Lions and Dragons

Masuyo’s temporary drop wasn’t something that Jack missed. It wasn’t even because he was particularly observant or anything, just that she was so constantly effervescent that any drop in that stuck out like a signal flare. He couldn't have not noticed it, but he figured it was better not to ask and dredge up some old memories. Besides, she would probably tell him eventually, anyway. The woman didn’t lack for conversation starters. Besides, he was far more wrapped up in the current struggle, which was reaching a fever pitch far earlier than even he could’ve anticipated.

It wasn’t just the choking that was a problem for Key, but everything that came with it. Key wasn’t an expert, but she figured there was some kind of built-in trigger when it came to being squeezed in that area, something that made your brain go into panic mode. The feeble bone cracking, squeezing, the windpipe tightening, triggered something primal in the reptile brain.

It was a rush. One Key thrived in. But she had to get out, she needed out.

That same trigger went for Koyuki and her eye, because it seemed like she was every bit as eager to part ways and reset. But she couldn't just let go and back away. Key wouldn’t expect her to. There’d be some kind of parting gift. A slap, a scratch, a knee to the crotch to even them out, something.

The bites, though? They took her off guard, as her enraged, surprised shrieks probably hinted at. The two moved away, leaving Key to choke and sputter and thrash while Koyuki dealt with her injured eye. Key spared a few hot seconds to take inventory - the nose was messed up, a serious slice, and her cheek wasn’t much better. The oil was kind of slowing the bleeding down, though, and she wouldn’t lie, she was glad they went for coconut oil or the baby stuff. That would’ve made all this sting far fucking more than it had to.

It wasn’t a good look, but this was pain she could deal with, especially when she looked over and saw the handiwork she’d done on Koyuki’s eye. Yeah, the bitch was pissed. In the American way. ”Fucking try it.”

Despite the challenge, Key would be the one bringing the fight to Koyuki. She pushed up to her feet, but didn’t rise all the way up - instead, she dashed forward in a mad sprint, rushing along the oiled floor with long strides to close the distance. She stayed low and threw her body at her opponent with a short-range spear, her MIA, trying to ram the bitch against the nearest pit wall with the move.

Koyuki breaths quite hard and heavy. Not necessarily out of exertion, though it was cause for some of it, but more so because she was so steeped in rage. Blood fever, she called it; the sense of having every inch of your body just itching to end an eyesore. Literally in this case. Her eye throbbed and pulsed with pain long after she had removed the redhead's thumb from it, and she was ready to return the pain tenfold. Koyuki, like her redheaded foe, took a few seconds to center herself, just standing there and catching the moment before the storm of combat would be joined again, trying to seize upon the blood fever in a way where she could use it. Anger, anger, anger - an affliction when uncontained, a blade when honed. Was that not the saying? And it was her anger and her pride and her ego to match the redhead head-on in a contest of strength.

Could she beat her in a battle of attrition? Undoubtedly. The redhead whose name she probably would never learn was not on her level.... but she still had the blonde on the back of her mind. She was smaller in build, yes, but clearly the brains (perhaps all of the brains) between the two. For all she knew, the blonde was some kind of fancy London prizefighter with the precision of a scalpel and power belying her smaller stature. She did not know and the part of her that thought she could blitz through this was starting to need to know. With how much damage she was taking, this was not a contest she wanted to take carelessly anymore.

Her eyes darted to the blonde, then back to the redhead. Alright then.

And with that, the moment of calm was passed, broken by the redhead's sudden, explosive charge. Another move by a pitbull with no finesse. Koyuki braced herself, finding whatever little stability she could on the oiled ground, and took the spear head-on. Miraculously, she stood rooted, the spear dislodging her a few steps back - but thankfully not crashing into the wall. Now it was her turn. She had the redhead where she wanted her. Quickly releasing her hold on her, she lashed out with both hands, smashing both ears with a vicious, lightning-quick double ear clap, intended to disorientate.

If successful, she would follow up with her revenge. With one hand, she gripped the redhead by the head, violently yanking it back so that she was facing her-

And with her other hand, stabbed a vicious nukite right into her eyes, her fingers slightly parted to ensure she got both of them.

Jack had to admit, he was starting to reach something resembling impressed with Koyuki. He didn’t know this woman’s reputation beyond what Masuyo said - and really, it was hard to take everything she spoke of at face value. But he knew what Key could do. He’d seen her utterly wreck people of all shapes and sizes, overpowering them with supernatural strength and brutalizing them without mercy. Standing in front of the redhead was a feat. Managing to push her back was a damn near miracle. It was rare to come across someone with the sheer hate to match his favorite attack dog, but this Japanese woman was taking the prized spot.

Amusing as it was, Lock couldn't share in his excitement. She was a little more concerned about the multiple bite marks on her partner’s face, joining the litany of bruises and cuts she’d wracked up in record time, to say nothing of the internal stuff. Most times, she didn’t have any issues letting Key run wild. This sort of bareknuckle, drag-out, do-or-die brawling was her strong suit, after all. Where she felt most at home.

But Key was a stubborn woman, and she never knew when to quit. If winning meant sacrificing her body, she would do it, and Lock would greatly prefer it not reach that point. ”Ophelia, are you-”

Her concerns fell on deaf ears, as Key came bursting with raw energy, going straight for Koyuki in a bold charge. She made contact and even managed to knock Koyuki back a few steps. It wasn’t perfect, but it seemed to be a position of strength, something she could work with.

And then, all of the sudden, it wasn’t.

First came the slap to ears, discombobulating Key in an instant, making her jerk up with a mix of pain and surprise. It was startling, very, but it wasn’t anything she couldn't recover from if she had a moment. All she had to do was shake her head, clear out the cobwebs, and she’d be fine, right? Not a problem.

Big problem, actually. She was wide open, and Koyuki used the gap to throw in her coup de grace. Her short hair was yanked back, and before she had the chance to retaliate, her foe came in with a vicious payback shot to the eyes. Both of them.

Key’s mortified, bestial shriek filled the room as she stumbled back, covering her face with one hand as she swung her other arm around in wild, blind swipes. Lock moves around the perimeter, trying to get a good look at her partner’s damage and call to her, but Ophelia was too much of a manic mess to hear any of it. ”Fucking slag!” She fell down to a knee, nearly tripped over all together, only to rise a second later and continue her clumsy retreat. ”Fucking rip your goddamn tits off, fucking swear-”

Key's shrieks and Lock's desperate attempts at getting the former's attention weren't the only sounds flooding the room. Masuyo was also screaming, although unlike the bloodcurdling screeches of pain from the arena below, hers was more to that of someone watching a horror movie and getting caught by a particularly nasty jumpscare. She covered her eyes (well, eye and patch) when Koyuki's fingers struck home, peeking between her fingers in the aftermath. Said aftermath was oddly devoid of violence. The redhead's wild swings struck nothing because there was nothing to strike; Koyuki was taking her time in the short seconds after the eye jab, slowly walking down the retreating Key with the gait of a panther; lazy, languid, yet oh so alert. She turned to face Lock even as she continued to move, meeting her eyes, and cocked her head. The Yakuza Captain must have looked a mess: ruined bobcut, bruises all over, an eye that was surely still at least a bit red, and a dead expression that really didn't signal good things for the redhead.

"Ophelia," she said softly and simply, her accent as thick as ever. "Victim's name."

And with that, she went back to work.

With an explosive surge of speed, she broke the distance between her and dear Ophelia, kicking up a small wave of oil in her wake intended to at least splash into dear Ophelia's face, distracting her for the beatdown that was to come. She started with a stomp to Ophelia's right foot, a thundering double palm strike to the solar plexus, drew back one arm and raised it in a diagonally slicing elbow rake intended to smash her across the eyes again, and at the end of the elbow's arc, raised it high for a downward elbow smash right into the Ophelia's face while her other arm yanked her hair once more, holding her in position for that final vicious blow. It was probably the first time in the match where she felt as close to her element as she could ever be in this type of fight: sleek striking exchanges on a foe who was too much of a blundering cunt to follow up against.

"Ophelia," she whispered. She mangled the name so hard and she didn't even intend to. She just couldn't say it right. "Going to fuck little blonde after I done here. Sleep knowing that."

God, it was times like these when she wished her english fluency was a few grades better. The disses she could throw to these ignorant little sows who walked into Japan not knowing the common tongue....

This time there was no hiding his reaction from Masuyo’s outburst. When she shrieked, this shrill high pitched noise that made his ears tingle, he jumped back in his seat and nearly dropped what little of the wine was left. It took him less than a second to regain his composure, but even when he did, he made sure to keep an eye on her. A Yakuza boss responding to some kind of PTSD in the middle of a pit fight was something to keep an eye on. Pun intended.

He wasn’t the only one who noticed, either. Lock spared a quick glance up there as well, before the more immediate matter demanded her attention, looking on Key stumbled and fumbled in the dark, swiping out and getting nothing but dead. She probably thought Koyuki would close the gap right away, a safe assumption given the way things were going so far, but no - she was hanging back.

Waiting. Watching. Stalking.

And taunting. Lock sneered and opened her mouth to return fire, but she couldn't even get out the first syllable before Koyuki was in motion, going hard on the attack. A stomp hammered Key’s foot to the floor, palms drilled her straight down the middle, a rake to the eyes for insult and damage and an elbow to top it all off, targeting her from bottom to top. The Yakuza Captain was quick, precise, and, worst of all, methodical in her approach, tempering her savagery with a surgeon’s precision.

But she was also cocky, more than a little. It wasn’t a trait any of them lacked when they were in control of a match, but being so close to Key’s, being open, and taunting her? Unwise, and it was about to become readily apparent why that was so.

The moment Koyuki was done mangling the English language to threaten Lock, the redhead found a new surge of rage to tap into, the perfect anesthetic. She still couldn't see her opponent, but she could hear her well enough, and that, along with the grip on her hair gave her a perfect idea where she was. Hissing, grunting, growling, she reached with both steely arms, found Koyuki’s waist, and pulled her into a tight, gripping bearhug. She clamped down on the woman’s waist with her full power, bringing their bodies in tight, and pressed her face against the woman’s neck  to protect her face from further damage.

And to bite her. Might as well. She wanted to fuck Helena, she could try and do it with a broken back and holes in her neck, see how well that goes.

Ever since the contest between them had started, one thing had been consistent about Ophelia's performance:

Strength.

She fought with the ferocity and power of her woman beyond her size - and little else. She lacked precision, finesse, and fine control. Her blows were heavy but sloppy. The worst thing that wasn't an eye jab she had inflicted on Koyuki yet were the suplex and the powerbomb she had managed to drop on the Yakuza Captain after she had held her close, and while stunningly painful, it didn't speak much to her technical skills by throwing her around like that. So when Ophelia wrapped her muscled arms around Koyuki's waist and no follow-up gorilla throw came, Koyuki rightly assumed it was a bearhug a micro-second before Ophelia started squeezing.

Good. Koyuki had no preference on how she obtained her victory, but if she could definitively trump the wounded Ophelia in a test of strength and squeeze her dead, all the more humiliating. The redhead would forever remember how she was outclassed on every level including the area that was her greatest strength. Slipping her arms out right before Ophelia fully secured her hold, Koyuki squeezed right back, mashing their powerful bodies together in a viciously agonizing duel of suffocating pressure. Their half-naked oil-clad bodies met each other in pressing combat, and nothing was left to the imagination. Toned belly grinded against toned belly. Their breasts dueled for supremacy, poking against each other. Thighs slapped against each other, shoulders bumped and shifted, their crotches touched. It was undeniably sensual even for Koyuki.

And then Ophelia pressed her head down to her neck-

And bit her.

But Koyuki was once again back in control of herself after the eye stab. She hissed, seethe, her teeth bared... but she didn't give Ophelia the pleasure of more than that. "Can't even look me in eye." Koyuki said in a low whisper. "Can't even stare me in face. So sad. Why fight when you weak bitch?"

Muscles surged, her body ached, and Key summoned every fiber of her being in her effort to utterly crush this bitch between her arms. It wasn’t the most glamorous way to proceed with things, but it was the best option she could see at the moment, with her sight robbed and her opponent in a superior position. She needed something that would bring her in close, rob her of that mobility, and put them on a level playing field.

Made sense. Lock was always trying to get her to fight smarter, this had to count, right?

It seemed like a good idea at the moment, until Koyuki started giving as good as she got. She squeezed back, exerting some pressure of her own. It would’ve been a pain in normal circumstances, but with all the damage she’d taken in the last few minutes and the exertion piling up?  Bones were cracking, giving way, it felt like her body was coming apart at the seams. The only relief came from the skin, as their body’s ground against each other. Koyuki had a thin, strong frame, lean and mean, not too unlike Lock’s. It was the sort of frame Key liked to grind on, and her body even did some of that without her permission, pumping their hips together and filling the pit with the sound of slapping flesh.

It felt good. Damn good. Too bad she fucking wanted to rip Koyuki’s guts out and choke the bitch with them, they could’ve made something fun out of this.

As it was, though, the intimacy just served to piss her off even more, as if her own body was betraying her. The additional commentary from Koyuki wasn’t appreciated, either, and Key made her displeasure known by ripping her teeth away from the neck, drawing her head back, and slamming their skulls together. ”Shut. Up.”

Despite the bravado, it was clear her reserves were failing. She was doing her best to crush this woman, but Koyuki took pain well, had good stamina. There was only so long this would go.

Unlike Ophelia, nothing about Koyuki's grinding was unintentional or unconscious. It was a very deliberate ploy to throw off the blonde she was going to be facing soon. Of course, she wasn't faking it. Ophelia was a strong, well-built woman with all the right curves and muscles in all the right places. Koyuki would have even had respected her strength - if she had even the slightest clue how to use it. But she didn't and here they were: brute force to the bitter end. Koyuki squeezed back against the other woman, her breath coming quick and hard, her nipples visibly hardening against her opponent's chest as they took each other into the metaphorical deep end. The pressure on her frame was as intense as anything she had ever felt, like a python squeezing her to death, and she had no doubt that Ophelia was feeling the exact same way. They were both fully committed to crushing the other woman.

Unlike Ophelia, Koyuki had already looked past her towards the next encounter. She was a physical wall that Koyuki was destined to break down and as Ophelia rammed their heads together, Koyuki's response was immediate. She twirled them to the side, jerking their entwined bodies together so that the blonde had an unambiguous view of both of them kissing. Koyuki pressed her lips fully onto Ophelia's, gyrating passionately against them, letting the blonde have a full view of what she expected was Ophelia's involuntary, sensual response to the whole thing.

She caught the blonde at the corner of her eye... and winked, then doubled down on the bear hug, arms squeezing more tightly than ever.

Be calm. Stay cool. Be professional.

As professional as one can be in an oil pit.

Lock wasn’t happy to be here in the first place, but if this was where she had to be, she was going to present herself in the best light possible. That meant she couldn't let her emotions get the better of her. That meant she wasn’t going to step out of line or violate the rules. So much about what they were doing in Japan hinged on their image and how they projected themselves, their image. Getting Jack and Key to understand that could be a herculean effort, but that wouldn’t stop her from trying.

And there was Koyuki, making that effort as hard as possible.

She looked over and watched as she and Key ground against each, squeezing and gripping and crushing in this bizarre act of dominance. It was a strange thing to see, made even stranger when Koyuki started to get the better of things, taking the reigns in the exchange as her partner faltered. That would’ve been enough to cause worry by itself, but then the hitwoman had to go and twist the knife. Key let out an enraged shriek into her opponent’s mouth as they kissed once again, but there was no pulling away this time, no fighting it, as her body responded to all the gyrations and grinding in kind. It was like she was getting swept away in the moment, caught in a spell as her body began to falter and her world grew hazy. She was fading. Fast.

Which meant that Lock would be in soon. She kept her eyes locked with Koyuki’s, keeping her seething to a minimum for the time being, as she prepared to jump in the moment it was her time. If this woman was so intent on baiting her, she would happily show her why that was a poor idea.

"She's a good girl. Really." Masuyo said up on her little co-shared balcony with Jack. "No, really, don't give me that look."

They had gone through at least three bottles by now, but Masuyo didn't show even the slightest hint of slowing down or drunkiness. Or maybe, judging by her increasingly apparent displacement from reality, she had already come in drunk. Who knew. "Don't let the impersonal tactical decisions in a prizefight color your first impression of this, well, impressionable young lady." Masuyo said, her defense of Koyuki either entirely and mockingly disingenuous or a testament to said reality displacement. "She's really quite sweet when you get to know her. And you should get to know her - win or lose." she said, wagging a finger at Jack, smiling that big lizard smile. "Well, not much winning at the moment. But your other lady looks raring to go."

"Sweet" Koyuki down below was busy crushing the life out of her redheaded opponent - and she was winning. She could feel Ophelia slowly lose her grip on their body-to-body competition. Every tiniest loosening of crushing arms, every time she took a microsecond longer to return the grinding, every bit of her breath that came slightly harder - all hints towards her inevitable end. She had strength, she had endurance, and she was undeniably very, very proud of it - and Koyuki was going to take that pride, toss it to the ground, step on it, grind it to little tiny pieces, and feed it to a school of sharks. She was going to beat her at her own game. They hugged on and on and on and on, sweaty oil-clad bodies battling for supremacy, skin slicking off each other, as Koyuki marched Ophelia all the way to her humuliating loss.

Worth it.