[ONE] Round One Match: Melody Serperior vs Makie Akamatsu

Dazed from Makie impressively landing on top of her, Melody couldn't react to the ref's first count.

However:

"TWO....NO!", just as ref's hand connected with the mat for the second time, Melody kicked out. This was going badly. She needed to get her momentum back, or else her journey for the tournament will end at the first round!

Makie felt Melody heave up underneath her, breaking the pinfall. It took all of her self control not to swear or curse at that point...and truth to be told, she was having a lot more respect for Melody now...but it was clear that she was going to have to try a lot harder to bring this green haired girl down. 

Grabbing at her hair, she yanked Melody up into a sitting position, before kneeling behind her and sliding an arm around her throat, locking in a sleeper. She figured that she wouldn't be able to put Melody to sleep just yet, but even if she just managed to weaken her further, it would be worth it...

Melody successfully kicked out of the pin, but she didn't like the fact that Makie led the match currently, with Melody herself getting little to no offence outside of the beginning of the match. She was still determined to beat Makie, and she had to get her momentum back. Otherwise, even if she won, she would likely be too hurt and tired from round one for round 2.

However, with Makie just as keen on winning this match as Melody was, it seemed like no matter who one, the winner would likely have a difficult time in Round 2.

Makie pulled on Melody's green hair to pull her up to a sitting position, and snapped a sleeper hold to the girl's head, cutting off the flow of blood to her head! Melody tried to pull Makie's arm away from her neck to escape the hold, but it started to weaken her. She didn't have enough strength to break her opponent's well applied sleeper hold. She tried to push her feet to stand up, and force Makie to stand up with her, but with how she was, it didn't seem like Melody could do anything like what she did earlier with Makie's camel clutch. Even if she stood up, Makie would still have hold applied, with Melody trying to find a way to escape, before she lost consciousness completely

Makie gritted her teeth as she locked in the sleeperhold, feeling Melody flailing and struggling underneath her, trying in vain to breathe. Makie had the hold locked in tightly, and struggle as she could, Melody wasn't having much success in breaking free. She began to harbour a hope that this might be the winning move for her, that she might be able to win this on a knockout here and now.

Except Melody had other ideas. Slowly but surely, the green-haired girl began to rise to her feet, forcing Makie up with her. Trying to hold on, Makie would soon find it harder and harder to keep Melody locked. With an irritated sigh, Makie would try to drop back, raising her knees and hoping to pull Melody down with her so that her back impacted hard against her raised knees!

Melody somewhat stood up while Makie still had the sleeper in. She still struggled to get the girl's arms away from her neck and head, trying to make her way to the ropes to force Makie to break the hold.

But once Makie realized that the sleeper would be broken soon enough, she broke it herself. Of course, she wouldn't just give Melody an advantage so easily, would execute a backstabber on the girl's back. Melody let out a silent scream as Makie's knees dug into her back, before dropping to the mat, a bit dizzy and breathing heavily from the sleeper, and rubbing her aching back from the backstabber.

Makie could have sworn she heard the crowd collectively wince as she executed the backstabber. Not a move she normally did, but this was a tournament. If she was serious about winning this, then that meant she had to get serious with her opponents. If need be, she'd buy Melody a drink or something after the match to show no hard feelings. 

Bursting into the run, Makie ran to the ropes and bounced back, rebounding into the other ropes as she ran past Melody to build up momentum. Upon bouncing back, she would cartwheel, building up to, hopefully, elaborate but no less powerful butt drop onto Melody's already-sore back.

Lying on her stomach, Melody tried to collect her wits back from being in the sleeper hold for a while. She heard Makie running away towards the ropes, and, as such, when she heard the woman coming back towards her and jumping, she tried to roll slightly to the side, ensuring that Makie would likely land straight on her rear.

As she bounced off the ropes, Makie noted that Melody was still barely moving, and grinned to herself. At this point, she figured Melody was still too stunned or too hurt to fight back effectively, which meant that it wouldn't be long before she had this match in the bag. A well-earned win, followed by an advance to the next rank in the tournament while she was still in relatively good shape.

At least, that was what she thought, before Melody rolled out of the way.

Pain shot up Makie's tailbone as she landed on her butt. A loud gasp of pain escaped her lips, and she rolled to her side, one hand clutching her butt as she rolled away, her opponent briefly forgot about. In the background, she could hear some of the crowd gasping, others laughing as he big move backfired...

Successfully avoiding Makie, the woman rolled away, allowing Melody a moment to recover. By the time Melody stood up, Makie would likely be also up as well.

Seizing the opprotunity, she would rush at Makie, and jump at her legs first, trying to send the woman to the mat with a hurricanrana!

Makie winced as she rolled over onto her front, still reaching back to put a hand on her lower back. It was embarassing to have missed her attack like that, and further embarassing still after she had been doing so well. Swallowing her embarassment, she rolled over and got to her feet...

...just as Melody lunged at her, feet-first. Makie had used this same move often enough herself, but was too slow to react all the same as Melody locked her legs around her and flipped her over, sending her crashing hard onto her back! "Ahhh..." she gasped, arching up off the mat from the impact.