Black Crow vs Masuyo Ai - Zugzwang

Rules: Standard rules.
Victory Conditions: Victory is obtained by either pinfall, KO, or submission from the opponent.


There were a lot of things Masuyo figured she would have to worry about when she first signed up for the AFW. How tough was the competition going to be? How hard was she going to have to train to stay ahead of the curb? Would she able to make the transition from the octagon to the ring? How early was she going to have to wake up to catch the train from Yogen-Jaya?

Getting ring rust definitely wasn't on that list.

Honestly, she thought this was something only veterans had to deal with, but here she was. She hadn’t flexed her wings all that much since Avalanche. Most of that was on her. She’d risen high up the ladder in Friction only to hit the ceiling hard. She had to slow down, take time to and move forward with a clear head if she wanted to keep rising in this federation. She had to get stronger, but it wasn’t smart to just dive into the deep end.

Nothing wrong with getting back to basics, then.

Masuyo shadowboxed to herself in a quiet corner, letting a small part of her thoughts think of her opponent for tonight. What little she knew, at least. She was a newcomer, ready for her debut, but nothing much else save for a name and a shared MMA background. Definitely a coincidence, she was willing to bet. Management seemed to like having her play the greeting guard role, buttering her up to be some face for the promotion if the rumors floating around were right. She supposed she had to take that as a compliment, but she hoped it wasn't permenant. She had to keep moving higher, and she wasn’t going to let anything stop her on that rise.

First this, then the peak.

The peak.

Theme:

Masuyo Ai:

The koto came in not a moment later, and the Friction crowd roared to the familiar tune. Masuyo stepped out to the top of the ramp not a moment later, raising her hand high with a wave and beaming smile as she stepped her way down. In a small way, it was nice to know she was missed, but she didn’t let it distract her too much. She had to make a good impression, both for Friction and the rookie tonight.

She slid into the ring and popped up to two feet, throwing two fingers into the air with the brightest smile she could muster. The energy of the stadium pumped through her. She felt amped, ready, and as she took to her corner with some last minute stretches with both eyes on the ramp, she hoped Lily could say the same.

/

It didn’t take long for the arena lights to grow fade and her music to die down. Masuyo didn’t know exactly what to expect from a wrestler that went by something as bleak as ‘Crow’, but she had a few ideas. An aloof, quiet look about her, a slow and calculated stroll towards the ring. And black. Definitely black. The lights and music came back a second later, and the answer came walking through the light soon enough to the steady beat and clap of the speakers. Lo and behold, three for three.

Although, she hadn't expected anything so...literal.

Masuyo was quick to stand from her stretches, wanting to make sure to get read on her opponent as soon as she was able, but that cloak made it impossible. The illusion was uncanny from a distance, almost unable to tell where her opponent’s face was hidden beneath the dark and feathers. Good music, at least. Played to her well, even if all Masuyo could do was cant her head slightly and raise a brow.

She’s...not really gonna fight in that, right?

Whoever ‘Crow’ really was, she seemed to have some sense for theatrics. She timed her reveal perfectly as if she’d rehearsed it herself, throwing off her cloak with one twirl and finally giving the world, and Masuyo, their first real look at AFW’s latest talent. The crowd was quick to approve on what they were seeing, earning another round of camera flashes and fresh applause to match. A foreigner. Elegant. Well-built. And with a great head of hair. Their builds weren’t even that far off. If her MMA experience was really up to scratch…

Masuyo had to wonder, but it didn’t take long before her eyes were distracted by Lily’s gaze. She blinked. Then blinked again. She thought to say something, but her mind blanked to the empty eyes staring back at her. It wasn’t like the woman was looking at her, but staring through her. Analyzing her. Gauging her. Either that mind had nothing going through it all, or was going too fast for the Demon to comprehend. She tensed for a brief moment as Lily approached, still wearing that distant gaze. But then she saw the smile, and the hand extended her way, and instantly relaxed.

A handshake. Had she shaken hands with anyone before?

The MMA maven smiled back and took her hand.

“Nice entrance! That cloak was awesome. You have some serious talent if you made that yourself!” Her smile brightened, pointing a thumb to herself with a cocksure grin. “Masuyo Ai. I hope you’ll hit me with everything you have, and I’ll promise to hit back just as hard!”

/

This was an...interesting exchange.

She couldn’t be sure, but after a slightly awkward moment of silence before the referee called them away, Masuyo wouldn’t have been surprised to go the rest of this match without another word. Her name had sounded English, but that was based off her limited knowledge of what the foreigners who entered her ramen shop tended to look like. She was tempted to just call Lily shy, nerves sealing her lips on possibly the biggest night of her career. Masuyo had met her fair share before. But her eyes didn’t suggest that. They were cold, honed, focused. She’d seen those eyes before, but even Alicia Wells, ice cold destroyer that she was, at least had the tact to let her know when she was done talking.

But then the woman nodded and backed away. She couldn’t figure this woman out, but there seemed to at least be an understanding going on. That was better than she got with most people she figured, consoling herself with a roll of her shoulders.

It was a passing though, honestly. Nothing could distract her from the fight coming her way. From the challenge and promise she could see in Lily’s eyes. She may have been the rookie tonight, but Masuyo could see it. There was the experience of a hundred hard-fought battles behind those eyes. Time to see what she had.

Her heart rate picked back up, her smile still firmly rooted as she watched the girl slide into her stance. She felt the hairs on her neck stand up. Defiantly a mixed martial artist. She clenched her fist tightly, her thighs flexing as she readied to dash forward the instant the bell rang…

...only her opponent beat her to it.

In a flash, Masuyo found the newcomer bearing down on her, those focused eyes boring a hole straight through. Her forearm inched up to take the blow, but Lily’s knuckles had only grazed it before the fist returned to her side. A feint, but where was the real attack going to come from? Masuyo watched the torque in the Crow’s upper body, the shift in her stance as her right elbow came back. By the time she’d eiced it together, the next strike was already sailing towards her face. The Demon twisted her head to the side, craning her neck to move away from the blow as best she was able. Lily was fast, faster than her. She’d expected that from her slimmer, less defined build, and didn’t take much to prove that.

But she wouldn’t let her score that strike too easily. As her head twisted to the side, she tucked her chin in, letting Lily’s fist find her cheek rather than her jaw. Not a fun place to get punched, but a lot better than the alternative. Her flesh rippled as her hit landed with a shallow, but painful impact. Head movement, head movement. She played Gin’s words back in her head.

Masuyo bit down, taking the shock as she stepped forward into Lily’s space, trying to catch the crow before she could fully retract her arm. She’d fire two quick jabs to the woman’s toned abdomen, putting the force from her lunge into each one before following up with a low kick to her knee. Her opponent had good control, but endurance was where fights were won.

/

It was kind of amazing how much a little gesture like a handshake could change things. If Lily had gone without that formal greeting, that two seconds of mutual respect that wasn’t even required - hell, even discouraged sometimes - in the wrestling ring, Masuyo’s impressions of her would be almost completely backward.

Because, for a second there, it seemed like Lily was genuinely trying to knock her head off.

She definitely moved like a mixed martial artist, if there was any doubt left to linger. Fists close, stance forward, shoulders low, chin tucked. But that wasn’t even taking into account that intense, hyper-focused look of hers. Masuyo couldn’t recall the last time she’d seen someone so into a fight. It was almost distracting, in a way. Weird, even. Before her fists struck Lily’s core, for some reason, just for a second, she felt like she knew it was going to fail. That she wasn’t getting the most out of her strikes as she could have. She could feel this woman watching her moves, measuring her steps.

This was an intensity you just didn’t see often.

Masuyo pushed through it. Her hits landed flush, getting a taste for Lily’s solid body and the damage she could soak up. Barley even flinched. Not bad. The flash she caught in the newcomer’s eye told her straight away what was coming, but there wasn’t enough time for her to do much about it. Her kick was knocked back as the raven girl’s knee found its way to her stomach. The air left her lungs, and she nearly stumbled back, taken off guard by the speed of it all.

Breathe.

Her foot stomped against the canvas, her parried leg finding stability behind her at the last second to keep her falling. Her hands came up and wrapped around the back of Lily’s neck. She flashed the rookie a smirk, a beaming white smile between the dark of their heads. Her leg reeled back before she fired a knee strike of her own straight back towards Lily’s stomach. Whether her attack landed flush or not, her grip would shift up from the back of her neck to the back of her head, grabbing two handfuls of the Crow’s dark locks, and pulling her into a snap headbutt.

/

She blocked that? She blocked it.

Granted, the knee strike wasn’t the most subtle move she’d ever pulled, but it was a strike nonetheless. Masuyo was a top striker, and she never failed to neglect body blows. She practiced her knees hard, hit with enough force and speed that most people either had to brace for it or make some distance quick. But Lily stopped it. Perfectly, before it could gain real momentum. Like she’d been told it was going to happen a day in advance. Not even acting remotely surprised.

The hard part of any fight was gauging your opponent, trying to get a grasp on their strengths and weaknesses. Every approach was different, every opponent was unique. Having all the faith in the world wouldn’t matter if you didn’t prepare, and most of the time it was trial and error. Take shots to learn from them. Have it all figured out after the first round.

But Lily didn’t seem to have that detriment. There was something about the flash in Lily’s eyes, the hyper-attention in every slight twitch and shine of her pupils that got the Demon’s blood flowing. She’d only seen those eyes before, with Alicia Wells, easily the strongest mixed martial artist she’d gone up against. That off mix of quick analysis and ice-cold intensity that made a dangerous concation.

Maybe it was that half-second of hesitation, that instant her brain took to rethink her approach, that made her eat Lily’s uppercut. It was too fast to notice straight away as the Demon’s head shot back with a violent whip, stumbling back and falling to the canvas flat on her butt. She didn’t stay there for long, rolling once to the side and popping back up to two feet, her guard up and close to her face. She ran a tongue at the corner of her lip, tasting a hint of blood.

Masuyo smirked her way. “Pretty good.”

/