Blast from the past 2: Inoue meets Karasu

"I never regret a truthful sentence."
Anja wanted to startle Inoue and goad her into angry attacks by running her mouth, grinning impishly. It was way more easy to evade a raging bull then a viper in her eyes.

"Left hand. Use it too. One Weapon boxing brings you only so far."
The German took every job offered to her very seriously. Inou had used her right hand exclusively up to now. Granted, she was strong, but it was doubtful that she could pull a Tyson against a skilled opponent and knock them out in round one with a flurry of blows from one weapon. But Inoue obviously wasn't one that liked to hear an advice, so she tried to make a point with a pendulum defense by swinging her defender hand, deflecting the first blow aside of her face, but was really of guard as the hand didn't retreat but broke her pendulum movement and crashed into her face, causing her to really stumble back this time, nearly touching the ropes behind her.

"...Uuhhnn..."
she uttered, slightly shaking her head to lose the feeling of dizziness.

Inoue attempted to ignore the lecture, but it irked her. Here, Inoue stood with a record of 19-1 in boxing, and this hired hand presumed she could teach her anything? Inoue admitted that her skills were unrefined, but they worked. As evidenced by the pleasant shockwave she got, punching Karasu hard once again. Inoue knew she was right, but since she'd mentioned it, Inoue was almost to proud to utilize her other hand now. Still, if it meant she'd be able to beat on this girl who thought she knew so well, it would be her fault for reminding Inoue of her other hand. "You were saying?" Inoue taunted, as her opponent groaned. "Don't presume that you know better than me, results say otherwise." Inoue's tongue spat poison at her sparring partner, quickly finding herself treating this as though it was a full fledged fight. A few well placed shots, she could knock the girl down, shut her up and then have a leisurely session from there on out. Right now, it was just Inoue needing to prove a point. She still was weary of her opponents power, she visibly had more than the somewhat frail Inoue, but the jab showed her nothing. She didn't want to know though, better to seize the opportunity before her.

Assuming her opponent was still a bit staggered, she would throw a hard right cross. She wanted to stop being criticized, even though so far she knew she had been the one doing the damage. Still, she was a bit shocked that the last punch didn't put her down. Karasu was either immune to pain, or just crazy. Either way, an annoyed Inoue felt the need to actually do harm. Sparring or not, Inoue expected to be able to beat Karasu. Their pseudo-sparring session was very much just a match by now, and Inoue didn't intend to lose, she had a 14 fight streak, and though this was completely unofficial, if she allowed herself to be outboxed, she'd feel that her record had two-losses on it. Inoue took this, perhaps too serious considering how long it had been since she last donned the gloves.

Inoue was obviously upset the way Anja had anticipated, but being a smartass that knew it all was of no use when you tried to get a clear head again. Inoue came closer after her sentences and varied her attacks with a cross this time. But still it was the right hand that came in, and it came in fast. Obviously the girl was beyond spar now and wanted to really bring it to her. And Anja was more than willing to be her Huckleberry if that was her plan.
"How many of your victories were against opponents that boxed back?"
Smack talk had been carved into the blonde, so it came naturally to her even after getting hit into the face as a good argument that it was uncalled for sometimes.

She was still to dizzy to use a low maintenance defense which naturally carried a kind of arrogance, so she would try to duck to the side with her full torso, hopping that the high cross would miss her completely by buzzing over her head, while she would counter with a hard left hook to the kidney of Inoue's exposed side.

Inoue fully anticipated hitting her opponent again. She'd felt as though she overestimated Karasu, the girl was fun to hit, but she lacked any sense of a challenge in Inoue's mind. That was when the punch sailed past, Inoue had barely realized her punch was slipped. Inoue's eyes widened, instantly feeling a hard punch to her somewhat malnourished body, the punch hitting lightly protruding ribs. Inoue was impressed by the power, her opponent was as strong as Inoue wanted her to be, though Inoue didn't want to remain doubled over and vulnerable. She didn't want to see more hits come in after the fact, she swallowed her pride and began to evade out of caution. Inoue had already shown her shock, but she didn't want Karasu talking more trash. Inoue would begin to dance back, making her sparring-partner, turned opponent, pursue her. Inoue's eyes were filled with a fire of sorts now. Karasu was an actual threat, that made Inoue sweat for multiple reasons. Inoue ignored the taunt for the moment, finding herself a bit pissed off and all to eager to move back in and try to outbox her, though it was apparent that would be difficult.

The last web vanished from her minds as her opponent was circling back and starting to sweat, showing that she was about to reach *boxing level* temperature. Sparring had always led to a fight when she was trained by the circle, and most of the trainings had begun in a ring and ended elsewhere, mostly on sheets or pillows. Or the other way, depending on the whim of their trainers. so it was of no big concern to Anja that her sparring job became a fighting job right now, quite the contrary.

"I see. Ready to box now."
Anja carried her confident smile like a weapon after noticing sweat on the skin of Inoue, but wasn't made of stone. Her hit to the ribs had shown that Inoue needed probably more than just some small boxing tips to effortlessly rule this dump of a club. Living on the street or lurking in houses ripe for the Bulldozer was no good foundation for a healthy living, but there were several nutrients that were good and cheap, especially in the land of the raw fish. Her legwork was already good and that was a thing you could only learn in limits while the rest was natural talent or rather the lack of it. She probably had it all to outbox Anja in some weeks or months, who was clearly more of a wrestler than a boxer in heart.
"Pissed? Don't be. I got punched in the face by girls 30 pounds heavier than you and stood it."
Anja wasn't totally sure if it was anger of getting hit by a mere sparring partner or the inner fire of a fighter that she saw on Inoue as she was severely lacking in human understanding sometimes, but was confident that it was the last one.

Giving testament to her wrestling background, she leaned in the ropes to gain some momentum in the pursue of Inoue and dance with her in the ring. She couldn't keep up with her opponent foot-wise in the long term, but boxing had, contrary to wrestling, an advantage for the people with lower footwork capability that it was a gentleman's sport and nobody hit you in the back.

She would do Inoue the favor and come for her, with a basic but hearty left hook/right hook/uppercut combination to test her defense again. Even if Inoue didn't want to hear it, Anja would do the job she was paid for.

Inoue continued to stare bitterly at Karasu, she continually spoke in a condescending manner, and it had got to Inoue. Inoue was by no means a formal fighter, she had raw talent, but in underground clubs that was all you needed. Karasu had a technique, and somehow more expierience than Inoue, who was much more a martial artist and street fighter than anything. Still, she'd told herself that she was a good boxer, her win loss-record seemed to agree.

As the opponent dared to move back in, Inoue would wait for the punches to begin. She quickly stepped back from the left hook, but ended up with her back touching the ropes. Having nowhere to go, Inoue would hold up a guard and absorb the impact with her gloves. Inoue felt insulted by the talk, enough so that she would actually begin a discussion without care. "And I've fought girls 20 pounds lighter than you. They were much faster. They were better." Inoue smirked, as she pushed off the ropes behind a hard left straight. It'd be followed up by a right to the kidneys if the straight was successful.

"Ouch. Twenty pounds? That hurts."
Anja was laughing as she hammered away at Inoue's defense, confident that her opponent would be busy weathering her attack, but now it was her time to underestimate her opponent who wasn't as hotheaded as she had thought, built a good defense and came at her with a straight that smashed into her face, hitting the upper part of her eye socket. It was the weaker arm of Inoue, that got painfully obvious to Anja, but it still had some mean power in it.

As she drew up her defense to the head, another fist smashed to her torso and was only marginally deflected by her upper arm, costing her some additional air and caused her to stumble back into the middle of the ring.
"Good...Left...arm used."
she panted, now under a full defense with both arms, slightly favoring the side where her kidney had been hit. It was only the first round, she had plenty of time to punish Inoue later for hitting her now when time would favor her endurance.

Inoue smiled, a sly expression coming over her face. She wasn't the type to back off, infact, she took Karasu's guard as an invitation. The clock was winding down, so she would simply come in with a quick sidestep, trying to jab the exposed part of Karasu's head. If it rattled her enough, she'd bull right in, unafraid of her opponents strength, despite knowing it well. If and when she got in close, she would try hammering at each of Karasu's ribs, alternating fists as she executed the hard volley of shots. There was time for talk after Karasu lie unconscious at Inoue's feet. For now, Inoue was trying to find some way to hurt the sturdier girl, who had already taken enough to put a regular fighter out of it a bit. Inoue was pleased with the challenge.

Time was running out on round 1. If it had not been the case, she would have probably tried to totaly evade Inoue just to buy some time to regain air, but in this case she would have generous 30 seconds to come to air again and could probably do more. Her not using smack talk was a good sign that she needed her air for more urgent demands.

Inoue aggressively pursued her into the middle of the ring, so Anja further retreated to the ropes behind her until there was no more space to go. The jab came in and Anja saw her opponent moving aside beside her defending hands with a bold sidestep. The hand which was covering the side not attacked by the first attack tried to lead the attacking hand of Inoue to the side and her close to Anja, while the defender hand would not defend but try to break through to the face of Inoue with an uppercut to douse her flaming attack as soon as possible.

Inoue's arms swung for a brief time, but she'd managed contact multiple times, utilizing her speed. Inoue noted the fist coming but didn't care, she took it and stood her ground, the body shots were ceased though. She was determined to be better than Karasu. Even if that just meant barbarically pounding away without much technique. Still, Inoue wanted to drop the boxing for the few seconds left, she kept her guard up and stayed anchored, wondering if she could afford to brawl with her opponent who showed that she could take a beating.

Inoue had fun with that. She tried to keep close, she'd let out a simple, hard right jab, aimed for Karasu's nose. That was always a startling place to be hit, Inoue figured if she riled Karasu up a bit, she'd get a bit sloppier. That would hardly matter, a few seconds after she would flick out the jab, the artificial bell would sound.