Katsuko Himura vs. Wild Thing - Taming the Shrew

This was it. The hunt always came down to this. The prey could run. It could hide. It could dip and dodge. Sometimes it even fought back. But there always came the point when the chance was over, when all the fight was drained. That was the most dangerous time. Desperate is dangerous. When your back is against the wall, pushing forward becomes much easier.

The odd woman back her way into the corner as Lore stalked after her, putting her fist and legs up to form one last defense. It wasn't anything to be taken lightly. Lore knew what she could do with those limbs. But even the most well-made defense could be shattered with the right amount of pressure, and she knew just the thing.

She looked at the woman. Glanced at the ropes. Then moved.

Jumping up, she landed on the middle rope and bounced off, coming at her with the same dropkick from before, this one aiming much lower, but with the same deadly power. Both feet shooting downward to nail her into the ring with a blow to the chest.

Katsuko saw Wild Thing--a blurred golden and red and fleshy predator on the horizon--go for the ropes. Her vision cleared and focused as she watched her jump up. And up. She was a silhouette in the stage light.

I don't want to lose, Katsuko realized. It was the first time she had felt the feeling raw, like drowning.

"GYECH!"

Wild Thing pierced through her arms and her legs like so many twigs and slammed into Katsuko's chest.

Once, Kat had choked on a peach pit. It was a scary moment for a twelve year old: according to her parents, she had begun to turn a shade of blue by the time her mother's Heimlich had thrust it out of her.

This felt like that. She couldn't breathe, and what breath she had was painfully forced out through her esophagus. She went flat on the mat, eyes wide, Wild Thing on top of her.

She coughed, quietly. Her lungs were still delicate. So she coughed little breathless coughs. And she coughed, and coughed, and coughed in the wet inside of her mask, until the coughing, too, was like choking.

Her shoulders were against the mat; the ref moved in for the count.

Lore was starting to enjoy flying. From now on, it would be something she would have to do more of.

The feeling was just unrivaled. While she was in the air, she was free. There wasn't any limit. The crowd's roar was deafening, and it felt like their energy poured out and seeped into her,egging her on. Lights flashing. For a moment she felt frozen in time.

And then she came down, down, down...right into the odd woman's chest.

The impact was solid and devastating. In the corner, there was no escape, and Lore hit the target just as she intended to. The woman broke out into a fit of coughs, like an engine trying desperately to start on an empty tank, but she simply didn't have the gas - she was done. Clearly.

Lore wasn't about to risk it, though. She immediately scooped the leg up, aiding the pin as the referee came out.

"1...!"

Lore pressed down on the woman's chest, staring those darkened, wet eyes for what she hoped would be the last time.

"2...!"

She wrenched the clothe of her collar and let a low growl rumble from her throat, almost daring her to resist.

Katsuko whimpered when the predator hooked her arm around Kat's leg and drove her neck into the mat. Their eyes met--Wild Thing's look was sharp as obsidian--and Kat shuddered.

She didn't understand. Why did Wild Thing hate her so much?

"1...!"

It was a devastating thing to lose. The agony, the twisted stomach--her broken body. That was terrible.

But the anger...It had been this way since almost the beginning. Something about Kat just enraged this girl--it made Wild Thing want to break her, as if she deserved to be broken somehow.

"2...!"

Wild Thing pressed down on her harder, pinning her with her heat and her smell and her body. The blond demon growled, and Kat craned her neck away, as if to hide her already hidden face. She felt humiliated. She'd never felt that before--well, sure she had. A lot. But not in the ring. She came to fighting to escape that.

A whirlwind shot up in Katsuko's chest. No. No no no. Not like this. She could lose, but she didn't want to lose to an opponent who thought she was nothing. She had trained--she had trained and she had trained and she had trained to look beautiful. To move gracefully. To have the right ideas and the right form.

Why couldn't Wild Thing acknowledge that? She could win, but just--

"3!"

The crowd went into hysterics. Katsuko's skin prickled like she was blushing. She probably was.

OK.

Now her loss was a past thing. Another moment of her life behind her to be cherished as memory. But it didn't feel like it. It felt like an ongoing struggle--like if she just had the right idea, that impossibly brilliant inspiration, somehow, she could still pull it out.

And yet, for all the disappointment, she found her eyes still drifted towards Loraine, and the downed Himura found herself worrying more about her conqueror than the conquest. What she was thinking. Whether she would continue to hate her now that it was over.

Katsuko found herself unconsciously hoping in a way that ached: Please help me up...Please tell me it was a good match...Something, please...

Lore wasn't sure what to expect. The fight had gone on so long, been so fierce, that it seemed hard to believe it could be over with just a little three-count. She expect the strange woman to kick out or toss her to the side, continuing in her I dominated, silent way. She had to have more.

But, as it turned out, she didn't.

"3...!"

The bell rang, clanging a few times will the audience bellowed their approval, like a flock of birds flapping in the trees. She won. Her first victory. She should have felt good, reveled in the hard fought match, but instead, she just felt hollow. Where was the punch? No thrill, no energy. Everything was off.

The odd woman looked at Lore as if she expected her to say something. What was there to say? Lore had won, she had lost. There was no need for a speech. Part of her wanted to rub it in the woman's face - or her mask, anyway: buy another, larger part just wanted to be away from her as soon as possible and be out of this ring and forget as much of this match as possible.

She spat off to side and started out of the ring, not even waiting to be declaimed the victor.