Stress Relief at the Dojo

Kozue made her way back into the ring after she finished stuffing her head into the gear and waited for Alaina to do the same. Even though she didn't think they'd be going too hard, a little extra padding wouldn't hurt, especially if she planned on doing a few high-flying moves on Alaina. Which she did

The extended hand took Kozue by surprise, though. Not because she thought it was a trick - she doubted Alaina had a single devious bone in her stacked body -  but because it wasn't the sort of thing she usually saw in her matches. Or any match, really. Most times,  the wrestlers she saw just went right into it from the bell. Sometimes even before the bell.

She returned the shake and nodded Alaina's way. "Works for me. Don't worry, I'll try to keep you nice and pretty for Mamoru." Kozue gave her a playful jab in the arm to go along with her figurative one, and took a step back. She bounced on her heels a few times, feeling the rhythm and getting herself psyched up. "Ding ding." She slapped her gloves together and started the spar proper.

Kozue immediately got her hands up, going for the classic test-of-strength. She couldn't win it. Alaina had to know she couldn't win it. But that was the trick, she wanted to make her a little unsure right off the bat, get her asking herself some questions. Was it a trap? Take it or don't take it? Fear is the mind-killer.

"Ha, I am sure he will appreciate that." Alaina said with a grin.

As Kozue moved forward, Alaina had her hands up ready to block what she figured was going to be some sort of quick attack right out the gate. Instead, Kozue wanted to lock up. Alaina was taken by surprise to say the least.

Alaina held her hands up, grabbing Kozue's to begin the lockup. If Kozue wanted to test strength that was fine with Alaina. She assumed Kozue had a trick up her sleeve... so Alaina figured she would go all-out with the strength hoping to force Kozue down. Fast.

Kozue braced her feet. Took the proper position that Junko had been drilling into her head day after day. Proper placement of the feet, proper stance in the back. She turned into a rock and gripped the lockup tight, reaching into the well of her strength and drawing as deep as she could. She did everything she knew was supposed to, down to the letter.

It didn't matter. When Alaina bore down on, Kozue caved. She was pushed back. One step. Two. Three. Getting closer to the ropes and a very bad position.

Kozue wasn't quite as stupid as a certain pig-tailed prima donna liked to think - she did have an idea on how to get out of this, and she was fairly certain it would work...in theory. She'd never done it before. But that was the point of sparring, to try out new things. Better to get clobbered here than in the ring with some musclebound guy. So.

She stopped pushing and started pulling, yanking Alaina towards her as she fell backwards. At the same time, she brought her legs up, placed her feet on Alain's impressive chest, and tried - tried - to send her flying with a monkey flip.

Alaina forced Kozue forward and found herself making good progress. Once Kozue leaned back, Alaina went from confident to confounded as she was monkey-flipped by Kozue!

Alaina landed with a thud on her back, groaning as she began to get up with one hand rubbing her lower back. "It's a good thing this pads some of the landing huh?" Alaina said as she playfully gave her backside a slap. Now that Alaina was put on her back, she figured she had to return the favor. She ran towards Kozue, and once she was close enough, leapt into the air parallel to the ring looking to land a cross body block!

Kozue had to fight the strong urge to a do victory dance after landing the monkey flip on Alaina. No, it wasn't exactly a match ending move, but it was the sort of thing she needed to work into her toolkit: moves designed to use her opponent's strength against them. Reversals, fakes, dodges. Misdirection was her friend.

Kozue did a quick kip up to her feet and started to turn around, wanting to bring the fight to Alaina and keep the bigger wrestler off her game, but she was too late - Alaina was airborne, flying free and heading straight towards her.

She had enough time to try and dodge the cross body block, and if she'd had just a half-second more, she might have managed it. But Alaina was too close and her body covered too much space for it, now. All Kozue could do was put her hands up in a weak attempt to block it, as the attack smashed right through her guard and sent her down to the mat with a shock that seemed to make the whole room quake. At the end of it, she was laying on her back, staring up at the ceiling while a girl nearly twice her size rested on top. A bad position. An extremely bad position.

Alaina was relieved that Kozue hadn't ducked in time. If she did Alaina would have managed to do as much damage to herself at the start of the spar as her opponent.

Alaina wanted to keep up the pressure, but didn't want to be super intense about it. She was out to train, not smash. Alaina pulled Kozue up by an arm, staying to Kozue's left side. She quickly snapped her arm around Kozue's head in a side headlock. "That monkey flip really got me good there...." Alaina said with a smile. "So, is there a lucky guy or girl.. well significant other in your life?"

Alaina wasn't sure small talk was appropriate, but she didn't lose her focus. Part of her just felt that it helped keep the atmosphere light, yet professional.

Kozue immediately went into struggle mode the moment she felt Alaina's iron grip on her, but it wasn't doing much good. The gulf between them was simply too wide for her to power out, making it crystal clear where the 'Amazon' nickname. She twisted, bucked, pushed and pulled, but there was just no shaking her.

She was panicking. Junko had warned her about that. There was no such thing as a perfect hold, they all had an escape hatch. Each and every one. She just had to keep her head clear and find it.

"Got a bunch of 'others' in my life..." Kozue didn't have that much weight, but she figured it could be of some use if she worked with it properly. With one hand, she reached around and grabbed hold Alaina's left elbow. With the other hand, she grabbed hold of the right. She straightened out the leg behind Alaina, jerked back, and tried to just sit down on the mat, hoping she could drag West Coast Amazon along and make her let go in the chaos of the tumble.

Hoping, because, if she didn't let go, Kozue would be beyond screwed.

Alaina applied enough pressure to keep Kozue from wriggling out, and initially felt good about that. Kozue hadn't been able to twist free or put her in a hammerlock. Perhaps Alaina's work on proper form had finally showed a little bit of payoff?

One thing Alaina hadn't counted on was Kozue being very resourceful. She knew her opponent wasn't dumb, but she was downright shocked when Kozue fell back, taking a surprised Alaina down with her!

"Oomph!" Alaina grunted as she fell back along with Kozue, hitting the mat harder than she expected. She let go of the headlock and tried rolling to her left. Even though both women went down, Kozue expected it and Alaina didn't want to see herself get caught up in a hold or hit with some fast strike. Unfortunately for her, the fall and roll were disorienting which slowed her reaction time quite a bit.

Kozue hit the ground rolling as Alaina came down with her it. It wasn't the most graceful move in wrestling history, and if Junko were around she would probably give her all sorts of crap for the sloppy execution - or, hell, just being in the position in the first place - but fuck it, it worked, and it didn't end up with a 170 pound Amazon on her chest. She was coming out ahead.

She made it to her feet fast and knew what made sense for the followup, but she was a little hesitant to nail it, worrying it might be too intense for a spar...until she remembered how Alaina belly flopped all over her. It was fair play, they were both big girls - figuratively speaking - what were a couple of splashes

between friends?

"Here." She ran to the rope and jumped up, bouncing off the bottom, skipping over the middle and then doing a springboard off the top, flipping back in an arc.

"I." She flew trough the air like she was doing a Moonsault, only she added 90° to the usual 360°.

"Come!" The end result had Kozue coming down on Alaina back first, crashing into her with a senton splash. It was a gamble with Alaina moving, but no guts...

Alaina slowly began to collect herself when she heard Kozue speak. Just as Alaina began to stir she was hammered by the smaller woman!

Sure, Kozue wasn't anywhere near as big as Alaina but when it came down to it she could pack a serious punch!

"Ungh!" Alaina grunted as she kicked the mat a couple times and rolled over onto her stomach. She took a few deep breaths as she worked her way up to one knee. Was it tempting to try to use more power to her advantage? Sure! However, Alaina knew she had to work on things like technique and footwork if she was going to ever work her way up the ladder.

Alaina slowly worked her way up to her feet, this time much more aware of her surroundings. Sadly, she was also aware that the firecracker Kozue had plenty of time to set up something else.