Alaina Sanders vs. Kozue Kaburagi - Long Time, No See

Kozue wasn’t the least bit surprised when Alaina kicked out of the pin, saving herself before they even got to two. What did take her off guard, however, was the power she put into it. The force of the simple kickout was enough to fling her off like an adult tossing away a child, making her roll a few feet away and increasing the separation. Just a not-so-subtle reminder of the power she was dealing with, here.

Instead of giving chase, Kozue rolled away from her foe, heading over to the ropes and ducking under the bottom one, making her way out to the apron. There, she slid over to the corner and made her way over to the nearest corner, scaling it fast and getting the high ground on her hulkette of an opponent.

The moment Alaina was up high enough, the New Jersey Ninja sprung into action. She threw out a quick whistle to get her attention, then leaped into space, tucking her knees as she flew, looking to nail the Amazon square in the chest with a Meteora.

This wasn’t working.

At least, it wasn’t working well enough for Kozue’s liking. The match was going in her favor so far, sure, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that she wasn’t doing the damage she needed to do in the time she needed to do it. All Alaina had to do was land a few good blows to start turning the tide in her favor, and if she wanted to mitigate that turnaround when it came, she needed to do something more than just taking potshots. She had to st.art throwing submissions into the mix.

That was why, after she rolled off of her after the Meteora, Kozue was quick spin about and scoot back over, opening her legs wide as she made her way over to the reeling Alaina. She grabbed her opponent’s head, pulled her in, and wrapped her legs around the Amazon’s neck, tucking her ankle behind her knee to secure a tight figure four leglock. She doubted she had the muscle to knock Alaina out this way, but that was fine - her main goal was to drain away at her opponent’s stamina, keep whittling her down.

As it turned out, keeping a woman nearly twice her size under control wasn’t the easiest thing for Kozue to do. When Alaina bucked around, she had to clench her legs tight, clamping with all the muscles she could muster, and the woman still slipping around in her grasp. While she didn’t lose the hold, she wound up with her opponent facing towards in all the struggles, looking up towards her instead of away.

Not a big deal, she could work with this. She reached up, grabbed the back of her opponent’s head, and pulled her deeper into the hold, where she applied even more pressure than before.

And she couldn’t resist a grin as she did it. Blame Mariko, she was getting used to being on top. ”You feel like tapping out, big girl? Always an option. Don’t want to knock you out, but…” She gave her thighs a few quick, pulsing squeezes, just to hammer the point home.

Hm. Alaina was powering her way up. Planting her foot on the floor, pushing up, surging in.

Kozue had a quick decision to make, then. She could take the safe route and abandon ship, try something else on the Amazon before things reached the point of no return, or she could go the safe route, just disengage and try something else. There was always the chance that the Amazon wouldn’t pull this off, a strong one since she seemed to be weakening. Then again, this was Alaina she was dealing with, here.

..screw it.

Alaina powered down hard, [i]hard, and threw a few wild punches in her opponent’s face, trying to put her down quick, stop her before this got out of hand. It seemed like it might work, too, like she might be able to bring her down, knock her out before she sent her crashing.

She was wrong.

Alaina smashed her hand against the turnbuckle and Kozue was knocked off, sent flailing in an agonized heap. Far from her best moment.

”Uuuuuuuuuuugh fuck.”

Those words were spot-on to how she felt at the moment, getting thrashed by Alaina and laid out. She’d done a good job of avoiding the Amazon’s wrath up to this point, but getting hammered like that was a hard reminder of why that was so important - the woman hit like an eighteen-wheeler.

”Yeah,” She had a pained laugh. ”The whole ninja thing. Comes with it, you know.” She groaned and pushed her way up, making her way up into a stand, only to be greeted by an unwelcome sight: Alaina flying towards her, feet first.

The Amazon’s boots hit hard in the chest and sent her flying back, clean off her feet. Kozue hit the mat, rolled once, and ended up crashing against the turnbuckle pads, leaving her to sit up against them, legs spread wide, shaking her head to clear it.