Katsuko Himura vs. Wild Thing - Taming the Shrew

...okay, so her technique was starting to become an annoyance. A minor one.

Her father had warned her about opponents like this - one who had skill, had experience, had years of dedication and were accustomed to turning attacks against their opponents. Lore knew she would have run up against such an opponent, sooner or later. She just didn't expect it to be sooner, really. She had never heard of a fighter like this in the AFW, where had she come from? She didn't fight like someone who had never come into the ring before, she fought like her movements and counters were as natural breathing air.

And that mask. That mask. Why she was she even wearing it?

The whole situation gave Lore some added kick,as she squired over to her back and tried to kick the strange woman away, shooting her heel up like a piston. Lore felt the blow hit home, good and solid, striking her right in the sternum and making her bend over. The feel was satisfying, and she had a good time imagining the curled lips and painful sneer under that mask.

It didn't last.

The woman went still for a second, then burst forward with the precision and personality of a well-oiled machine. She pushed forward, planting her foot down on Lore and pinning her down with authority, mashing her into the ground and looking down on her, those still, silent eyes shadowed by the mask and still pissing her off in a royal sense.

She could barely move like this, but she still had her arms to use, and she put them to work, swinging her fists upwards, trying to punch this woman right on the mask - maybe even knock it off, with some luck.

Katsuko had clenched her body, coordinating muscles in her chest, her legs, and her shoulders to concentrate power into a closed-fist strike. It was to land against Wild Thing's uplifted knee--as if she wanted to split her leg like the plywood in the oft-referenced karate demonstrations.

But then the feral enemy demonstrated her speed again and leapt forward before Katsuko's drill--hardened into form by so many years on the mats and in the tournament ring--could reach its conclusion. Lore's fist met the Himura mask; the mask crushed her nose. Well-secured as it was by four very tight steel wires, there was little chance that it would fall off so easily.

But the blow left its impression. And as Katsuko froze and breathed hard against the pain, her eyes met Wild Thing's--her furious eyes, as animal as the rest of her. They were fixed on the mask and full of hate.

Katsuko tightened her grip, but she made no move to strike. For now. She kept her free hand flat, in front of her face to meet any second attempt at a strike, and spoke:

"Did you mean to remove this mask? Perhaps to break it? You'll find that difficult--In dressing, I meant to keep my face vulnerable to strikes. This..." She gestured at the mask, "will only come off with effort--and I do not advise you to offer that effort." She pressed further weight into Wild Thing's grounded knee. A trickle of blood began to drip from under the mask onto Wild Thing. "...Would you also seek to break a bird's wings? Would you rip out a rabbit's ears? Loraine. I've met you here with respect. Pay me the same!"

The punch hit!

Sure, it didn't knock the mask off. Lore couldn't tell what was keeping the mask held, but it was tight, whatever it. It didn't even budge under the attack, keeping in perfect place. It didn't even crack, clearly made out of strong material. Made sense, it would have to be in order to serve her in the ring and not be a prime target. It practically begged to be punched, and Lore was more than happy to oblige.

Then, the odd woman did something Lore never imagined, something she never would have seen coming: She spoke.

Lore just stared up at the woman as she spoke, in her clear, plain English. She spoke of things like respect, and honor? This was a fight! There was no sort of pact made, not that she was aware of. If she expected Lore to hold back, she was sorely mistaken. Sorely.

Lore answered her with another punch, this time trying to strike her throat the hand and hit her face again. As much as she could, as many time as it would take to get this woman off of her - this position was amazingly difficult to move in.

By now, Katsuko should have backed into a position that would have kept both legs secure without exposing her face to a punch--but that would have been cheating. She had taken space aside to speak, a temporary truce to establish a rule: the mask stayed. To take the time afforded by that to slip into a more advantageous position would have been dishonest.

"Hrk...!"

Once again, Katsuko's hand did little as a guard before Wild Thing's speed. The fist had cracked against her windpipe before she could react. This was dangerous: she had learned in sparring never to attack the throat. If the trachea collapsed, then the throat would swell, and swell, and soon your opponent would begin to suffocate.

Katsuko heaved in a gasp. She could still breathe...She could breathe...

A second blow landed against the mask. And a third. Each time, her face exploded with pain. Her mask was always tight against her face, but now it began to stick moistly to her flesh.

She released Wild Thing and backed fast away. Even while she beat her retreat, she kept up some semblance of stance: her hands stayed up in a defensive position. She kept one leg back and one leg forward for balance and to keep her body as far away from Wild Thing as she could. Her movements were like shuffling: she moved fast, but her feet hardly left the ground.

Her nerves and reflexes were alive--twitchy. Ready to react and overreact to any move this speed-demon tried to make.

"...So that's how you'll have it!"

She soon found her back against the turnbuckle.

"In that case, rat, I will give you what you deserve...and destroy you utterly!"

Lore punched her. And when she didn't take the hint, she punched her again. And when she still didn't take the hint, she punched her again.

The woman, haughty as she was, found breathing a bit harder than usual when one of her punches struck the neck, striking out blind and fast. She had the superior position, but if she wasn't going to use it to her advantage, it hardly mattered. Lore had little qualm with just bashing her until she let go.

Which she did, before a fourth punch could land. Thankfully.

The woman backed away and went into her strange stance, sliding along the floor with her hands in a ready position, as if begging Lore to step up and break through such a guard. She seemed taught and ready, like a wire getting ready spring at any moment - all wound up, full of energy. And judging from her words, the time for politeness had passed. Now the real fight could begin. What Lore had been waiting for from the start.

She snarled at the woman, then ran to the side, jumping up the middle rope and using it as a springboard to launch her up, up, and away. She came at the woman from above, diving her way with both heels pointed downward, what they called a dropkick. Sure to put her flat on her back. If it hit.

Blood had spattered Katsuko's white uniform. The damage to her nose was evidently serious: the red dripped freely from the bottom rim of the mask and splashed against her chest and legs in small to mid-sized drops.

But her eyes had never been so steely in their focus. With the same stone-like stillness as ever, she watched Wild Thing make her move. She saw the rat weave to the side, and at first her instincts told her to expect a loop-around that would end up under her guard--but that seemed too sophisticated, too trained for this barbarian's style, didn't it? Then Wild Thing didn't loop but continued on towards the rope, and Katsuko saw it coming.

This monster was getting over-confident. In split second contests of speed, Wild Thing emerged victor, barely. So she supposed she could pull off a splash move while Katsuko was on her feet and prepared? Did Katsuko look downed--did she look dazed or rocked? Because even if she were on the mat trembling, an attack from the ropes would be risky.

Idiot, idiot, idiot! Splash attacks broke bones and ended careers, even if they weren't countered, just because they landed at a bad, unpracticed angle. And how much training did this feral girl commit to? Really?

She underestimated Katsuko's speed. She had a shorter distance than Lore to jump: Before Wild Thing had even launched, Katsuko's nerves set her in motion to react to the kind of attack she saw coming. She leapt up the ropes, and by the time Wild thing had pulled fully into her dropkick, Katsuko was on top of the ring-post itself, just above the turnbuckle. Poised on one foot like a crane, Katsuko towered up like a masked scarecrow overlooking the ring. The blood that dripped from her mask was put in stark relief at this height, caught in the glaring stage light behind her, almost black in the silhouette, as it made its way down to the mat.

It was extremely unlikely that Wild Thing was high enough to hit her.

Lore was starting to suspect she wasn't the only one with a little animal in her movements. Sure, she had her technique. Her stance. Her movements. Her genial way of talking. But Lore could see something in her eyes, a similar look to her own. Their was ferocity in this woman. Maybe a different sort than Lore had, but sharp and dangerous nonetheless.

The blood was starting to run from her mask, staining her clean attire. Lore could smell the sweat beginning to rise as the stadium's lights burned down on them. The sort of thing that could remind a human how close to the animal kingdom they actually were.

With those sort of eyes came a feral focus, one that allowed the odd woman to see through Lore's attack, avoiding it by simply jumping up and back, posing above like a whitened angel of death. Lore could only look up and on in amazement, transfixed for one awe-inspiring moment. And then, the crash.

She landed hard on her hip, kicking at nothing but thing air and likely looking all kinds of ridiculous. She felt it, too, looking at the masked woman with long sneer and a snarl.

Katsuko had to admit: It almost had not been ridiculous. In fact, it almost ended the match, if Katsuko judged the force behind that kick correctly. Even with her not inconsiderable speed and her ability to call the attack, she barely got out of the way. She didn't even have time to hit Wild Thing with an axe-kick on the way down.

And the form had been damn near perfect. Almost trained. Unwillingly, Katsuko had to admire the sheer power and the sheer guts in the attack. Her eyes locked on Wild Thing's while she roared and finished her attack. The feral girl certainly wasn't going to break any bones on the landing--none of her own, anyway. Maybe nature was a better teacher than Katsuko preferred to think. It all made her insides run very cold: these were the skills of an unscrupulous opponent who had designs on Kat's head.

On the ground, Wild Thing snarled again, vicious and angry. Katsuko realized that this sound did not in the least fail to suit this woman, however human she might look. She was a tiger in her own right.

Kat had better win. For honor. For justice. Sure--but also for her own health.

She jumped down from the ropes, landed behind Lore, and, hoping to catch Wild Thing while she was still reeling, tried to slip down on her rump and catch her opponent's head and one arm between her legs in a [url=http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Zhnhq_exYt0/TUdb36e69BI/AAAAAAAAAxc/yGC3F1-WBvg/s400/triangle+choke+-+ryan+hall+angle.jpg:f8u259yv]triangle choke[/url:f8u259yv]--or what the wrestling fans might more crassly call "a head scissors."

But of course, with Wild Thing's speed, she would have to hope before the Buddha that Lore was pretty dazed indeed. Otherwise, she would have to face Wild Thing again in maneuvers--a contest Kat did not look forward to.

It was the restraint that bothered Lore the most. This woman had great power, excellent speed, lightning reflexes. But she was so reliant on her skill. Her form. Her stance. It all seemed so reserved and diluted, like she was treating this as a dance and not the brutal fight it should have been. There was something just so wrong about, something off. It sent a shiver down her spine, cold and chilling. There was only one way to heat it back up, and that was to make those eyes stay closed, for a good, long while.

Lore started to sit up, but the woman was upon her in the next moment, her white dress obscuring Lore's vision and casting her in shadow as she descended. Before Lore could even get all the way upright, she was over, wrapping her legs around the neck. The feral fighter didn't know the name of the move, and she didn't much care. All she needed to know was that it hurt, she was having trouble breathing, and she wanted to get out of it as soon as possible.

She had to fight the reflex to just bite the odd woman's thigh and get free. That sort of thing had cost her the first match, and she wasn't going to let it happen again. This time she responded in a more practical way - beating her fists on the woman's might legs like a drum, hitting the same spots over and over, as many times as she could get away with, all while her legs bucked and scraped along the floor.

Here it was--finally.

Kat settled into the deadly but definitely grounded struggle and felt at home. For the first time since she had seen Wild Thing bound across the stage on all fours, filthy and unwashed, Katsuko remembered to breathe.

This particular choke was something most people associated with Jiu Jitsu, which was really not Katsuko's style. But what most people failed to realize was the deep roots what people these days called "BJJ" had in the older Japanese art of Judo. That was an essential part of her arsenal. Even the most artful spider, with however intricate and beautiful a web, needed venom to bring that web to its final purpose. If Katsuko's karate dance was her web, holds like these were her fangs.

With one arm trapped and one arm under Katsuko's thigh, Wild Thing was in a bad position to strike back--and all Kat had to do was squeeze. Squeeze, and settle her feral opponent into heady, blood-soaked sleep while her mask looked icily on in judgment.

Breathe in... breathe out...

She licked her lips, feeling some disgust at just how much blood had gathered under the mask. And she looked out at the crowd.

It wasn't exactly packed. Katsuko was a newcomer, and it was a lower order match, so it wasn't terribly surprising--but what about Soren? She still hadn't seen her soon-to-be husband's face or heard his voice, and now she was looking for him and...

And then Wild Thing slammed her fist into Katsuko's thigh. The pain made her start: it was incredible, given Wild Thing's disadvantageous position. It stung madly. And this blonde rat kept going. By the fifth hit--and it didn't take long for that many to accumulate--Kat knew she'd have a bruise. The girl in the mask locked her fingers over the back of Lore's head to add pressure to her clutch. She wrenched the hold in tighter without mercy and almost without a sound. She knew the blood had to be gathering to the point of making Lore's head feel ready to burst. It had to be.

(But the feral girl didn't show it. And her blows were really starting to hurt...And if her thigh loosened, if it twitched in its grip, she really wouldn't be able to help it.)