Alaina Sanders vs. Kozue Kaburagi - Long Time, No See

Match Type: Standard Match
Victory Conditions: Victory decided by pinfall, submission or knockout.

***
Holy fuck it had been a long time since Kozue had wrestled Alaina.

Kozue had been through so much in the past few years - going the rounds through Tension, leaving the city to train with Benikage, dozens and dozens of matches, moving to new apartments, et cetera and et cetera. Through it all, through that whirlwind of memories, she’d almost forgotten that, at some point, she’d met Alaina Sanders, one of Friction’s most decorated wrestlers. Not even just met - the two of them had been training partners in the Higurashi Dojo. That was an aspect of her life she was trying hard to put behind her and forget, but it was hard to do that without excising the few good things that happened while she was in there. Alaina had been a casualty of that.

But when she came in for today’s Friction taping and saw that she was facing none other than the Amazon herself, the memories all came flooding back in at once. She’d known the woman briefly, but couldn’t remember a bad thing about. Fun. Energetic. Bright. Built like an actual brickhouse, but not as obnoxious as those types tended to be. Oh, and tough - super fucking tough. Kozue had the distinct memories of being ragdolled around the ring by her, so this...well, this was going to be a new thing.

But the potential was there. A match against a former champion? If Kozue pulled this off, she would be kicking off her time in Friction with the strongest start. Cementing herself. If she was going to go somewhere in this company, she could hardly ask for a bette stepping.

She was ready. So ready.

The arena darkened all around the Friction crowd as her theme music started to rock out over the loudspeakers. Kozue appeared at the top of the ramp, a silhouette cast in darkness. The spotlight whipped over to her, trying to catch a glimpse, but by the time it arrived she was already gone. Zipping left and right, dashing down the ramp, all around the area, moving like a dark blur, scarcely visible, one step ahead. By the time it finally caught her, she had taken up a perch inside the ring, perfectly balanced on a ring post. Crouching down, her toes curled around the metal, she looked on towards the ramp and waited for Alaina to arrive, her lips curled and her eyes narrowed in a devilish grin.

Alaina hadn't seen or heard from Kozue in a few years. It had been quite a long time and plenty had changed since the two had interacted regularly, really since around the time she won the entropy title and that was a long time ago. Clad in her two piece tiger print wrestling attire Alaina was doing her last checks in the mirror to make sure she was all ready.

The amazon made her way through the hallways to the gorilla position and saw the entrance of Kozue. She hoped the darkness hid her movement and that she wasn't so fast that she made it to the ring so quickly the light couldn't keep up. She knew Kozue was fast and Alaina had some not-so-fond memories of facing very speedy women as of late. She took a deep breath to ready herself.

Once she heard her music the entrance of the amazon was in stark contrast to Kozue. She came out holding her arms wide as the crowd cheered her appearance. Alaina had probably gained about 15 pounds since she last saw Kozue and after high fiving fans on her way down the ramp she slid in to the ring underneath the bottom rope, standing her and flexing her arms while she winked at Kozue. After a moment she stepped forward and smiled to her opponent extending her hand. "It has been quite some time since I saw you! Seeing you in a Friction ring is a pleasant surprise and I am going to give you a proper introduction to this arena." Alaina said with a nod.

And there Alaina was. Jesus, she’d forgotten how buff the woman was. It had been a while, but she’d seen videos of Alaina since then, and she thought she’d had a good grip on the woman’s size, but holy fuck, seeing her in person was a different thing altogether. Maybe it was just the camera angles, maybe it was just the outfit she wore, maybe Kozue’s computer just had a shitty screen, but she didn’t recall the woman being such a literal walking mount of muscles. Hell, those abs? You could grate cheese off those abs.

And yet, Kozue wasn’t feeling all that intimidated, despite having to face a wrecking truck of a former champion. A good sign for her confidence, if nothing else.

She remembered her fellow former dojo member being friendly as hell, and it was nice to see that hadn’t changed since they parted ways. Hive fives all around, smiles, and an extended hand when she entered the ring. About what she expected.

”Look at you, Mount Alaina. Yeah, it’s been a while.” Kozue did a front flip off the turnbuckle and landed right in front of Alaina, standing tall and not missing a beat. She reached up, folded Alaina’s hand into a fist, and bumped it with her own. ”There we go, that’s the right way.” She winked and backed away, bouncing on the heels of her bare feet as she went, hyped up. ”Hoping a ‘proper introduction’ doesn’t mean you’re holding back. Won’t look good if I win without the full Alaina Sanders Experience.”

Alaina smiled and nodded to Kozue. She was every bit the woman she remembered personality-wise. However the confidence in herself inside the ring.... that was new. She didn't lack confidence before but maybe it was doubt or intimidation at the size of Alaina? There was something different in the body language.

Admittedly it was Alaina who was also feeling compelled to go all in not just out of respect for Kozue but to win a match against someone with her style... and to just get back to winning. "I know better than to give anything less than 100%, it would be disrespectful although don't be so sure about defeating the amazon as a sure outcome although I do love the confidence." Alaina said with a wink.

She pulled on the ropes and stretched out for a second as the bell rang and Alaina moved in to circle Kozue. How the heck should she go about this? Alaina decided to try to a grapple, not to overpower or anything but simply to get hold of Kozue to keep her from moving around. Alaina wanted to just pin her in place then try to arm drag her to the mat if she could, keeping hold of the arm to move the match at a slower pace.

Kozue returned the wink with one of her own and stepped back as the referee moved in to kick things off. ”Glad you’re okay with the confidence. About to show you where it comes from.”

Speaking of which, how was she playing this?

Alaina was big, strong, fast, and experienced. She hadn’t gotten where she was on the food chain without being a serious threat, and while Kozue had trained to face women like her, it didn’t escape her that she’d yet to pull it off. Or even come close. She wasn’t just jumping into the pool, but she was going in from the deep end. Take it slow, feel her out, play it safe?

Nah.

The second the bell rang, Kozue sprang into action, charging right towards Alaina with open arms. For an instant, it looked like shew as going to take the Amazon up on her grapple and lock horns, but she abandoned that at the last instant and ducked down, coming out behind her. She made the best of her opening and whipped around quick, throwing out a low, swinging kick, aiming at the side of Alaina’s mighty knee.

Alaina moved in feeling like she was about to grab hold of Kozue when the smaller faster woman ducked underneath! Before Alaina could turn she felt a hard pain in her knee, and her head reared up as she stifled a grunt of pain. She still had one good leg and Alaina tried to pivot on that to give her freshly kicked knee some time to recover while swinging her arm around to try to send a hard punch right at the head of Kozue! Alaina was shocked at how quick she was though....

Kozue was a very different beast than before. While Alaina surely felt she had gotten better the change in Kozue was very much more pronounced. This was not boding well for the amazon as the Friction newcomer seemed geared towards taking down the bigger Alaina strike by strike!

The idea was a simple one, at least on paper. Alaina was a tank, and how do you take apart a tank? You can either hammer it hard, rip into it with brute force, or you can pick apart piece by piece, dismantle it from top to bottom, go for the weakest parts and work from there. The first option wasn’t open to Kozue, but the second? She could do that.

A strike to the knee was far from winning this match, but it was a good start, and a great way to set the tone she was going for, using her speed to stay one step ahead of her mighty foe.

That wasn’t the easiest thing to do - Kozue was fast, but the Amazon wasn’t exactly slow. She was quick to retaliate, swinging out with a punch that would’ve had her staring up at the lights if she hadn’t ducked down at the last second. There was a small gap, a second of open time, and she filled it by jerking back up and lashing out with a wild elbow aimed at the Amazon’s chest, trying to drive her back a few steps and create more distance.

Alaina swung and felt like it was solid swing.... but she narrowly missed! Once again, to her chagrin before the amazon could adjust or prepared a strike came back and hit her chest! The elbow to the chest hurt and Alaina stumbled back a couple steps, rubbing her chest and her face showing that the blow clearly hurt. She was shaking her head and trying to act quickly hoping to catch Kozue off guard but that was quickly being shown to be ineffective.

Alaina kicked her leg up, aiming a fast toe kick to the abdomen of Kozue, but she was unhappy with her knee-jerk reaction strikes. She wished she didn't take the kick at Kozue because she had a feeling that Kozue was going to move out of the way again, prepared for such a counter. Alaina was going to pay and she had to be smarter if she was going to dig herself out of the hole that was quickly deepening.

It might’ve been hard to tell with Kozue moving around so fast, but she was smiling through all of this. Not simply because she was off to a good start, though that was part of it - no, she was stoked to be in this with someone like Alaina, to be holding her own with this grade of opponent. Since she’d lost and lost hard to that pirate bitch a year or so ago, she’d wondered if she really had what it took to handle the bigger ladies. Well, it didn’t come much bigger than the Amazon, and yet, here she was. Not being steamrolled.

Granted, the match was still an infant, so she couldn’t throw a party over it just yet. Alaina was on the warpath, and Kozue found herself standing in the way when she came at her, throwing out a kick. A simple kick, but fairly fast, so fast that she had to block it. She brought her arms together, crossed them up, and used them both to absorb the impact, but it was still enough force to send her flying off the canvas, rocketed by the sheer momentum.

Kozue landed on her butt and turned it into a roll, throwing her legs back, rolling off her shoulder and coming to a rest in a crouch, one knee planted on the canvas. Knowing Alaina would be on her soon, she rose up as fast as she could manage, bursting to her feet and throwing out a side kick, aiming her heel at her opponent’s iron chest.

Well, Alaina managed to knock her off her feet which was a decent start! Now the trick was making this woman stay still.... that was not going to be easy. Kozue had come quite a long way since her last encounters with Alaina. Alaina began to move in as Kozue got up but the kick to the chest gave her pause as he halted her in her tracks and forced her to stumble back a couple steps! "Oomph!"

Alaina rubbed her chest and knew she couldn't just sit by idly. She moved back in, trying to surprise Kozue. At least she hoped she could surprise her. Alaina lift off the ground, trying to fly into the air as she moved back towards Kozue trying to return the favor by hitting a dropkick against the chest of her speedy opponent!