Blast from the past 2: Inoue meets Karasu

Maybe she had put Inoue in the wrong box, she was now rabid enough to actually try a Tyson, and like many of the opponents of the best hitter of the last 25 years Anja was literally saved by the bell as the fist of her opponent hit her on the nose and caused her head to snap back and she found herself in the ropes, looking for support from them. Inoue had taken the hit in the face like a champ and shown that she could not only dish out but take some damage too and was probably further as Anja would have given her credit until then.

"Fine, Inoue-chan. You got an advantage in this round as I started a spar and you made a fight out of it. Let's see how you do in round 2."
She said with a certain amount of excitement in her voice. Boxing with Inoue was appealing in more than one way.

She went to her corner, dunked the sponge into the water to lay it on the mauled eye socket before taking a sip of water from a small flask.
"You're also a wrestler? Club sign reads boxing and wrestling club."
Anja asked with some curiosity, while her breathing came back to normal and she checked if her nose was still formed as before.

Inoue beamed positively at the shot, but cursed her luck as the bell sounded. The rest was unnecessary, Inoue wanted to keep going, but she knew better. Her chin still stung a bit, she had put up a facade, she was tough, but she could tell Karasu could do damage that she wouldn't be able to take. Inoue had worked up a decent sweat, but was relatively unmarked. She was already anxious to fight again, she had shared in a similar pleasure of this particular fight. Karasu was alluring, and the challenge she presented only boosted her appeal. Inoue took her corner, simply sipping a bit of cool water down her dry throat. She'd done good, she showed Karasu what she could do now and was ready to charge in and fight further, desperate for supremacy, or even a crushing defeat. She just had to know who was better.
Inoue was snapped out of the lust by her sparring partners words. Inoue laughed lightly, the words were what she liked to here. "A fight? It's hardly a fight yet dear, try a bit harder this next round, hm?" Inoue's devilish grin and cocky attitude had a way of getting under people's skin.

Inoue nodded at the next words. "I do... It's all I've done lately. The intensity of boxing, MMA... That's where the fun is. What about you?" Inoue found herself transitioning to fairly friendly conversation, as she wiped away her thin layer of sweat from her arms. Her tanktop had become a bit wet, her flesh underneath all a bit visible, as well as her bra. She wiped her forehead with her gloved wrist, and eyed the clock, then Karasu, eagerly.

"I'll try to be more of a challenge to you this time. By the way, how many rounds do you go normally at in the club?"
The German was slightly giggling while replying, this was so like a return to some of the more brighter days of her childhood, sweating in the ring with another girl, free from restrains and pressure to do this or that. It was pointless to fight beyond the rounds Inoue usually went, everything above that limit would literally put them into danger, the pro boxing rings hadn't limited the rounds for fun.

She had thought about holding in information about the status of her body, but now she was a little worried for her eye socket. Probing with the sponge showed that it hadn't swollen up right now, but something said her that she would earn her sparring money pretty hard this time. And she also had a bullet to fire she had thought about holding back until later, but maybe there was no later regarding how her opponent as virtually dancing in the corner to fight on.
"I am a wrestler. Boxing is only a small part of my training, I'm basically fishing for memories when boxing. If we were wrestling, I would have already sacked and pillaged you."
A pro boxer would have probably wiped the floor with both girls at this point, but Inoue seemed so proud of what she had accomplished and Anja replied to her cockiness with a little reality check.

Inoue pondered the question for a minute. "Well, the majority of real fights I'm in tend to be over in one to three rounds. Standard is 9." Inoue had no intention of going that far either, she was treating this fairly serious and would convince Karasu to quit by the third round. She was sure of it. As vindictive as Inoue was, she had already picked up on the hint of a softened spot. She'd have to pour damage in on it, such was her brutish strategy. Inoue's head turned up at the girls next words, she was very prideful, but it was reckless of course.
"I'll tell you what... You've piqued my interest... If you're awake when we're finished here, we can see if your claims hold any degree of truth." Inoue already was wound up for the approaching round and it showed. She peeked at the drained clock. "What do you say?" Inoue asked in regards to her previous challenge. Nothing was better than beating someone at their own game.

That was neither here nor there however, the raven haired pugilist would raise her gloved hands again and prepare for what was actually shaping up to be a decent workout.

That girl sure had a warriors heart. Wrestling someone like Anja after they had boxed was ridiculous in her mind, but if she needed the challenge, Anja wouldn't back down from it. And maybe she did her wrong again and Inoue was an even better wrestler as a boxer? Anyway, nobody was as good as her as a wrestler, that was something she was sure about.
"So basically you say that the large majority of people don't reach round 4. Then we need 3 rounds of boxing before the wrestling fun starts? Sounds nice to me."
She put the sponge back into the bucket, the clock was ticking away at the break. She got back into the middle of the ring after drawing out a little bit of snot out of her nose and spitting it out of the ring.

Contrary to Inoue, Anja had taken some damage but was sweating much less, although the water from the sponge had dripped down on her top and left a wet area on that side.
"Rolling on the floor and being my bitch will be fun for you. And for me too."

Inoue just smirked at Karasu. It had become a little less serious, Inoue's favorite thing to do was fight, and if she was able to do so without the restrictions of her manager's presence, then it was perfect. Inoue laughed off Karasu's comment, but internally she was the slightest bit intimidated, though it would never show. In fact, it would only serve to bolster her ego further, in an attempt to prove something. She had little regard for safety, that went for her own as well as Karasu. Inoue recalled the fact that Karasu wasn't a boxer by trade, she'd shown more skill at technique however, it made Inoue feel a bit outclassed, considering her opponents focus was wrestling. She'd have to shake that and push through, she got results in the last round, she'd do it again.

"Haha... Don't count on it. In fact, you might want to call it a day after this round." Inoue's smirk would not fade at the sound to resume. It was a signal to Inoue to come out strong. Now that she'd felt warmed up, it was time to shut Karasu up. Inoue moved in quick, starting things off with a volley of sharp jabs, left and right hand working together at the start of this round.

The competitive spirit of Inoue was a nice spark to get into the fight again and caused the German girl to let her hand swing back and forth for a moment.
"Maybe. But I just love to play pong and don't often surrender."
Pong, an old game from the stone ages of computers and an quite actual piece of music from one of the dark industrial groups she favored from her ancestral homeland. Goal of the game was to deflect a crude ball of pixels with a crude line of pixels over a line, like a tennis match for people who didn't like to go outside when others had considered it to be cool to be outside.

And Deflection was also the name of the game Anja played while she was boxing someone like Inoue who wanted to score a quick victory against her. While her legs stood still, her torso moved from left to right, forth and back under a massive defense to let her opponent work off on it.

Inoue sought the challenge of someone like Karasu, she was less predictable. She actually knew what she was doing. Inoue was quick to realize that her opponents defenses were prime at the moment. She had to figure out how to get through it. The best way was to bait her. Inoue hoped that by their interactions, she'd convinced Karasu to show more aggression, Inoue still wasn't sure of Karasu's strength. Inoue dropped the jabs and decided to drop back. It was usually hard to move in on an opponent, it was much more tense than waiting for them. She wondered what Karasu would do with the break, seeing as Inoue had been perhaps, overly aggressive from the get go.
Inoue wasn't sure what reaction she'd get, that was what excited her the most, there was a possibility of defeat. She'd never openly admit it, but part of her craved to meet a superior, to have a new goal to work towards. She'd spent years training to defeat her brothers, and when she'd finally defeated each one, she knew her skills improved. Ever since then, she pushed herself into fights with opponents that were out of her league, and still managed to win.

Inoue chased the thoughts away in favor of her smug confidence however. Her mind had drifted from the physical portion of the fight perhaps too much.

The storm on her arms, torso and head ended like most storms did, without any casualties to speak off except some paint from the walls or a flowerpot that had been toppled.
"Tick tack, Inoue-chan. Tick-tack."
Anja had switched from the more honorific -san to the more informal -chan by choice and not by accident, obviously with the best of moods now. First of all, the fighting was real fun and Anja had no fun with people she called -san. That was so formal, so standard that she hated every part of it. Formality was a big deal in her upbringing, and everyone who saw a place where Anja stayed for the night could see that she liked to make a mess by choice, just cause she could. And secondly, maybe it would tease her opponent.

Speaking of teasing, she had a little idea to execute, something that was totally in the rules of boxing for a short time but appealing to her opponent, at least that was what she was expecting. She made a low silhouette and came rushing in like for a series of blows to the torso, but would really try to clinch with Inoue to gain body contact, press Inoue's arms against her torso without holding them to avoid a foul call and probably drive her back to the ropes.

Inoue eyed Karasu wearily. She seemed a bit too happy. Inoue was unsure if it was due to a love for fighting much like herself, or if there was a plot unfolding in the foreigners mind. Either way, Inoue was caught off guard by the rush, throwing up her guard instantly. Inoue's eye's widened of course, once she'd ended up in a clinch. Most of the fights that took place here were brutal, there was no time for clinches and strategizing. That said, Inoue was able to adapt to this style. Inoue was unaware that she was being bulldozed backwards into the ropes. It would have been a lie to say she didn't enjoy the close proximity with Karasu. In fact, she didn't resist the clench for a moment, until she finally noticed that she was being set up. Inoue was blushing slightly with the contact, but turned her head to avoid being noticed. "This isn't a wrestling match. Let go!" she snapped, trying as hard as she could to pry Karasu's arms away. If she somehow manage to slip out she would raise a guard, not having time to do much else.

She hated that she'd been driven back with such ease, but there wasn't much she could do now. Karasu had actually made effective use of a clinch, that took talent. Inoue knew what she had planned to do, the ropes touching her back made it quite easy to tell that she wanted to cut Inoue's footwork off and get her in one place. Inoue wasn't much a fan of the idea.