Kyo Akamatsu vs. Valley Doll - The Road To Recovery

Valley hadn’t expected to get a pinfall out of this. Really, her one and only concern had been getting free and returning her spine to its default position. Everything else was secondary to that, a far off concern.

So, when she plopped down on his chest and the referee started counting, she was just as surprised by it as Kyo was - but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t take. She even started to wrap her arm around his leg, a desperate bid to secure it and get her over the threshold. It didn’t, naturally - Kyo kicked out not even a half second later, leaving her to flop off and away from him, right on her aching back. But no one could fault her for trying. With that over, though, she default to her last plan, the best idea she could come up with on how to win this.

The ropes. She needed the ropes.

Valley rolled over and crawled toward the nearest corner, grabbing one pad to pull her way up, then another, raising up to her knee and her feet. Slow and arduous, but she kept at it.

ALthough Kyo had managed to escape the pinfall, he wasn't out of trouble yet-- not by a long shot. Valley's assault on his knee had done some pretty intense damage, and now almost his entire leg was an immobile mass of pain. He toppled onto his side, clutching his hurting knee, feeling hot tears welling in the corner of his eyes as he tried his best to force down the pain. Damn it, it really hurt.

The referee stopped by him at that point, and asked if he was too hurt to continue, if he needed medical attention. "No!" he snapped. He hadn't meant to be this angry with the ref, of course, but the intense pain in his leg was making it extremely difficult to act in a calm and measured manner. Deep down, he privately worried if Valley had indeed done some serious damage to his knee.

Pushing those worries aside, he slowly propped himself up on his arms, and got his good knee under him. After some deep breaths, he got his hurting knee under him as well, using his arms to stabilize himself. The crowd was chanting now as both wrestlers seemed severely hurt, and both were now slowly but painfully trying to get back up...

[color=#000000]”GANBARE, GANBARE, Akamatsu! GANBARE, GANBARE, Akamatsu!”=#ff00ff][B]”Let’s go, Valley! Let’s go, Valley!”

Valley Doll would give the Tension crowd credit where it was due, they knew how to get energized. Not that the Friction fans lacked for energy, but they tended to be a little less on the serious side, many of them coming for the sex matches and just getting some good competition on the side. Maybe it was just them being big fans of Kyo, maybe it was just the novelty of two wrestlers they never expected to see together going all out, but whatever the case, the people were getting rabid.

She loved it. She could’ve wrestled like this all day. Her body, however, was in stark disagreement on that issue, currently having her on fumes. Just a little more, just a little further, and she could rest.

Valley looked over her shoulders, seeing Kyo rising behind her, and began her own ascent, putting one foot on the turnbuckle, then another, and then…

Kyo heard his fans chanting his name again and again, stomping their feet, slamming fists on the edges of their seats. The sound, as always, energized him, filling with an unquenchable fire as he heard his name shouted by dozens of people who wanted to see him succeed. But he wasn't alone as the centre of the crowd's devotion: an equal number of fans were chanting Valley's name, urging her on as well. To the ear, it sounded like a war was brewing in the stands.

Kyo hard heard the crowd this motivated very rarely before-- maybe his matches against the Irish Amazons and WhiteGale had gotten the crowd this intense. But it hardly mattered, because their motivation fed him in turn, and got him back up to his feet...

...just in time to see Valley climbing the turnbuckle. He inwardly cursed, knowing that Valley was getting into position for a move that could potentially finish the match. He spurred himself onwards, ignoring the throbbing pain in his knee that caused his leg to drag. He didn't need to go very far, anyway-- just far enough to cup his hands, raise them up and bring them down in a swinging axe handle blow against Valley's back even as she clambered up to the top...

Just a little higher, a little higher.

This was the textbook example of a desperate ploy, and Valley knew it too well. She wasn’t even sure she would have the power in her leg to execute anything worthwhile, even if she did manage to get to the top. Her leg was still hurting, enough that even the simple act of climbing the turnbuckle was making it burn, giving her hard, pulsing pain. There was a strong likelihood that all this effort would just result in her falling flat on her butt, doing more harm to herself.

But it was all she had left. Like her mother always said: ‘Go big or go home’.

So she kept working her way up, an ascent that was only paused when a strong impact hammered her across the back, making her sag on the ropes. Sure enough, Kyo had moved in to intercept, still showing a great deal of life, fighting to the last. But that didn’t mean she didn’t have options left. Even this close, she could still hit him with certain moves. She just to get all the way up.

Valley sucked in a lungful of air, then let out a defiant shriek as she jerked back, throwing a wild elbow into Kyo’s chest, willing to fight for even the smallest bit of distance. A second later and she was working her way up again, planting one foot on the middle rope and the other on the top, almost there…

Up, Kyo, up, he heard his father's voice demanding of him from years and years ago. Do you think you're going to win by lying down like that? Get up!

The memory made his face briefly crease with annoyance, and, not for the first time, the thought of Shut up, dad crossed his mind. But the thought nonetheless managed to finally get him up onto his feet, just as Valley began to climb the ropes. Walking was difficult thanks to his throbbing knee, but he nonetheless managed to propel himself forwards enough to cup his fists together and club them down hard into Valley's bare back. The blow did what it was supposed to, hammering Valley in her already-sore back, and the Californian woman went slumping against the corner post; she didn't fall, as her legs were still hooked under the ropes, but she had only gotten halfway up.

An idea surged in Kyo's head at that moment, of how he could finish this match once and for all. Gingerly, he began to climb up the turnbuckle next to Valley, aiming to get up to the top before her. He grabbe the ropes, wincing as he was forced to put his bad leg on the bottom rope, but nontheless began to haul himself towards the top...

At that moment, Valley suddenly shrieked in a mixture of frustration and defiant rage, and shot her elbow back. The blow caught Kyo square in the chest, and for a brief moment, he was sent spinning sideways on the ropes, his grip on the top rope and his foot on the bottom the only things keeping him from falling over. He gritted his teeth, sucking in air through pained lungs, rasping for breath as his grip threatened to loosen...

No. He was not going to fall, not going to let Valley reach the top uncontested. Steeling himself, he managed to get his free arm and foot onto the ropes as well and push himself up further opposite Valley. With the Californian now reaching the top of the turnbuckle opposite him, he would anchor his legs firmly in the middle ropes, reach up to grab for her hair with one hand, use the other to send a punch directly up at her forehead in retaliation, hoping to stun her as he climbed!

Kyo wanted to think he had a plan going forward, but in truth, past the pain and the exhaustion, it just felt like all strategy was going out the window as he and Valley relentlessly slugged at each other...

Valley had always felt that the big thing wrestling matches had over other sports was the story. Not just the story of her personal life and the way matches revolved around it - that was a part of it, yes, but not wholly unique to her sport. Personal life and business bled in with other sports, it was just most prevalent with wrestling.

No, in her eyes, the story was in the ring, and that made all the difference. Each match was like a living play, complete with peaks and valleys, ebbs and flows, high and lows. If that applied, then there was no denying what was happening here.

The climax. Their little drama was about to come to an explosive conclusion.

The only question was who it would come down in favor of. Valley’d had a plan, was hoping to hit Kyo with something drastic, but the man was defiant to the end. Hounding her up here, battering her, and now she was in a tighter spot than he was. The man was in perfect position to hit her with some from the top rope, and it wouldn’t even have to be all that complicated. Even a simple German Suplex, from this height, with all the fatigue she’d built up…

Just keep on fighting. Keep on surviving.

Kyo’s punch left her reeling, and for a second it seemed as it turned off all the lights. Her vision went fuzzy, her body went fuzzy, the world went fuzzy. But Valley shook her head to clear it up and centered back on her opponent, turning back to face him. If Kyo wanted more, she’d happily oblige.

Valley Doll wasn’t known for her punches, but she could throw a half decent one when the occasion called for it, and this one certainly did. She reeled back and let fly with a stiff shot, targeting his chest, trying to knock the wind clean out of him with her failing reserves.

The crowd could be forgiven, at this point, for mistaking this match for a title bout. The sheer intensity and implacable determination with which both Valley and Kyo had been fighting had been as though there were a belt hanging on the line. There wasn't, of course: the answer was much more simple than that. Each of these two champions, current and former, had a lot to prove, for different reasons, and each of them had heard of and respected the other...and each was absolutely determined not to lose face in front of the other.

And now, after a hard fought bought, the two of them were practically dueling atop the corner post, in what seemed many to be a perfect finale to tonight's events.

Kyo saw Valley's head snapped back as his punch landed. The woman didn't fall, but she was swaying unsteadily from her perch on the corner post now. This gave Kyo the time that he needed to clamber all the way up to the corner post opposite her: slowed as he was by his hurting knee, he nonetheless managed to swing his leg over the top rope so that he was in a sitting position opposite Valley. All he had to do now was--

Valley's fist came whistling in, smacking hard into his chest. Despite Valley's dazed state, the blow was almost perfectly delivered, knocking the wind from his lungs. He doubled over, the motion causing his forehead to slump against Valley's as he nearly lost his balance. For a few brief seconds, they were eye to eye as Kyo caught his breath, his eyes meeting Valley's in an intense staredown. On-site photographers and fans alike greedily snapped up the image of the two sweat-streaked, hurting wrestlers balanced on the turnbuckle, practically leaning against each other forehead-to-forehead, blonde hair contrasted against dark, as as they engaged in a bitter, defiant staredown.

Up close, Kyo couldn't help but see the fire in Valley's eyes, the exhausted defiance, the look that practically demanded Was that the best you've got?" He hoped Valley was seeing the same thing in his own gaze.

Still catching his breath, he willed his hurting body to move, shooting a punch low to drive a fist into Valley's abdomen, hoping to knock the air out of her in turn. If she doubled over, then he would waste no time in snagging her in a frontal headlock. squeezing her tightly against his abs while exhaustedly clubbing a forearm across her back. He had a plan, of sorts, one that involved dropping back and nailing Valley with an elevated suplex from the top of the corner post. He just had to soften her up first, and hope that she didn't have anything left in the tank...

Valley Doll was going to win this. She was driven to it, she needed it. She hadn’t been this driven to win a match, since she had a title belt around her waist, and in some ways, the stakes were higher than before. She could get title shots. She had enough clout to make that happen, even if she didn’t earn her way to them - she would prefer to do it the right way, but she didn’t have to. The option was there.

Defeating Kyo, however, was a hurdle she wanted, needed, to clear if she wanted to have a viable career in Kyoto. After her match with Chloe, there were doubts on that front, and she had her own. Beating this man, a wrestler synonymous with the brand, was the exact right thing to fix all of that.

She just had to put his shoulders on the mat for three seconds. That was all.

But how?

Kyo nailed her with another punch, drove the wind clean out of her, and he was moving to follow up. She had quite an expansive toolkit of moves, but it wasn’t bottomless, and she wasn’t sure what she could slide to in this position. Her repertoire just lacked the depth for this. But then again, if she looked into some outside options…

As Kyo reached out for Valley, she dipped her head down, avoiding his grasp and letting him fall over her shoulder, laying across it. Valley reached, grabbed his head, and held him in place with one arm while she snagged his leg with the other, putting him into a fireman’s carry.

She wouldn’t be able to hold him there for long, but she wouldn't need to, because she launched off the turnbuckle in the next instant, hurling him off her shoulder and driving his head into the mat with a top-rope version of her mother’s finishing move: the [b]Death Valley Driver[/i].

Kyo's fist ploughed into Valley's firm belly, the blow driving the air from her lungs just as her own previous punch had done to him. As expected, the Californian had doubled over at the blow, her head almost leaning against his shoulder...leaving her perfectly vulnerable to Kyo's follow up. Breathing deeply himself, he made to grab for her head...

...only for Valley to duck low. Already aching from all of the punishment he had taken in this match, Kyo nearly lost his balance, and ended up leaning against Valley's shoulder as the blonde dropped low, sliding one arm around his head and another around his leg, bracing her shoulders up against him even as he instinctively pried at the arm locking around his head.

And then, slowly, but inveitably, Valley rose to a standing position in the turnbuckle, lifting Kyo up in a fireman's carry.

Kyo's eyes widened, even as he heard the crowd burst into surprised cheering at this unexpected display of strength from Valley. Unexpected was the right word: Kyo had figured Valley was no slouch in the strength department, but even he hadn't expected her to attempt something like this. Paste the haze of pain and exhaustion, however, he realized what Valley was going for. He tried to squirm and thrash in her grip. He balled a fist and shot it back, once, twice into Valley's lower back, all in an effort to make her let go.

It wasn't enough. Valley sprang off the ropes, and the two of them were propelled backwards in a Death Valley Driver.

Even as the two of them plummeted to the mat, a strange though clicked in Kyo's head. Death Valley Driver....right. Makes sense she would go for that. Her name is Valley after all--

And then, like a meteor striking the earth, the two of them slammed home into the mat. Kyo took the brunt of the impact, his back flattening against the mat. In an instant, he went limp, his arms flopping uselessly to the mat as he lay flat on his back, staring up glassy-eyed at the ceiling as Valley crashed down against him...