Showdown '19: Pre-Show: Pre Show Match: Natsuko Arisawa vs Gai Tendo

Natsu's older brother consistently lectured her about the way of the warrior, the heart of battle, and how one should never find personal enjoyment in the suffering of your opponent...But he wasn't here right now, so Natsu was going to take this opportunity to freaking relish in delivering some well deserved comeuppance to this fraudulent king. The school-girl fighter settling back down on her feet with a panting, but still jubilantly smiling expression on her face as she rubbed her sore jaw against the back of her gloved hand. Playing possum like that before springing back to counter attack was a tried and true way to get back into a fight, a lesson she thinks her closest bestie Nami actually picked up on now that she thinks back on it...

"...*pant*...Heh, time to start serving up some whoppers of my own..." Natsu ushered herself backward against the ropes until they began elastically curving behind her, all the better to grant her more sprinting speed as she went dashing towards the kneeling Martial Arts champion to a flowing fluttering of her bandana. By stepping up onto his knee and twisting herself towards him, she'd attempt to clock this King Of Burger-Style square against the side of his noggin via her knee in an attempted enzuigiri.

Mr. Tendo, the Burger King, was not a happy Gai. No. Not a happy Gai at all, and if could have his way right now, he'd have the schoolgirl trapped on the mat in an armbar so tight it would snap her arm...but he wasn't going to get the chance at the moment.

No, at the moment all he could do was groan painfully as he stood back up to his feet, still getting his wind back after the double kick right to his chest. It still stung to take in breath, and he was only just recovering...which didn't seem to matter to his opponent, as when Gai looked up, he got a brief glimpse of Natsu's cocky smile, a flash of skin...and then her foot smacked up hard upside his head. Rather than drop him, as it no doubt would have others, it made him stumble sideways, letting out a pained groan as he staggered to the ropes, leaning on them for balance, pain cutting through his dazed skull like a hit knife through butter.

Royal regimes rise and fall all throughout history, and the monarchical oppression of this Burger-themed sovereign was about to come to and end. All thanks to the rebellious school-girl leading the underground forces of resistance against him~...Natsu perhaps amping up the drama in her head thanks to her overactive imagination, but how could she feel any less downright giddy from finally being able the scrappy fight back to this red-headed blowhard?

*...can'tstopcan'tstopcan'tstop...* Natsu simple to memorize mantra repeating non-stop after landing on one knee with a focused huff of air from her pursed lips, taking a quick breath before taking off running from a sprinter's starting pose. A nimble leap in front of Gai allowed her to seat herself comfortably on his shoulders with the only red he was seeing now, thanks to his burning temper, being from Natsu's crimson bloomers muffled against his face before the plucky schoolgirl flipped herself backwards for a dead-on frankensteiner.

There really wasn't much about Gai Tendo that Ryo Kamiya or Edward Sealgair of Tension were actually jealous of. They were more attractive, in great shape, and were more well liked than Tension's Burger King, as the nickname had been getting around.

Yet as Natsu jumped onto Gai's shoulders, red bloomers flashing the camera for a brief moment, they both had to admit...they were, at the moment, intensely jealous of the overly angry man.

The Buriki-One King himself meanwhile, was not having as much fun as those watching his match, wondering exactly when he had lost control of the situation, when he detected movement, seeing nothing but a flash of red filling his vision, before a heavy weight landed on his shoulders. Before he could fully contemplate the situation, he was flipped heels over head, planted headfirst onto the mat from the teenagers impressive Frankensteiner, his legs and body limply falling onto the mat underneath her!

Being rooted on from the cheering audience, Natsu's offensive flourish had her blooming beautifully out of the dirt-cheap tactics employed by the soon to be overthrown Burger-Meister. Stomping kicks, walloping enzuigiri's and topsy-turvy takedown's had her battling back from one side of the ring to the other, as if fighting her way out of the match's rotten introduction towards a hopefully Hollywood movie conclusion that had the tomboy protagonist defeating the sucker-punching douchenozzle to a Rocky-esque celebration.

Flipping herself head over heels onto her stomach, Natsu first propped herself up to her knees with her red-bloomered rump seated atop her calf muscles before peeking curiously over her shoulder to see the concussive aftermath of her frankensteiner. "Heh...Maybe I should get into the fast-food business, cause it looks like I'm a better burger-flipper than I thought..." Natsu quipped with a snarking smile before crawling over towards the downed Gai. The uh...guy, looking like he was knocked silly and was prime for pinning, so the schoolgirl brawler laid atop him and hooked one of his legs in the air. Internally patting herself on the back for that awesome burger pun she just thought up.

Gai didn't hear the pun, which was probably for the best, as he would have probably tried to murder Natsu otherwise. For now though, he was an overcooked burger, dropped headfirst from that frankensteiner, and as she hooked his leg, many thought the arrogant and boastful fighter was down for the count as the ref slapped her hand against the mat.

"One!"

"Two!"

Just after the count of two however, Gai kicked his leg out and thrust his shoulder up off the mat, waking up from his stupor with a bellowing yell of pure aggression!

The prospect of winning her first-ever PPV match and stepping up the Tension tier ladder was just enough of an incentive to place herself in the unenviable position of being in such close proximity to this Gai. For now imagining Gai to be a cutie pop-star rather than the fugly burger-bully he was, Natsu situated herself across him like a blanketing sheet, a teasing swell to her perky chest mushed down against his pecs as she leveraged herself further into the pin by angling upon her sneakered tip toes...

...only for all her pop-star celeb fantasizes and her attempted pin to be interrupted all at once. "Ahhhhratz...fine, guess it's time we get to the main course already..." Natsu huffed out on her knees with hands propped on her hips, than reaching out for Gai's arm to haul her adversary back up alongside her. The schoolgirl wobbled somewhat given her own battered fatigue, but the sweat speckled brawler carried on and gave Gai a spinning twirl while going into one herself...winding up for one helluva whopper in her ripcord rolling elbow strike finisher dubbed the Spinning Flower Dance...

The Burger...er, Biriki One King didn't reply to the taunt about dinner time, mainly because his head was still buzzing after that damned hurricanrana. Cocky little schoolgirl bitch...The next thing he knew, he was pulled up to his feet, shaking his head and clearing the cobwebs from his brain as he felt his wrist being pulled behind him.

From this position...ripcord. Had to be a ripcord.

He was proven right, as she shoved him forward, body twirling, sweat thrown off of his body as he turned to face her...and she let him go, instead going into a spin herself, no doubt planning some big strike...that she'd never be able to land, as, as soon as her spin completed, Gai kicked his wrapped foot straight up to crack her right in the face!

Natsu can attest from her carefree pre-school years being bored to tears around the house that spinning yourself around in circles was about the most fun a hyperactive youngster could have. Hence where she had gotten the inspiration start to spinning both herself and the obstinate Burger-man in place like two freshly whirled tops before Natsu intended to cold-cock her dance partner with a ripcord elbow strike having all that spinning momentum behind it. The schoolgirl brawler hoping he'd be too dizzied to see it coming...

...but regrettably that strategy had some...kickback to it, let's say. The schoolgirl getting blindsided by the King's wrapped foot mushed against her supple cheek in the split-second before putting Natsu into a backpedaling tail-spin that brought an uplift to her navy blue skirt. Eventually stopping herself to face Gai but with a lazy-eyed grimace and quivering wiggle to her thighs before collapsing to her knees...and almost slumping face-first onto the canvas had her arms not caught her at the last second. Natsu now propped up on her hands and knees, head throbbing with fuzzied vision, rattled and quite clearly stun-shocked after having her proverbial world rocked.

Despite his losing record in the league, Gai really was a talented fighter with sharp instincts. Sharp enough, at least, to kick a teenager fresh outta high school in the face.

Like a real man.

With Natsu comically adding an extra dazed twirl before collapsing, Gai threw his arms up victoriously, as if he had already pinned the young woman, and hadn't spent most of the match getting beaten up by her instead. "That's right! That's what I'm about! It's time you people started showing respect to the Biriki One King!"

He boasted, walking around the ring and pridefully puffing his chest out, like a peacock showing off his feathers, before finally walking back to Natsu, grabbing her rudely by her hair and arm, pulling her up to her feet. "It's time I put you back in school, girly. Maybe your brother could give me a good fight instead!" He bellowed, clutching an arm and standing behind her, before shoving her forward, spinning her in a ripcord of his own and, when she was at the apex, he would pull her back in towards him, while swinging his free arm, trying to smash it into with a Rainmaker Lariat!