Idol Showdown! Round One! (for zxn666)

"Ah crap," Tomomi thought. She had hit Haruka a bit too hard there. She should've known better than to try that; Haruka wasn't built for taking big attacks at all. And now the crowd was turned against her. This was not good; this match wasn't so much about winning as about winning the crowd, and it seemed that the last move made the crowd rather angry at Tomomi. She was about to leap into complete damage control mode, when suddenly she saw Chigusa emerging from backstage, yelling something at her.

"You're doing great!" Chigusa yelled, struggling to let Tomomi hear her from such a distance, "Don't worry about it! Just keep it up!"

Tomomi understood, slowly approaching Haruka. She would not let up on the little idol girl, but would give her another chance. Tomomi would put Haruka in a standing sleeperhold, her arm wrapping around Haruka's neck from behind. She would press in tightly against Haruka's back, but not tighten the hold too much. She wasn't out to knock Haruka out, after all.

"Too damn fragile..." Tomomi muttered to herself quietly, so that nobody would hear. However, due to the closeness of the hold, Haruka probably wouldn't have any trouble hearing Tomomi's quiet complaint.

Somehow Haruka wobbled away from Tomomi without tripping flat onto her face, arms windmilling clumsily in a surprisingly successful effort to keep her on her feet. As she weakly shook her head- an action that only made her heart spin more- she found herself looking at an agitated Masato.

Masato-kun? What are you saying?

"-hind you! She's behind you, Haruka!"

Too late. Haruka gagged as Tomomi strangled her from behind. She flailed, briefly, with her arms, trying to grab the ropes that were just a smidge out of reach. Failing that, she clawed at the arms around her throat, her current weakness clouding the fact that she wasn't in any real danger.

"Too damn fragile," she heard.

Her pink face scrunched up. Haruka braced her left arm. Her elbow would dig into Tomomi's side once, twice, thrice, each following blow weaker than the previous, Haruka huffing with every strike.

Tomomi weathered the first and second blow, but Haruka's third finally made her let go. She backed off a few steps, hand on her side. A red spot had formed where Haruka repeatedly struck her. Tomomi wasn't happy about this, since her creamy pale skin was blemished now.

"Tch, she hits pretty hard," Tomomi said, "But can't take a hit! Geez, how can I fight against her if I'm not going to hurt her?"

Wheezing weakly, Haruka stumbled away from Tomomi so that she could flop onto the ropes for a brief moment of respite. Between the crack to her head and the sleeper, she was too dizzy to fight right now.

"Tch, she hits pretty hard," Tomomi said, "But can't take a hit! Geez, how can I fight against her if I'm not going to hurt her?"

"Hey!"

If Tomomi looked, she'd see Haruka's manager Masato looking up at her.

"Tomomi-san, forget the fans. You're humiliating Haruka. You should go all out on her. She's doing her best. So should you. Right?"

Then he'd call out, "Haruka! Hang on!"

On the other side of the ring, Haruka managed to flap her right hand in agreement.

Tomomi turned to look at the person who yelled at her after she let Haruka go. She found Masato looking up at her from outside the ring. "What do you want?" Tomomi said. She listened to what Masato said, then sighed and turned back around.

"Ohh... what should I do?" Tomomi thought, "If I make the crowd angry, Eclipse is finished here... But I can't just humiliate Haruka by going easy on her all the time..." She wavered for a few more moments, before finally coming to a decision. If Haruka wanted her to go all out, then she might as well. It was too hard to go easy on her all the time anyways.

Tomomi would walk over to Haruka and attempt to grab her arm, wrenching it and pulling her to the center of the ring. Then, if Haruka cannot resist, Tomomi would put her in an abdominal stretch, hoping the attack would be able to make her tap out.

Haruka almost groaned when she saw Tomomi heading for her. Her opponent's hesitation had given her a much-needed reprieve, but now the kid gloves were coming off before she was fully recovered.

Still, she didn't want to go down without a fight. She'd hung onto the ropes a bit longer than Tomomi might expect. And though she got dragged to the middle of the ring in the end, she would then punch Tomomi roughly on the same place where she'd elbowed her earlier. Maybe attacking that weak spot could disrupt Tomomi again...

Tomomi thought Haruka wasn't going to resist, but then Haruka surprised her. While she was dragging Haruka to the center of the ring, Tomomi suddenly felt the wind getting knocked out of her by a sudden punch. She let go of Haruka, backing off a few steps, hand on her wounded side.

"So you can still fight?" Tomomi said, "Good. I didn't want to beat someone who was already beaten."

Haruka likewise fell back a couple of steps. "I'm-" she panted as she brought up her fists again. "I'm not beaten yet... You come and bring it!"

She'd advance on Tomomi slowly. She didn't have the strength or concentration to spare on the usual boxer weave motion - she just inched forward, hunched forward a little, fists screening her. She knew Tomomi had a longer reach, but so far she hadn't seen or taken a single punch out of her opponent (the polish hammer blow to her sore back and the back fist not counting).

If I can get inside her range...

Tomomi saw Haruka slowly approaching her, keeping her defense up tight. She wasn't about to let this little Kawaii surprise her. Tomomi decided to move in and strike Haruka hard. She quickly stepped in, one hand in front sweeping outwards to knock her defense aside, the other hand bringing down a fist right at Haruka's forehead.

Her arms hurt, so she wasn't planning to dodge. She doubted she could actually knock Tomomi out with her fists or even slow her much, so she didn't punch.

Instead, Haruka ducked and then darted beneath Tomomi's sweeping arm. She narrowly missed the falling hammer blow of the other arm. Her intent -her only desperate hope- was to hug Tomomi around the waist and then go for a breast-to-belly (considering their size discrepancy) suplex!