some time, adjusting to her new blindspot as she would be fighting really handicapped now.

Reiko remain on the outskirts of the ring, by the ropes. It was a conscious decision. Just in case Lilliana got hold of her again she had the safety of a role break to help secure a speedy release. She was talking back on old ways, back before the Valkyries. Always have an exit strategy. It was more about not getting beat down by angry owners or caught by the police, but here it found new life. The longer she watched the struggling woman from across the ring though the more uneasy she became. All that wasted time she could have been attacking was drifting out the window while she stood around… being scared? Why was she scared? This was a wrestling match.

Slowly, Reiko started to circle the ring, keeping to the outside where the ropes were just within her reach. She half expected Lilliana to be playing up the eye take for drama's sake… maybe even laying a trap for her. It was clear upon closer inspection though her pain and frustration were genuine. She had mixed feelings about that but kept them all to herself.

Slipping from the ropes she started in a not before breaking into a full on run. The referee was unintentionally helping her out by being in the way between both women, providing her some cover from being seen. Closing in fast, she would lead with a shoulder to shove the official out of her way, lunging towards the former soldier. She didn't slam into her though, but instead tried to dive last her, throwing an arm out in a spin to grab hold of Lilliana by the collar and pull her backwards to the mat with a slingblade. If she managed to hit the move, she would try to scramble on top of the brunette and go for a quick pinfall. If she could end it early and run, that was her new plan.

The match had gotten really hard on Lilliana. When at first it looked that her rival wasn’t too much and her debut would be an easy thing to handle in order to get the victory, at that moment situation looked dire as Lilliana was feeling exhausted by the knavish beating she got first, and the treacherous scratch at her eye made things just worse as Lilliana’s face burned in pain and she had to settle with using one of her eyes only. Lilliana was enraged, the audacity of this rival knowing no limits and making her feel frustrated about the thoughts of retaliation she was having. Even so, she was also feeling quite drained from energy, needing an instant to properly compose herself.

While Lilliana was recovering Reiko’s mind was most likely planning some further treachery. In a coward move, the biker decided to start circling the ring from the outside, always with the ropes at reach in case of things going awry for her. That gave Lilliana a crucial piece of information: no matter how battered, pummeled and even blinded she was, Reiko was scared about her. The American was on her mind to the point she didn’t want to leave her safe space close to the ropes, and that would be her downfall.

But for now she just could watch as Reiko circled the ring from the outside radius. At certain point the woman started rushing at her just from the angle Lilliana was struggling with her blind spot. Was that a cunning strategy or was it just some silly turn of events? It wouldn’t matter. What did matter was the slingblade with which the American was sent to the ground. Just after that Lilliana would feel her rival hooking her leg and securing her shoulders to go for a pin.

“ONE!”

Reiko wanted the match over soon. That could only mean that she was scared of what could happen if the combat was sustained, and that only added some gas to the fire burning inside Lilliana. She wasn’t going down, not like that. Mustering all her strength, Lilliana made her best bucking trying to break the pinning maneuver.

It hadn't been easy to convince herself to make a move. It was the people in her life that would be watching this match that helped her do it. Not the crowd, she didn't give two shits what any of them thought. It was the Valkyries. She had to prove that she was worth getting her colors... Even if she got on well with Stone and Devine, she was almost certain Mako didn't like her. That was a problem. In her mind, even though the title of leader had been striped from her, the former gang boss was still first in line to her. Trying to meet that woman's standards were hard, maybe even impossible... but if she could start making a name for the gang again, especially all the way in Toyko, she would have to recognize her worth to the group.

A move as slick as a slingblade was just simple enough to be in her wheelhouse but was borderline too fancy to make the cut. The mid air spin into the dragging slam was high energy and low impact compared to most of her go to moves, but given the situation it had helped her approach safely enough to catch Lilliana with relative ease. While unlikely the soldier would just roll over and surrender, there was a sliver of hope maybe Reiko had done enough to make her question how much continuing the match was worth it. So she covered the former soldier and went for the pin.

Before the second count she had already been bucked off, leaning back to rest upright on her knee's beside her downed opponent. Her expression was sour and shoulders were raised, clearly about to continue the offensive. There was a storm of thoughts swirling around in her mind of all the ways she could hurt Lilliana but she opted for the straightforward way. Reaching down she tried to once again grab two handfuls of the brunette's hair and pull her up and down, trying to slam the back of her head into the canvas a few times with a frustrated yell. "Just stay down!"

Lilliana was once more in the losing end of the exchange. Reiko could be a nasty, despicable person full of scorn and able of the most infamous unsportswomanlike behavior, but one had to admit that the biker had that twisted inventive bullies had, that speck of creativity that allowed them to get all the cards they had on their hands and devise the most harmful path to take. And in the middle of that path she was when she got Lilliana with a slingblade. It was a move so true to her style: visually striking but not that flashy and unelegant, but quite effective if applied correctly. It was a statement, something intended to keep an appearance of ruthlessness and cruelty, but now Lilliana had seen the truth. Where Reiko thought her rival saw her as some kind of force of nature, the former soldier saw her for what she really was. She saw a young woman constantly scared, in fear of not being considered worthy by her fellow bikers. Always with something to prove, always eager to bend the rules and the limits of her morality even further in order to try and looke more vicious, more relentless, more like her friends. For Lilliana Reiko wasn’t much more than a scared girl so eager to fit that she would even take stupid decisions, like angering a bigger and more experienced woman.

Reiko could pose as threatening as she liked, but Lilliana could now see through her. The biker’s more recent actions all pointed out to the same truth: Reiko was scared and unsure of where the match would lead her. She wanted the bout to finish as soon as possible because she knew Lilliana’s retaliation would be severe. That was why Reiko circled so close to the ropes, always with an escape route in mind. No matter how hard she wanted to pose, she was a frightened little woman.

For Lilliana, breaking the pin just after the one count was a statement, a message for Reiko. No matter how tough she could think she was Lilliana could keep doing that for days. She was just not going to win. Lilliana could feel how her escape enraged Reiko even more as the biker started smashing the American’s head against the mat once and twice, but not three times.

Enough was enough. Lilliana didn’t want to cope with Reiko’s cruelty anymore. She was just tired of that woman and how she managed to water down her excitement about her own debut. Cap had taken a lot of hits, but not anymore. Now it was her time to strike, and she would start by trying to regain her footing while making Reiko staggered, going for several knife edge chops against Reiko’s upper neck and chest that would make her retreat, showing the biker that the tide was going to shift just at that moment.

Reiko had expected her bashing the back of Lilliana's skull into the canvas to have been stopped by the referee, and the official had in fact started a count with the intention of breaking things up. What she didn't expect was the sudden lashing out of one of the brunette's arms, cracking her across the chest with a blistering chop. Surprised and anger dotted her features as she felt the numbing throb of the sharp strike on her breast, determined to play this little game of chicken the shoulder woman had initiated. It was a duel, a slam of her head for each chop that fired back as she fought from her supposed superior position. Her chest was absolutely burning, making each breath sting.

It became too much for her. Going blow for blow like this wasn't even remotely a favorable exchange for her, but when she broke up it had been at the behest of the referee's count, allowing her to save face. when she did retreat, dropping onto her backside to scuttled backwards along the mat, awkwardly pushing herself upright again as she backed to the ropes. One arm was draped over the ropes, supporting her weight as she gingerly felt around her chest with her fingers, wincing at the touch of her sore body.

"Seriously... what's with the pimp hand technique. You run a whorehouse on the side?" Reiko grunted  with a snarling grin. Her narrowed eyes followed the former soldier carefully, back on the defensive where she hated to be. Still, her eyes kept flicking, ever so briefly, to the referee as if to keep tabs on the official. "You don't know how to fight for real or something?"

Lilliana didn’t like having her head shoved away and planted on the mat several times since it made her feel dizzy and sick. She knew that the ref wouldn’t put an end to this since Reiko recognized no authority, but luckily for her she managed to put a halt to Reiko’s skull bashing with some precise and strong knife edge chops. It had been a risky move that paid off quite well since Lilliana was starting to feel lightheaded for the treatment she was getting, and even if her mind wanted to keep going and make Reiko pay her body wasn’t at its best now, and that translated in slower reactions and weaker moves in general.

Even so, the knife edge chops aimed at Reiko’s upper chest made the woman relent and retreat to the ropes where she felt safe. Once more the same tactic, a wild move against the rules and then retreat after the situation gets into a more even fight. Then came the taunting and insulting but that strategy had already gone old. Like every other bully, Reiko was a coward and had a delusional way of seeing things. Lilliana smirked to herself while she got up. Her eye still hurt like hell, but she tried her best to open it, because she wanted to look a little bit imposing when speaking.

Lilliana started with some dulled laugh. “You still don’t get it, don’t you? I thought you smarter than that but let me enlighten you: I am not like you. I am not a nasty vicious rule breaker like you. You laugh at my hits while you cower and your body language gives away how much it hurt. If those had been actual punches like the ones you throw you would have been coughing blood for some time…” She knew her rival would be angered at this, so Lilliana got her guard stance up, waiting for the outburst of fury while giving Reiko a “come here” sign with her hand. “Now leave your hiding corner and bring it, bitch.”