Onigashima vs. Novae - Wrestling with the Stars

Seeing Valerie work her away around the ring was enough to bring a smile to Tatiana’s face, even if their relationship was on shaky ground these days. It was easy to forget how skilled her sister was, how determined she was when she put her mind to something. A year ago, she wouldn’t have been able to pull off anything close to it. But when they decided to become wrestlers, she dedicated herself to the craft, poured her soul into it, and here they were.

Valerie could be so beautiful, until she suddenly wasn’t.

Shizuka seemed under control for the moment, as Valerie had done a good job of coming out of the technical exchange on top. That would all come to a screeching halt with the simplest of moves, however, as Shizuka ended it all with a simple knee to the stomach, hitting with enough force to raise Valerie’s feet a couple of inches off the mat.

Valerie was gasping when came down again, aching, and it was all too easy for Shizuka to snatch her head up and give it a good wrenching. She couldn’t do much about it at the moment beyond suffer, though, needing a few seconds to recover and recoup.

Now putting Valerie's head in a painful-looking neck wrench, Shizuka would keep her arms wrapped around her head just to apply more pressure on her. She was planning to keep Valerie in the hold for a few seconds before she decided to transition the hold into something else, this time putting her in a front headlock. She believed that the neck wrench should be enough to weaken her opponent a little, giving her more opportunity to deliver a powerful move.

So, right after putting Valerie in the front headlock, Shizuka planned to reach down to the waist part of her opponent's outfit so that she could try to lift her up before throwing her back with a vertical suplex! She was sure that the move would be successful, thus giving Shizuka more leverage over her opponent.

Keep cool. That was the trick here.

It was early in the match, still, and Valerie couldn’t let herself panic because Shizuka was taking a temporary advantage. She just had to stop and think and figure out what her opponent was doing next, anticipate and intercept the move. A DDT? No, she was moving her arm into something that was more akin to a suplex’s setup. Vertical, most likely. Something she could deal with. Maybe.

When Shizuka attempted to lift her up, Valerie hooked the Oni’s leg with her own, stopping the effort cold. It made for a less-than-comfortable position, but it would hopefully buy her some time, time she could use to throw a couple of quick punches into her opponent’s gut. Anything to stop the worst from happening.

Shizuka was looking to hoist Valerie up with the vertical suplex, but before she could lift her opponent up, Valerie managed to stop her by hooking her leg with her own. "Huh?" Shizuka blinked, a little surprised by this, but this wouldn't stop her for long as she would look for another way to deal more damage on her opponent. But, before she could actually go for another attack, her opponent threw a couple of punches right into her belly, stopping the red demon's advance.

"Aaghh!! Uughh!!" Shizuka grunted after taking those punches, doubling over. Left momentarily breathless, Shizuka tried to stop Valerie from taking advantage of her state as she would attempt to grab her hand by her wrist, looking to stop her from landing more punches into her. While her current condition didn't allow her to do more, at the very least she could stop her opponent from landing more hits on her, allowing her to recover for a bit.

Valerie breathed a small sigh of relief - as much as she could breath at all with her current position - when she managed to keep Shizuka from landing the vertical suplex. She could take such a move, but it was the sort of damage she was hoping to avoid so early on. Novae did their best work when they stayed mobile, and they needed to kick this match off strong.

She’d had plans for her next move, but Shizuka killed them in the crib when she grabbed her wrist, locking her down and holding tight. A canny move. But Valerie thought she had answer for it, one that would kill the stalemate.

With her spare arm wrapped around Shizuka’s skull, she pulled her head, managing to squeeze it out, enough for her to look down her foe’s back. From there, it was all academic - Valerie threw her body into a sideway roll, taking Shizuka along with the ride, looking to fall flat on her back and hit her opponent with a swinging neckbreaker. A rudimentary move, but one she hoped would help her tip this match’s momentum.

Successfully grabbing Valerie's wrist, Shizuka was looking for an opportunity to turn things around in her favor, but her opponent was quick to get herself out of her predicament by wrapping her other arm around her head, squeezing it before going for a sideway roll, taking the red demon along, bringing her body down into the mat and hitting her with a swinging neckbreaker!

"Aaaghhh!!"

Shizuka cried out in pain as she took the neckbreaker. She flopped onto the mat, clutching on her neck, grimacing in pain. At the moment, Valerie seemed to be holding a clear advantage over her, and she knew that her opponent would certainly keep up with her momentum. All Shizuka could do at the moment was hoping that she could recover before Valerie could come up with her next attack.

The crowd gave a short round of applause for Valerie’s counter, and Tatiana was right there with them, glad to see her sister coming out on top of it all. That had been a tight series that she’d gone through, and it definitely gave her a good feel for what they were dealing with, so far as Shizuka was concerned. If Ms. Blue was brawn of the ground, Ms. Red was the thinker. So that was where they needed to focus their efforts, right? Made sense.

Speaking of which…

”Val!” Tatiana stretched her arm out over the ropes. ”Tag me in!”

Her sister looked up, hesitating for a moment, holding a quick debate in her head. When the moment passed, however, she relented, popped to her feet, and took a few steps over to slap her sister’s hand while their opponent wallowed.

Not wanting to waste the opportunity, Tatiana sprung into action right away. She gripped the ropes tight, pulled back, and yanked herself into the ring, tumbling forward as she flew. Her body went into a spin, a wild arc that would end with the back of her calves coming down on Shizuka’s chest, hitting her with a somersault leg drop.

As Shizuka writhed on the mat, Valerie took this advantage to tag her partner in. Still lying on her back, Shizuka was unaware of the exchange, and she was unable to see Tatiana springing into action as she entered the ring in dynamic manner, performing a somersault into the ring before coming down onto Shizuka by landing a somersault leg drop on her, hitting Shizuka at her chest with her calf.

"Aaaagghhh!!" Shizuka cried out in pain as she took the leg drop, her limbs shooting up from the impact before they flopped down onto the mat. "Auughhh..." she groaned, feeling sore around the affected area. The attack made it more difficult for Shizuka to push herself up, and at the moment, she remained on the mat, with Tatiana having perfect opportunity to keep up with her assault on her.

"Shizuka-chan, get up!!" Yukari shouted to her partner, encouraging her to get up as she clutched on the top rope. She could only hope that Shizuka had it in her to tag her in, thus giving her a moment of respite while allowing Yukari to fight in her stead as she recovered.

Cut the ring in half. Keep up the pressure. Don’t let our opponents make tags as will - that’s our advantage, not theirs.

Some Valerie’s words, repeated to Tatiana ad nauseum during their training, echoed in her head as she went somersaulting through the air, coming into the match with a dynamic and damaging entry. She was trying to keep the pressure low, not let this feel as big of a deal as it was, but that wasn’t the easiest thing to do, really. They needed this win.

So, when she came crashing down on Shizuka, there was little respite given before she was on to the next attack. She grabbed her foe by the head, filling her hands with two fistfuls of red hair, and lifted her up enough to make expose her back - a back that she was quick to target.

Tatiana took a step back, then launched herself forward with a harsh kick to Shizuka’s spin, kicking it like she was going for a field goal and filling the ring with the sick sound of bone connecting with bone. The move would leave her shin tingling, so she could only imagine how bad it felt on the point of impact.

Still reeling from the leg drop from Tatiana who was tagged into the ring by Valerie, Shizuka was trying her best to recover, hoping that she could regain enough strength to crawl her way towards her partner, Yukari. But, she was not given the chance to do so as Tatiana was being so quick to act. Grunting as she felt her hair being tugged by her opponent, Shizuka was brought up onto her knees before she took a brutal kick right into her spine.

"Aaahhhhhhhh!!!!" Shizuka screamed out in pain, her expression was that of pure agony as she took the kick on her back by Tatiana. "Auuhhh... mmghhh..." Moaning in pain, the red demon looked at her partner and decided that she needed to get moving as soon as possible. So, she would try to push Tatiana away so that she could start making her way towards Yukari, crawling despite the stinging pain on her back. Due to the pain, such a thing was a very difficult thing to accomplish for her.

"C'mon, Shizuka-chan!! You're almost there!!" Yukari encouraged Shizuka, holding out her arm into the ring as she waited for Shizuka to tag her in, thus replacing her and giving her some time to rest and recover from all the damages that she had taken earlier.