Fiery Hearts: Makie Akamatsu vs Mindy Priest

Makie was breathing hard now, and sweating, both from the pressure Mindy was putting on her, and from the close contact of her opponent's warm body. Her punches were useless, and the pain in her head and shoulders was becoming unbearable. She clenched her teeth as she flailed uselessly in her opponent's grip, trying to find some way to break this strong hold.

In desperation, she tried pressing her feet against the mat and leaning forward, hoping to unbalance Mindy and topple her over onto her back. "NRRAAAGH!" The effort put more strain on her hurting shoulders and spine, especially given the way she and Mindy were sitting against one another, but desperation gave Makie a much needed edge of strength. If she managed to get Mindy down, then she would instantly crawl against her opponent's tall form and hopefully get her shoulders on the mat, hoping that the ref girl's count down would force Mindy to release her.

Mindy kept her headlock tight, trying her best to hold down Makie as she thrashed like a fish in her grasp. By now, it was clear both to Mindy and the audience that the Japanese girl was having heaps of trouble in this hold. "This is good... I can do it!" She smiled. All she had to do was keep the squirming in check, and the submission would come in sooner or later! Who would have thought it would be so simple?

But, alas, this was just too good to be true. Mindy's improvised move had yet another problem: it was not very stable at all. As a result, right when Mindy was starting to feel confident again, Makie's body leaned forward to unbalance her, forcing the blonde onto her back. What the hell was she trying to do? Even on the mat, all she had to do was keep squeezing and-

"ONE!"

She was then startled to see the ref crouching next to her. Ah, right, the pin fall! Somewhat reluctantly, Mindy let go of Makie's head and pushed her body aside, lifting one shoulder off the mat to stop the count.

Makie's muscles strained as they pushed against Mindy, memories of high school wrestling coming back as she pitted her strength against that of a bigger opponent. Somehow, though, she managed to get Mindy on her back, collapsing on to of her opponent's tall body. Sweat dripped from her hair as Mindy's arm kept squeezing her, and she breathed hard against the other girl's shoulder as, nearby, the ref girl began her countdown.

Suddenly, Mindy released her, twisting to get a shoulder up off the mat. Gasping hungrily for air, Makie rolled off of Mindy onto her back, breathing hard as she tried to put some distance between herself and the muscle girl. "Fffuck...you..aren't as....green as I...thought..." she managed to gasp.

With her grip now broken, Mindy decided to rise to one knee, looking at Makie. The Japanese girl, even with her smaller body, sure had given her a hard time keeping her hold in place, but Mindy smiled internally as she noted that, in the end, Makie hadn't been able to find a proper way out of it. She knew how to cherish a small victory when she got one. She gave off a contented sigh, wiping the sweat from her brow.

"Hehe... I've been practicing since I fought Kyo, you know!," she replied while trying to think of what to do next. Sure, she no longer had her opponent held down, but Makie was still visibly affected by their intense but short bout of grappling. She couldn't let her advantage slide away from her! Mindy went after the veteran, wanting to circle her around and kneel behind her. If she was quick enough to do so, then she would try to grab one of her arms and bend it behind her back in a simple hammerlock.

Makie huffed as she caught her breath, her chest rising and falling steadily as she rolled over onto her her front, dimly aware that Mindy was circling now. Her face was still visiblly red as she pushed herself up to her hand and knees. "Hhff...laugh it up, blondie," she muttered, "this match has just begun- NAAAAH!"

She was cut short as Mindy, moving quicker than she expected, moved in behind her and grabbed hold of one of her arms, before twisting it sharply behind her back in a hammerlock. "AUGH!" Makie cried as pain shot through her shoulder. She twisted and squirmed, her free arm flailing wildly, but Mindy had her in a tight grip. "Nnnngh, dammit!" The match was barely a few minutes old, and already, Mindy's tight holds were wearing her down. She knew she had to turn this around somehow, so she decided to use some psychology against her rookie opponent. "Nnnh...you must have...been thinking about...your match with Kyo a lot then," she said through gritted teeth, grinning a little. "So...do you think...my brother is hot?"

If her words managed to distract Mindy enough, then Makie would reach back, grab Mindy's wrist, and drop down sharply, aiming to throw her larger opponent over her in a judo toss and, hopefully, transition to an armbar on her downed opponent.

While Makie was on her knees, Mindy moved around her and successfully seized her arm, giving it a good twist as she locked the hold in. The Japanese girl could keep calling her 'blondie', 'rookie' and 'green' all day - but now that Mindy was was in control, she was optimistic enough to brush off a few harsh words. Tonight, she was going to show everyone what a 'rookie' like her was capable of! Readying herself for her next move, she put her free hand on Makie's shoulder, and she would have kept going on if it weren't for a very bothersome question.

"So...do you think...my brother is hot?"

Makie would be able to feel the hammerlock get just a little less tight, as Mindy's cheeks grew rosy. "Eh? N-no, it's not like that! He was just a... respectable opponent! That's all!" She was glad that Kyo's sister couldn't see the embarrassed expression on her face. She wasn't going to admit it, but after grappling with Kyo for twenty straight minutes she DID get a pretty detailed memory of his body. His toned, lithe body. Not to mention she had had a pretty weird dream about him some nights ago..."B-but it was just once! That didn't count!," she repeated to herself while shaking her head.

Regardless of whether she was right or not, the question was enough to drive her mind off track for a moment - a dangerous thing to happen in a match, and in the next instant Mindy was punished for her distraction. Makie grabbed her her wrist and threw her with a sharp toss, breaking the hold and making the American crash down on the small of her back. Before she could react, she was put in a crucifix armbar! "Ow!" She could feel her arm getting hyperextended already. Oh, how fast the tables were turned...

Makie's basic knowledge of judo came in handy as she dropped low, using Mindy's weight against her and sending her larger American opponent crashing to the mat. Breathing a sigh of releif, she wasted no time in grabbing Mindy's wrist and twisting, while at the same time locking her legs around the other girl's muscular arm and leaning back, stretching away and putting as much pressure on Mindy's arm as possible.

"I mean, I don't object at all," she went on, continuing to tease Mindy relentlessly even as she cranked on the armbar. "My brother's an idiot with an overdeveloped sense of chivarly, but as far as I know, he's available! And given the way he talked about you after your match, Kyo obviously feels the same about you." She could almost visualize Mindy's face turning redder and redder as she worked over the girl's arm-- although Makie was no submission expert like Kyo, she knew that one way to defeat a more powerful opponent like Mindy was to wear down her limbs. Even as she maintained the hold, though, she knew they weren't too far from the ropes...

As Makie locked her legs around the limb and completed the hold, Mindy's chance to escape undamaged flew away, and her legs fruitlessly kicked at the mat as the pressure increased. Her first instinct was to thrash around and power her way out of the hold, so she had to actively control her urge and not twist her body the wrong way. She knew that the armbar was pretty dangerous if you fought against it too much, since it already put her elbow in a precarious position right from the get-go. It was a hard place to be in, and her troubles were only compounded by Makie's comments, which preyed on her innocence.

"Ngh! No, I told you, I don't think of him like... AUGH!" She denied it over and over, but her expression told a completely different story. One could almost see the steam coming out of her ears when she heard Kyo had been talking about her. She struggled and writhed on the mat, with half her mind trying to regain her composure in vain and the other half coping with the pain. At this point, Makie was playing her like a fiddle!

At least, the sharp tugs on her arm straightened her ideas a bit. The blonde started to inch towards the ropes, attempting to brush away the multitude of pointless thoughts swarming inside her head.

Makie gritted her teeth as she worked over Mindy's trapped arm, her booted heels pressing hard against Mindy's shoulder as she arched her slender back, putting more pressure on the American's hyperextended limb. The muscle girl was crying out in pain and protest in equal measure, and at this stage, Makie almost felt sorry for taking advantage of her inexperienced opponent like this.

Even as Mindy began to pull them, stubbornly and painfully, toward the ropes, Makie suddenly relaxed her grip. "Heh, you get flustered way too easily, you know that?"" she teased, keeping a grip on Mindy's wrist as she moved to stand up and yank Mindy up to her feet with her. If she managed this, she would pull Mindy over to the ropes and try to force her back against them, before sending two successive knee-strikes into Mindy's firm abs. "HYAA!"

Mindy dragged the combined weight of her body and Makie's at a torturous pace, all while battling the tension that assailed her arm. However, when she was halfway on her path to the ropes, Makie unlocked the armbar on her own; the blonde's arm was still held with some pressure, but there was no more danger of her getting hurt or submitting. In response, Mindy stopped struggling as well, as her most urgent problem of not tapping out like a complete jobber was now solved.

She didn't have the time to be relieved, though. The smaller girl twisted her arm upwards, and the lingering pain from the armbar forced Mindy to get up to her feet, whether she liked it or not. Her back was thrown to the ropes, and before her body even fully bounced off of them Makie's knees were driven, one after another, into her midsection. "Ugh! GAH!" Her abs, however steeled and muscular, had already suffered several punches from before, so now the knee-strikes really stung. Feeling weak in the gut, Mindy leaned forward onto Makie, latching onto her body for balance.