Haruka Tenou vs Kyo Akamatsu

"Battery" by Metallica began to play as Kyo Akamatsu stepped into the arena, prompting a lot of cheers from his fans. It had been a while since Kyo had last fought in the AFW, his last match being a brutal loss to Shizuka Tsuzaki and her cheating ally Kelli deVanetti. For a while, there had been speculatuon that Kyo would leave AFW entirely. Today, though, Kyo was proving everyone wrong.

Kyo was quiet and serious as usual, giving only a faint smile and a nod to his cheering fans as he made his way to the ring. He wore his usual blue trunks, along with matching pads and boots, leaving his well-toned, tattooed upper body bare. Sliding under the ropes, he hopped into the ring, swinging his arms a little as he flexed his joints for the upcoming match.

Truth to be told, while he was more than happy to be back in the ring, his mind was elsewhere. Makie had taken her last match hard, and he couldn't blame her-- it was one thing to lose one's first proper match, but another entirely to be completely dominated in the process. She had bounced back, of course, after a day or two of feeling completely depressed, which made Kyo quite happy. But now Makie was seriously considering approaching that Midori woman for training. Kyo knew that Makie was hesitant to do so, as she feared that if she accepted Midori's offer, Kyo and Toshio would be insulted after they had already trained her themselves. Although Toshio might feel insulted, Kyo wouldn't have minded, and he had told Makie as much-- there were some things he suspected Midori could teach Makie that he couldn't. Although a part of him was a little suspicious of Midori (the same part of him that hated her a little for hurting his sister), he had no real reason to doubt Midori and her intentions.

Sighing, Kyo focused back on his surroundings. It wouldn't do for him to dwell on Makie while he was here in the ring. For now, he'd focus on winning this match and defeating whoever came walking into the arena.

Haruka Tenou had spent most of the afternoon in her locker room training in front of a mirror and shadow boxing intently. Tonight she was being paired up against another male opponent. She had encountered quite a few females in this fed so far who could give her a decent challenge like Tigress McKenna and Claudette Valkyrie. She felt that by training against men though, she had a good chance of really honing her strength and combat experience...at least when they weren't tryng to be too grabby.

When the time came, Haruka made her way down the entrance to the ring where her opponent Kyo awaited her. Her initial impression as she headed down was some satisfaction that kyo did seem to have mien of a formidable martial arts opponent. Good. He didn't look like a prepubescent boy so far.

Haruka supposed she would find out in the next few seconds as she stepped into the ring what kind of man Kyo was personally. Today she sported the gym look, with the tight shorts and workout top sowing off her bronzed well honed body.

Kyo watched as his opponent walked towards the ring. He raised an eyebrow, however, when he noticed that his opponent was not one of the short kawaii girls or overly-busty blondes who seemed to inhabit most of AFW's roster. Instead, she was a short-haired, blonde woman whose slender physique was toned and firm, making her look every bit the fighter while not diminishing her attractiveness. Her two-piece gym outfit hugged her bronzed skin, and her focused expression told Kyo instantly that this woman had come here to win.

As she stepped into the ring, the announcer shouted her name out to the audience. Haruka Tenou. Kyo had heard that name before-- twice, in fact. The first time was from a conversation overhead between two other male Tension competitors (he had forgotten who), who had remarked on how tough she was. The other time was from Toshio, who was watching one of her matches and expressing his disappointment that apparently she only preferred girls.

More was the pity, Kyo thought. Haruka seemed like his kind of woman.

He eyed her carefully as he took a step forward. "Haruka Tenou," he said, politely offering a hand. "Kyo Akamatsu. I've heard quite a few things about how skilled you are. I hope half of them are true."

Haruka maintaned her confident, challenging smirk but blinked slightly at Kyo's forward manner. She the stepped forward and clutched his hand back strongly.

"Really? You seem decent for a man. I am interested to see how this match will turn out."

She the stepped back and gave him a slight lingering glance.

Hmmm. Not too bad. I suppose in another life I might like someone like him. What am I thinking....

Haruka got ready to raise her arms, defensively, and prepare for the upcoming match.

Kyo nodded respectfully to Haruka. So far, Haruka was even behaving differently from his regular opponents-- she hadn't yet resorted to any trash-talk, and he could tell by her expression that she was going to take this match seriously, with no tricks whatsoever. He smiled a little, thinking he might have found a decent, respectable opponent for once.

Edging away from Haruka, he raised his arms in a ready stance, waiting for the bell to ring.

The bell rang.

Haruka began to circle Kyo warily. Eventually she would go for two jabs to the face and throw a kick at the midsection.

The moment the bell rang, Kyo circled with Haruka, moving lightly on his feet as he kept his hands up, eying her carefully as the two of them edged closer to each other.

Haruka was the first to attack, launching some quick jabs at his face. Kyo was experienced enough to block these, and experienced enough to know that she would probably follow up with a kick to his midsection. He tensed his abs just in time, but the hit still stung. He quickly counter-attacked, launching a kick against her knee before feinting a clothesline, rotating his body to kick at her midsection with his free leg.

Haruka gritted her teeth as her leg struck his harded abs causing her leg to sting a bit. The came the kick to the knee of that leg that made her cry out and stumble a bit.

She then saw him come at her with presumably a clothesline attack. She was distracted enough by the pain of the leg kick that she reflexively tried to defend which in turn suckered her into being hit by his kick to her side. She cried out and the force of the kick sent her reeling to the side to the ropes.

She fell to one knee grabbing the middle rope for support. She turned to him with a look of determination, wiping at her mouth and started to get back up, ready to circle for another attempt.

Kyo kept his eyes focused on Haruka, doing his best to ignore the stinging pain in his side where Haruka had kicked up. Rather than rush in, however, he kept his distance, letting Haruka recuperate as he circled her. He didn't have to wait long, as Haruka was quickly on her feet again, circling him.

Motioning for a lockup, he moved forwards, aiming to grapple with Haruka in the centre of the ring,though he was prepared for any counters she might pull.

Haruka goes for the lockup. She was strong for a woman but Kyo with his physique and training might still have a slight advantage. If he pushed against ehr though she would strategically try to take a few steps back and shift around to try and prevent him from getting an advantage. She would be forced to do this about three times.

If and only if Kyo had not pressed his advantage by this time would Haruka try to suddenly fall back and use the momentum to try and toss Kyo with both hands to ground.