Captain Red vs. Kozue Kaburagi - Don't Stop Me Now

The analogy fit better than Kozue had expected. Hitting Red felt a lot like slamming into a tree - he was almost as tall and solid, and when he went down, there was a similar amount of noise. It also made her feel about as good as she would’ve if she’d crashed into a tree trunk.

But it worked. So fuck it. ”Timber.”

If this had been a videogame, this would be the part of it where the boss would be wide open and ready to take some real damage for a few seconds, the moment to attack. But it wasn’t. In real life, Red was smart enough to roll the fuck away from her with haste, and she couldn’t let that happen.

”Nope, nope!” She scooted after him and shot out her legs, trying to wrap her thighs around his neck in a scissorhold. ”Running out on me, Cap’n?”

Red would have laughed at the timber remark and called it apropos, but it was a little hard for him to hear, between the fact that he was the one falling and because he was probably the closest to the ground when it began to rumble following his fall. So needless to say, he wasn't really able to hear much of anything, and even if he was, he was probably a little to stunned to make the necessary compliments.

He figured that Kozue would be the type to expect him to stay down and would be surprised when he moved despite the pain, but he still continued to discount how damn fast she was compared to him! Before he could even get very far, she had managed to wrap her thighs around his neck and crank in a scissorhold, making him let out a grunt in surprise!

"Nnngh…now if ye had shown yer thighs earlier, lassie, I wouldn't be tryna book it!" he replied, reaching his hands up to grab onto her legs and see if he could pry them apart. When there was no such luck on that front, he started to try and move towards the ropes to go for the rope break! He had to move faster than he would have liked though, her thighs were beginning to wear him down.

Kozue had a nice, long pair of lean legs to work with. Not the biggest. Not the strongest. But that was the great thing about a scissorhold, really, and why the were getting more popular these days around the AFW. You could do a lot of damage without too much strength, and it wasn’t too complex.

With years of training behind them, Kozue’s legs could get some decent pressure going on, as Red would no doubt agree. It had to hurt quite a bit, judging by the way he was hauling ass towards the ropes, which just made it more of a shame that she was hard-pressed to stop him. With his size, she could slow him down, but stop him? Never.

She threw a few quick punches in his face as he struggled, but when he got to the ropes, it was over. She held onto the hold for a little while, but let it go when the referee made it to a count of three, not wanting to tempt fate any more than need be.

Kozue rolled back off her shoulder and popped up to one at the center of the ring. She was breathing hard, sweat was breaking out, and she had some aches - but, overall, feeling good.

With a sly grin, she waved her hand and urged him on.

Red could only be thankful when he managed to grip that rope tight and force the rope break on his opponent. Those legs finally broke on his neck, making him gasp for air. His hand was on the rope with white knuckles, before he looked up -- and grinned tiredly back towards his opponent. "Yer good, lassie," he remarked as he slowly stood up, keeping one eye on her. "If the rest of this here league is half as good as ye, I'm gonna have a good time here!"

Finally, he got to his feet. He definitely had a lot less energy than she did, but he still seemed ready to go. The referee walked over to him, as if to check and make sure everything was all right, but he waved her off. "Come on, now! Let's really see who'd win in a match between a pirate and a ninja!" he teased, before moving -- but backward.

Straight into the ropes.

He shot himself off of them, knowing he wouldn't get the necessary speed he wanted if he just ran for it. No, he shot forward, telegraphing his lariat from the beginning. But the point of it was for her to dodge it, so he could get to the other side and move for a lionsault! He was going to pull out all the stops now; if he didn't, there was no chance of him getting a win!

Kozue whistled as Red got back up to his feet. She was impressed, even if it was nothing but bad news for her. She’d controlled the match so far, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that she wasn’t close to doing enough damage to put this man down. He seemed near inexhaustible, and while she wasn’t that bad in the stamina department, either, she didn’t think trying to outmatch him would be a winning strategy.

Kozue was thinking of taking the initiative, and had even started running towards him, when the Captain hit the ropes and came barreling towards her instead, moving faster than any man his size had a right to. Another lariat was coming her way.

Given what happened last time, she didn’t try to counter this one, figuring it would be best to dodge this one instead. She ducked under, spun about, raised her leg for a kick…

...and found herself in Red’s shadow, as he descended on her from above.

She wasn’t quite sure how he got up that high, and she supposed it didn’t matter. Knowing wouldn’t change the fact that he was coming down on her, and she had no time to do much more than wince and wished she were five feet to the left or right. Red’s hardened body dropped her hard into the mat, flattening her and leaving her sprawled out underneath him, unmoving for the first time in the match.

Red knew that he didn't have much left in him. This was his last attempt at on offensive; if she managed to kick out once more, he would have no shot at winning. That's why he went for the lionsault in the end. If he didn't pull out all the stops to do something that would catch her off guard, then he might as well have tapped out right then and there. So when he managed to slam right down onto her, he tried to finish things up quickly. His breath was starting to grow short, and he was already dripping sweat onto the canvas.

He moved, probably much slower than he should have, to go for a cover pin. "Nnngh…come on, let's finish what we started, lassie," he murmured, stretching himself over her and pressing his arm down on her shoulder so he could hook her leg. The referee, to him, seemed to take forever to drop to the ground and go for the count.

"ONE!"

Okay, this had a bit more promise to it, as far as something that could conceivably keep her down for the three count. While it wasn’t typical for something like a moonsault to be worthy of a pin, it also wasn’t typical for a moonsault to be delivered by a man over 200 pounds onto a woman who barely weighed more than 130. The effect was profound, and Kozue was left sprawling underneath him, barely able to draw breath.

”2…!”

It took a titanic effort for Kozue to get a shoulder up, and she just barely managed it in the end...but she did it. Right before the referee’s hand could hit the mat, with less than a foot to spare.

No.

No, no, no.

Red looked over at the referee as Kozue managed to kick out, seeing her shake his head to tell him no, the match was still on. Red sat up and fell backwards with a loud groan, just looking out into the audience. They were chanting, going wild for the almost pinfall. On their feet for both of them. Red grinned to himself, looking over at Kozue with a small chuckle. "Hear that, lassie? They're cheerin' us on," he said, before managing to roll over and begin to push himself upward. "Let's give 'em an ending to remember, aye?"

Captain Red was basically out of juice. But he still moved, trying to get himself back onto his feet. If he managed to do so before Ninjette did, he would grab for her arm in order to pull her up to her feet. That way, he could go behind her and try to wrap his left arm around her neck to go for one of his finishers!

From the sound of things, Red - and the crowd - were fairly surprised to see her hanging in there. She could share the sentiment. While Red lacked King’s size, he wasn’t lacking for raw power, and so far she’d felt the brunt of it.

But she didn’t get to where she got by being a pushover. She was hanging in there, waiting for the right opportunity, and as he tried to grab her from behind, she saw the best one she’d probably get.

Kozue ducked, slick and quick, as she tried to wrap his thick arm around her noticeably smaller head. She grabbed his arm by the wrist with both hands, jerked forward and tried to throw him over her shoulder with classic judo throw - a move that would plant him on his back, size difference be damned.

If it worked.