Kyo Akamatsu vs. Valley Doll - The Road To Recovery

Even though Valley wasn’t the one on the business end of that Death Valley Driver, you might not have known that to see the aftermath. After she spiked Kyo on the canvas, she went flopping away in a lifeless heap, not too far away from him, coming to a rest on her chest and not moving an inch beyond that.

Despite that, despite all the pain, despite all the fatigue, she still managed to smile. This was the sort of thing she adored about wrestling, what she wanted every match to be. Testing her skills, pushing her limits, being the absolute best she could be. This had absolutely been what she was looking for when she requested the match with Kyo, a chance to prove to every - herself included - that she wasn’t falling behind. She wasn’t sure if she could translate that to evening the score with Chloe in a fitting way, but it was a strong step in the direction...of…

...wait, was she forgetting something?

”Oh, shit!” Valley sprung up in a mad burst of movement and scrambling forward to seize Kyo’s leg. She pulled it in close, dropped her back against his chest, and clenched him tight for the pinfall, as the referee slid in for the count beside her. ”1…!”

If Kyo had known how much Valley had enjoyed this match, he would have blushed instantly. His sole driving force in this match hadn't just been to prove that his championship win hadn't been a fluke-- that he deserved the title he had gotten-- but also to prove himself as worthy of a match against someone like Valley Doll. As it was, he was barely aware of anything at the moment-- his entire body was a stiff board of pain, his skull was ringing, and his eyes were screwed shut as he lay in a semi-dazed state on the mat.

He was dimly aware of voices counting...something?...and he was dimly aware of something warm pressing against him, hooking one of his legs. But he couldn't move: his body simply would not respond. He had been taken well past the point of endurance, even though a small, defiant part of him wanted to kick out, his body had had enough.

"...2....3!"

And with that, the bell rang. The crowd erupted into enthusiastic cheering as, after a hard fought bought that had seen these two top-tier competitors absolutely wreck one another, Valley Doll had finally managed to score the win! Even as the bell rang, though, Kyo remained barely responsive on his back, still dazed from that driver...

Valley couldn’t remember the last time she was so happy to hear the number three. The referee’s hand hit the mat and it was like a wave of euphoria came along with it, washing over her cleansing her body. Every muscle seemed to ache and she was having trouble finding a bone that didn’t feel damage. Moving hurt. Speaking hurt. She swore, it even hurt to think, with her brain revolting in the form of a killer headache. She had lost matches that left her feeling more refreshed, and if Kyo had sprung to life then and there, she wouldn’t have been able to stop him winning.

But he wasn’t. Valley had put the Samurai down. And while one match wasn’t enough to say who was the better wrestler between them overall, she knew who it was today, and she looked forward to giving him the chance to prove her wrong.

She looked up at the lights through her hazy, half-lidded eyes and laughed. ”I love wrestling.”

The referee came over and offered her hand up, but Valley waved it off and shook her head. ”I’m good here. Just give me a minute.” She threw a thumbs up her way, then looked over to Kyo and nudged him in the side. ”Hey. Still awake over there?”

Little by little, Kyo's eyes began to flutter open. Hot, glaring arena lights stabbed into his retinas, and groaned, his vision blurring as his skull pounded like a drum. As before, he was conscious only of the pain wracking the whole of his body, and the overwhelming soreness that had set in. Really, he would have liked nothing more than to lie here a little longer and just sink into blissful unconsciousness.

Except someone was nudging his side. His eyes opened again, and he saw Valley, her head resting against his chest, red-faced and sweaty, and smiling euphorically. The dazed portion of his brain was confused at first, and wondered if he was having one of those dreams.

Then reality snapped back in place. Match. Right. Match with Valley. Realization then set in, putting context to the sounds he had heard earlier. He was lying in the middle of the ring, and Valley was lying exhaustedly against him after what looked like a pinfall. He had just lost.

He felt the briefest surge of disappointment well up inside of him, the all too familiar feeling that came from giving something your all and still losing. This, however, was mitigated by the sudden, elated realization that he had just held his own in the ring for fifteen minutes against freaking Valley Doll. It was, in many ways, one of those matches he had always yearned for: a tough, back and forth battle against a challenging, determined opponent who tested his skill to the extreme. A pit of back pain afterwards was well, well worth it.

"Never...felt better..." he groaned back to Valley, only half-lying. "Death...Valley Drivers are fun, I should get hit by them...more often." He glanced over at Valley. "I have to...admit though, I watched a good number of your matches...I thought I knew your move list. I didn't expect that one."

He took a deep breath, and blinked slowly but surely coming further back into painful consciousness. "By the way...not that I'm complaining, but is there any particular reason why you're using me as a pillow?"

Valley had a small sigh of relief when Kyo stirred back to life. She could tell that the man was still awake, seeing his chest rise and fall, but it was impossible to know how bad he was taking it. Was he just unconscious, or was it worse than all that? She didn’t have the expertise to tell for sure, but she knew how bad this move could leave an opponent when it was done the standard way. Having it done off the top like that, with so much impact…

But he came to. More or less okay. As good as you could expect a man with a skull that had just been driven into the canvas to be, all things considered.

”You were studying the wrong Valley Doll. That was my mother’s move, not mine.” She chuckled, then groaned when that made her move too much for her body’s comfort. Probably going to be getting calls from her for days for using it, too. Worth it.”[/color]

Closing her eyes, she eased up and let her body sag, not caring too much about getting out of the ring. They’d probably bring along a stretcher or something to peel them off the canvas, and for once, she was fine with that. She could use a nice ride.

”One, you’re soft, and two, can’t move much right now. You’ll have to deal with it for now, sorry.” She lifted up her elbow enough to give a playful poke in the side. ”Thanks for that match, Kyo. I needed that. You can’t know how much.”

"Ah," Kyo replied. "Makes sense." Admittedly, usually when an opponent called him 'soft' it was in a much more demeaning context, so this was a first. It wasn't like Kyo could do anything about it, anyway, as he was rapidly discovering that his body, stiff as it was with pain, was just as immobilized as Valley's was. That was going to make leaving the ring difficult, when the time came for it.

He heard Valley's thanks then, and flashed her a weary smile. He remembered how hearing of how Valley's last match apparently ended in an utter humiliation at the hands of Chloe Mason. Winning this match...or even just making a great show of it...must have done a lot, not just to wipe away the stain of that humiliation, but also to restore confidence in herself during this initial transition into Tension-- and Kyo knew from experience just how frail a thing confidence could be.

"It was my pleasure, Valley," he said. It had been, in all honesty, been one of his most enjoyable matches to date, horrible back pain notwithstanding. Even as he spoke, he could see paramedics at the edge of the ring now. Oh good, they were bringing stretchers with them.

"You do realize, though, that at some point I'm going to have to even the score, right?"

Valley was already going through the match in her head, working out the details, rewinding it and playing it forward a dozen times. She could see the moves she made and should have made, where she had gone right and where she could improve. In ways, beating Kyo wasn’t even the most important thing, here. She had a better idea of what her limits were and where she should go with her style, now.

Yeah. Coming to Tension was a good idea.

”Oh, thought that went without saying. Anytime, anywhere.” She chuckled, as best as she could, at his suggestion. ”Maybe we can even make it a double date. You bring your sister, I’ll bring my girlfriend. Really want to see what the tag champ can do in an actual tag match.”

It had been how long since she and Ace teamed up for a match? Ages. Given how poorly it went last time, it spoke volumes for her to consider it again, but she was willing to take a small risk if it meant getting another chance to see Kyo Akamatsu at his best.

She put a pin in that for now, though, and let herself drift off as the paramedics made their way into the ring and started tended to them…

Kyo could see the paramedics coming into the ring now. They went through the motions that were (unfortunately) all too familiar to Kyo, checking his breathing, asking how badly it hurt, and looking for signs of a concussion. Kyo wasn't concussed, he knew, he was just hurting practically everywhere. And also feeling a bit drowsy: sleep would be nice at some point. Damn it, why was the mat suddenly feeling so comfortable...

He heard Valley's proposal for a tag bout, of a four way dance with him and Makie against her and Silver Ace. "Then I'll see about granting that wish," he said with a pained chuckle, "though don't expect me to hold back against you next time just because your girlfriend is watching." Of course, he wasn't going to hold back next time, and he knew Valley wouldn't either. Chances were, the two of them would end up in the exact same position next time, all but crippled and waiting for the stretchers to carry them out after practically destroying each other in the ring. But damn if it wouldn't be worth it: he lived for matches like this, against skilled, challenging, and above all honorable opponents like Valley.

He felt the paramedics peel Valley off of him, and now they were crowding his vision. "Let's hope this is the beginning of a beautiful rivalry," he murmured, before black clouds of unsconsciousness finally overwhelmed him.


Winner: Valley Doll by pinfall