Chizuru Nagahara vs. Blade Uehara - One More Reunion

…

...any second now…

…

...

...a bit of sweat ran down the side of her face.

Chizuru never wanted it to be said that she was one to miss a golden opportunity, even if it wasn’t the most practical for getting ahead in the match. Call it a habit she picked up back when the Three Idiots were still ‘three’, running around the old promotion for cheap little laughs after planting a whoopie cushion under the director’s seat, or replacing Beauty Ichigaya’s luxury shampoo with green dye. There was a lighthearted side to wrestling that nobody really played up as well as they did. So when Blade inevitably came down and took her grandiose flop with Chizuru’s smarmy mug framed perfectly in the foreground, the only thing she was really thinking of was how great it would like on her YouTube page and maybe pulling it up later to show her co-star and hopefully share a laugh over.

Hopefully.

That all depended on a lot of things. The most important of which being that her fall actually happened. And it did happen. Just in a way that everyone in the world except Chizuru was expecting.

Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. With her eyes centered on the camera, the Suplex Specialist was able to notice the upward tilt the operator had decided to put on his shot, moving swiftly to the side as he did for an entirely different angle. A smile still etched ever so perfectly on her countenance, Chizuru’s pupils slowly drifted to the side, noticing the sudden shift in attention that everyone was taking. They were all looking up. Then slightly higher. Then down...down...dow-

"Gah!" Chizuru yelped. A quick, mousey little yelp before she slapped against the uncovered ground. A resounding slap from her supple, petite skin meeting the floor caused more than a few of the nearby onlookers to reel back in their seats. The referee looked over from the ropes, checking on the condition of both wrestlers with a pair of raised eyebrows and a barely contained, amused smile. Chizuru, for her part, was not smiling. Hardly moving, save for a few twitches and long groans as she laid face down, arms and legs spread wide apart like a human starfish.

A for effort.

B- for intuitiveness.

Just a big ol' F for timing.

Blade wasn't sure what exactly was going through Chizuru's childlike mind when she decided to dodge the high-flying finisher about three years too soon, but she knew that trying to wrap her head around Chizu's thought process was a well-established exercise in futility. By now Blade was still reserving her final assessment of Chizuru until the end of the match, where she would categorize her as either a wrestling savant who only wanted to make you think she was a total air-head, or she was in fact a ditzy man-child...er, woman-child. Regardless of what inner machinations are twirling around in that head of hers, Blade was thankful for them, because they just saved the Aerial Artist from crashing and burning after a botched finisher.

A bit of improvisation had to be done considering her intended target was now smiling triumphantly on her feet instead of splayed out in the ring, a tucking dive and a general lack of self-preservation both being needed for the shooting star press to be pulled off well. Regardless of what it was going to be, the crowd knew that it was going to be something worth getting out of their chairs to see. Flashing cameras immortalizing the split second before Blade would bowl over Chizuru from behind with what must have felt like being blindsided by a sack of bricks. Blade herself appreciating the soft, and admittedly curvaceous cushion to her fall before she went tumbling forward into a slumping stop against the padded barricade. Winded and somewhat dazed, but still in considerably better shape than her splayed out opponent, Blade clambered back to her feet with her back pressing against the barricade. Where she was greeted with residual applause echoing around her and a few opportunistic fans patting her on the back and yelling out some frat-boys "Wooo's!!!" since the camera, and by extension the world, was centered on her right now.

"Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, hope you guy's are having a good time tonight. But back up would ya? I'm still on the clock here..." Blade smiled and posed a bit but ultimately asked for space so she could keep this momentum fueled train going, waving some fans away before she slumped down to her knees and beside her opponent now looking more like flattened roadkill. Blade tugged at an arm to flip Chizuru onto her back before swinging one of her legs over her prone frame, sporting a cocky smirk while triumphantly sitting herself atop that annoyingly well-endowed chest of hers while affixing one of Chizu's ankles under Blade's arm. The referee joining them outside to do the one job she had to do tonight.

"One!"

Owie.

That was the summation of Chizuru’s thoughts on the entire situation right now. It had been a while since she’d taken the brunt of a high-flying move. The last one must have been back in that Royal Rumble match when Yukiko hit her with Mightysault, or maybe it was with her successor Katori in that reunion match they had not too long ago. She almost forgot how hard it could hit, how much of a rush taking a hundred-pound human torpedo full on could be. In a weird way, it was pretty nostalgic. She’d have been pretty happy about this if it weren’t for the pain...and the nausea...and just about everything else that was making her body twitch ever so subtly on the floor.

A couple of curious onlookers observed the ditzy specimen as her head lulled carelessly from side to side. Blade seemed to have been thoroughly able to knock the fight out of Chizuru alongside the smarmy confidence. Those close enough that were especially good of hearing may have been able to pick up on her incoherent mumbling. It was easily drowned out, however, by the sound of the referee slapping the floor and counting down as the Aerial Artist swooped down and locked in a pinfall.

On the inside, Chizuru could feel a heavy weight bearing down on her, eliciting a groan from between her lips as the pressure weighed on her lungs. Her ample chest rose a few inches higher from beneath Blade’s back, trying to get as much air in as possible. Vibrations from the referee's slap against the floor tickled her back. Her fingers clenched and eyes fluttered slowly ever so slowly, feeling the life return to her just in time to…

TWO!

Panic.

As the official's hand came down for the final count, Chizuru reeled her legs back and bucked out, getting her shoulders off the ground just in time to stop the tomboy’s timely victory. Propping herself up on her side and breathing heavily, the Suplex Girl still lacked the strength to make her way back up to two feet, but she’d at least saved the match. However far that would take her.

The inherent caveat of flinging yourself at full speed towards what you hoped would be a human-sized landing platform was that no matter how perfectly you executed it...you weren't going to be walking away from the high-diving wreckage without some bumps and bruises to call your own. Even with how pleasantly soft of a landing pad Chizuru turned out to be, Blade could already tell she was nursing a few sore spots after she was done jaw-jacking with the ringside frat-boys. Luckily enough, the adrenaline spike that comes with taking to the air and getting a rise out of the crowd tends to make you forget about all that pain...at least until you're back in the locker rooms where you can drown your aches away in those awesome massage pools.

Blade sported a bit of a wincing strain as she rotated her shoulder before flopping down for her first pinfall attempt of the night, laying herself atop the suplex machine's heaving chest while nodding accordingly with every slap of the referee's hand. The snarky smile Chizuru previously had was now being etched across Blade's face as she overheard several separate sounds. One was the referee hand smacking against the floor, another was the nearby audience’s ramblings...and the third was Chizuru's muddled mumbling's. She was the only one close enough to make out her garbled sentence fragments. Something about how she always wanted...to dress up...as a superhero?

*What the-?*

The springing outward of Chizu's legs upended the pin attempt and the Aerial Artist with a bewildered glance directed towards her knocked senseless adversary. She was more baffled by Chizu's words than disappointed over having her pinning attempt broken up, but Blade knew better than to let herself get even more distracted by...whatever is that Chizu does.

"Gotta say...you're really making me work for this one. Kinda sorta maybe starting to have fun here..." Blade remarked while sitting beside the delirious German, then taking a deep breath while passing her hand through her scruffy hair. Her few seconds of genuine reprieve ended when she turned around to haul herself up to her feet with the German in tow by means of tugging on her arm, but keeping her arched over while wrapping one of her legs around Chizu's. By draping her free leg atop her opponent's neck and hooking one of Chizu's arms behind her own, Blade would attempt to entangle the suplex specialist in an Octopus Stretch submission...a favorite of Blade's...but not of her opponent's.

On the bright side of things, Chizuru had managed to avoid one of the most embarrassing losses of her entire career. In a hand to the fire sort of a way, she was almost thankful for it. It was a reminder of who she was facing and what was on the line. This was her reemergence on the wrestling scene, her moment to show she wasn’t sitting on her bum for the past year. Veteran or not, Blade wasn’t a woman that soft sold her opponents, like a certain karateka had found out in their old league. There were a lot of aspects about Mimi Yoshihara that Chizuru wouldn’t mind emulating, from her cheery smile to her can-do attitude. But one of her more decisive losses wasn’t one of them. She had to get serious.

The German powerhouse broke out of the pinfall and, still on her side, was drumming up ways to get back on the rebound while she still had time for a breather. Unfortunately, things were only going to get worse. She cast a lone eye over shoulder towards Blade as she spoke, at least happy to know she wasn’t letting her opponent down. What she wasn’t happy about was the hold she was being lifted into. She was left hunched over as Blade threw a slim leg over her neck, pushing her down. By the time her opponent was going for the arm, Chizuru already knew what she was being put into. A tinge of horror filled her eyes. “Ah! No! Nononononocomeon-” She croaked, quickly locked in Blade's grasp.

The dreaded octopus hold. The one that had forced many a submission from her across her entire career. It wasn’t a decisive play, but it was definitely up there. The angle was so awkward, the position so uncomfortable, it was hard for Chizuru’s simple-natured mind to get a read on it. She fidgeted left and right and took an awkward step forward, closing her eyes tight and clenching her fists as she tried to break away. She shook her head furiously, her long brown hair whipping around in a bout of frustration. Gah! Why didn’t she pay better attention when Rei taught her how to reverse this?!

Chizuru let out another yelp of pain, feeling the hold worsen a bit. This wasn’t good. It was hard to summon enough strength to bust out of the hold in this awkward position, the main reason she hated it so much, and Blade had it locked in tight. Her only saving grace thus far was that she was still fresh, but that wouldn’t last much longer. There was a way out of this. It would just take some willpower. Lots and lots of willpower.

Breathing in deep, Chizuru would take slow, sure steps over to the corner of the ring closest to the announcer's table. The heat building around her and a bead of sweat rolling down the side of her forehead, she'd attempt to bring herself to the side of the steel steps. Once she was close enough, she’d slowly pivot on the spot, turning herself around to have their backs face the steps. Chizuru reached to her side and cupped Blade’s thigh, getting a decent grip on it as she put herself into a more familiar mindset. Bending her knees slightly, the Suplex Girl would throw herself backward, arching her back as she did, going to slam the Aerial artist into the steel steps spine first and break the hold apart.

In retrospect, Blade did suppose it was kind of a bittersweet compliment she offered Chizuru after pancaking the poor, rambunctious airhead to the floor like that. On the one hand, she was offering the suplexing savant major respect for putting up a hell of a fight and providing more of a challenge than anyone who was once in a group called "The Three Idiots" had any right putting up. Chizuru fumbled the ball here or there and made some admittedly...unorthodox, mistakes, but she was hanging in there and taking her lumps like a woman. And still having the endurance and wherewithal to kick out of a high-flying splash that Blade had used to put away scores of other Wrestle Angels back in the day. So win or lose for Chizuru...hopefully lose, of course...Blade was already willing to offer Chizu oodles of props and even treat her to a drink in a dive-bar after the match that hopefully won't already have wrestlers fighting inside of it.

On the other hand, this meant she wasn't going to be taking Chizuru lightly in the slightest anymore. No more Mrs. Nice Lady. Hence why Blade was busting out a submission as painfully contorting as the Octopus Stretch, the Aerial Artist becoming decidedly more grounded as she grapevined their legs and coiled her other leg around the back of Chizu's neck. Blade knew the importance of submissions to a natural high-flyer, cause what better way was there to wear an opponent out and and ensure she wasn't going to be rolling out of the way of your finisher anytime soon? The sheer damage this could do on your mid-section was pretty gnarly, just ask poor Mimi Yoshihara, the last person she had in this submission before having her tap out like she was playing hambones on Blade's thigh. Blade always did have that magic grappling twerps number in the ring, so here's hoping she could repeat that pattern with ol' Chizu here.

"Eeeeasy, girl...settle down there, only gonna make this worse for yourself..." Blade cheekily admonished with a few teasing bounces while tugging back on Chizu's arm once all of her fidgeting was starting to become a nuisance. Speaking to her more like disobedient show horse, which given their awkward positioning kinda made sense. Blade not resting on her laurels as she raised her free arm and started digging her pointy elbow into the side of Chizu's abdominals, a few more seconds than passing after that before she flashed the devil horns with her free hand and smirked for the nearby camera. She was basically just killing time until Chizu eventually submitted, which she really hoped was sooner rather than later. Chizu was just too sweet of a girl to be put in this much agony, and there's no way she'd know how to-...

"Hey...HeyHeyWhatareyoudoing?!" Blade politely asked in a frantic wide-eyed panic as Chizu started positioning them somewhere...to do something. The movements were slow, but methodical. The swell of audience support rising to new decibels with ever step of the plucky underdog shuffling them both around. Blade twisted her head left and right trying to look behind her to see where they were, before she would get reminded in the most painful way imaginable after being rammed spine first into the steel steps with enough force to send the top half sliding off. Blade belting out a shrill and agonized groan from the crippling counter that left her sprawled out on the bottom half of the steel steps, grimacing sharply and twitching every so once in a while...

"nnnhg...Aaaaaouch..."

God, she forgot how much this hurt. The positioning, the elbow in the side. Who was the last person to put her in that hold? Minami? Ryuko? Whoever it was, this was one piece of nostalgia she could have done without.

It was no small relief, then, when she managed to break free in the most literal sense possible. The same instant she heard the violent crash and cry as the steel steps broke in half was the same moment Chizuru’s spine fell back into alignment. She flopped forward onto all fours, taking heavy gasps as she slowly pushed herself back up two feet. Her ribs ached a bit, and it took some force of will to align her body properly again.

The roar from the crowd was more than enough to get her mind back in the game. The Suplex Girl looked down at the tomboy as she straightened her spine with the back of her hands, idly thinking of what to do next. Part of her hoped she hadn’t hurt Blade too badly with that counter, but at the same time, she knew Uehara-san was the last person in the world to want an easy target. Chizuru had to come at her with everything, or not come at her at all. Be the tough girl she’d asked to see.

With a resolved breath through her nostrils, Chizuru brought her hands away from her spine and leaned over, rolling Blade carefully down the remaining half of the stairs and onto her stomach. She eased her hands away as the Aerial Artist settled on the ground, but kept close, furrowing her brows with a clear expression of worry. Oh, she really hoped she didn’t mess up her back or anything...

Oh, wait. Tough girl. Right.

Chizuru shook her hand and snapped herself upright, her expression turning hard in the blink of an eye for no discernible reason whatsoever. She looked down at Blade with an upturned gaze, jutting her bottom lip out with her hands on her hips, and speaking in the deepest voice she could muster for maximum thuggery. “Tch. You shoulda stuck to flying, girle.” What a badass.

Crouching back down and snaking her arms underneath Blade’s waist, she hoisted the both of them up onto uncertain feet. After a quick second of mental preparation, Chizuru launched into her deadly assault. With a buck of her hips, she would hurl the Okinawan up and over with a German suplex, slamming her into the ground with unforgiving force. But she didn’t let go just then. Instead, she rolled with the aerialist, coming back down on two feet before bucking back up with another German, albeit with only half the power of the first. And, just when the older veteran thought she was done, Chizuru would roll with her once more and attempt a release German to send Blade tumbling away down the aisle. It wouldn’t be easy, not to mention exhausting, but she was determined to show the world just what little innocent Chizu was really capable of.

"....FFFuck....I think I broke my butt......."

No one can ever say Blade didn't know how to use colorful alliteration in voicing her discomfort. But you'll have to excuse her. She came to this match prepared to wrestle one-third of the three stooges...not someone with the strength to break out of a submission hold like Dark Star Freaking Chaos. Those grumbling words being the best way she can describe being flipped like a flapjack out of a Octopus Stretch to land on probably the only other surface in the vicinity that felt worse to be slammed upon than the matted floor beneath their feet.

Blade started to lethargically start turning to her side with a grimacing wince, and go tumbling down the steel steps with a deadened thud at the bottom with some unnoticed assistance from Chizuru. Blade began lethargically motioning upwards, both of her palms planted against the floor for a steadying push back to her hands and feet to the sound of what she could have sworn was...

"...I didn't know Cutey Kanai had that deep a baritone-OHSHIT..." Blade's senses coming back to her when she felt the terrifying feeling of constricting arms squeezing tightly onto her midsection, and the actually kinda pleasant feeling of rubbing softness against her upper back. Her eyes widening to reflect that disconcerting dread as she scrambled and flailed to grab onto somethinganythingwhatever would stop what she knew was coming before she was slammed onto the back of her head and shoulders and huddled into a grimacing ball of misery while Chizuru tumbled right along with her...

"TWO!!"

...Blade being propped on her wobbly legs once more with a decidedly glossy look in her eyes and the audience taking it upon themselves to continue keeping tally of the number of German Suplexes that Chizuru was planning to bust out tonight. Something that Blade certainly wasn't capable of doing considering that she was in a befuddled daze, though still capable of wondering why she was back on her feet so suddenly-

"WHATHA!!!" Blade blurted out before being back slammed back into the suplexing tumble dry, folded over herself again and grumbling incoherently into her own soft chest with a scrunching face and her backside sticking into the air.  At this point she was as limpened and unmoving as an actual suplexing dummy, which she unceremoniously may as well have been considering her current predicament of being German'ed to oblivion, and her less than stellar I.Q.

"THREE!!"

But at the very least, her waning sensibilities could at least be thankful it was over. The back of her skull feeling like hell after having been hammered into the thinly-padded surface as she remained slackened and inert in Chizuru's firm clutches. Despite her scrambled thoughts and complete lifelessness, she was still capable of wondering why she was back on her feet so suddenly-

"....Awwwwwwcomeon-" Blade's response now sounding more defeated and depressed as the final German Suplex sent her flying backward with enough propulsion to have her crashing into...and through, the barricade. Collapsing it and having the Aerial artist tumbling through to land on her sprawled out back with her eyes closed and her mind on another planet.

".....FOUR!!!"

Blade didn’t seem to be enjoying this. Fair enough, but there were probably a couple of ways she could have made things a little more fun for herself. Maybe if she imagined she was on a crazy roller coaster, a rollercoaster that slammed you to the ground every time it dipped. She knew people that would pay for that. Nobody that she would call level-headed, but she did.

Chizuru was the one in need of the motivation, though. As easy as she made this look, as people told her it looked, it took no small amount of effort. It was all the worse against this kind of floor. Yeah, it upped the damage, but it wasn’t very forgiving, didn’t offer a lot of recoil for the next round. When she hauled Blade back up, it took a couple more notches of effort than it usually did. By the time she wound up for the release suplex, she was worried her stamina had been all but spent. That would have made for a pretty embarrassing moment on the Suplex Savant’s highlight reel.

But she did do it. By golly, did she do it. Her plan was just to have Blade tumble and roll up against the barricade, maybe just smack into it at the worst. But in another moment of vastly underestimating her own strength, the German Suplex girl was left dumbfounded as she watched her fellow veteran crash right through the obstacle. Splinters and chips flew into the air, the crowd roared in a disharmonious wave of surprise and laughter, astounded by the petite girl’s overwhelming display of strength.

Chizuru, for her part, only looked on with wide eyes as she rolled herself onto all fours, taken aback slightly by the sight. She just had to take it in. Admire the display. Realize the strength still laid bare at her hands.

And then she smirked, pushing herself up to two feet and placing her hands on her hips, bottom lip still upturned. "And that takes care of the cremation-ACK ACK!” She brought a hand to her throat, wincing a bit. “Okay tough voice. You can take a break now...I know. You’re welcome.” She hunched forward, pressing her hands against her knees for a moment as she took in some air. The whole time, though, she had the largest, dumbest smile on her face.

This was incredible! Tonight was going way better than she thought it would! If there was even a trace of ring rust on her, it wasn’t showing itself yet. She had the older veteran on the ropes, over them, and through a barricade. The audience could see an upset victory tonight from the returning idiot, and Chizuru couldn't have agreed more. All she needed was to secure the momentum. But first, she had to uphold the most critical aspect of any wrestling promotion, of any match scheduled for prime time:

Showmanship.

Bringing herself upright, Chizuru walked with a confident gait over to the fallen Aerial Artist. She stepped over and through the broken barricade, standing before Blade’s splayed out body with a proud smirk, throwing up a sideways “V” and a wink. “How’s that? You just got Chizu’d, Uehara-san!”

Marketing would have to get back to her on that one, but for now, Chizuru decided to take this opportunity for what it was worth. Reaching down and grabbing Blade by the arm and leg, she’d attempt to haul the aerialist up and over her shoulders before clamping down with a torture rack. Her attention was purely on Blade for a few moments…

...but seemed to drift slowly towards the flashing cameras and excited cheers, facing them full on. “Thanks for coming out everyone, it means a lot that you all came to support us! I hope I’m not disappointing you after taking such a long time away. I hope you’ll keep cheering me on! Oh, and if anyone here would like an autograph afterward, I’m more than happy to wait backstage! I’ll make a trip to the lobby too if you want to take a selfie or something! I’ll try and convince Blade to come too, if you’d like! Oh! Oh! I almost forgot! Hi Mom! I’m back in AFW again! I’m having a lot of fun! Blade is an awesome opponent! We should get dinner downtown to celebrate! Rei showed me this great French restaurant place in Shinjuku! I think the address is 2-1-7-” She was nothing if not a people person.

When this was all over, Blade was going to take a nice long siesta in one of the company hot tub's, wallow in the therapeutic boiling waters with a towel wrapped around her head, and enjoy a nice long trip down memory lane. Back to her previous times in Wrestle Angel when things were much simpler. When Chizuru was the affable class clown and Blade was the ardent professional who didn't need to worry about getting her ass handed to her by the girl regularly seen laughing about whatever tomfoolery they had just pulled off. Blade was never one to be regarded as "nostalgic" per-se,  but this was one of those times that made her want to sit back in a rocking chair and remember the good old days.

Blithering mumbles was about the most cogent response Blade could muster to Chizuru's triumphantly corny catchphrase and adorable win-posing over the grounded aerial artist. One German Suplex knocked the wind out of most anyone's sails.  Two German Suplexes in a row from the woman who practically popularized the damn move back in W.A. was enough to leave even the most battle-hardened of veterans in a disorientated stupor. Blade herself feeling no different, and in many ways, much worse. THREE German Suplexes done by the Suplex Specialist in rolling succession onto paper-thin padding with the final heave sending Blade flying backward through a fan barricade and into the front row besides a crowd of gawking fans?...

...it was safe to say Blade was going to need some time to recoup here, the Aerial Artist shuffling meekly with her eyes sewn shut and the side of her grumbling face mashed into the floor. Where, to be honest, she'd kinda like to just stay for about another hour or so...but she knew that wasn't possible. She knew that Chizuru was starting to have fun, which meant she wasn't gonna be stopping anytime soon. Like hauling herself out of the bed ever morning to make coffee, Blade started fighting her natural instincts to just stay where she was and began unearthing herself from underneath her comfy blankets to get the day started. Or in this case, from underneath pieces of barricade. She pumped one fist against the floor as a trembling support structure to start leveraging her weight against, but in the blink of an eye she was hauled up and over onto Chizuru's shoulders.

"hrrgh....sassa....rassa....frasssa...." Blade rasped out in the spine-bending position, unintentionally quoting Yosemite Sam in her delirious agony. Sprawled out on Chizuru's shoulders and rendered relatively helpless was an embarrassing enough predicament to cope with, but it was just a teensy bit moreso when she overheard Chizuru friggin schmoozing with the audience and giving shout-out's to her mom. Her beaming hospitality and sunny disposition coercing those nearby with the gumption to straight up answer her back, fawn her with praise for her doing so well in the match, or even ask for winking poses for their cellphone cameras. Blade endured the paralyzing pain that left her susceptible to Chizuru's perky whim and left her limply slackened with a grimacing snarl...and also put her in a,...less than hospitable mental state.

"...go...fuck your selfie..."