Mask/Off

After quite an intense debut, The Mask was found walking towards the locker room, all sweaty and panting from behind his face cover. The injuries he took during the match starting to hurt again now that the adrenaline rush was over, especially that kick to the chest. He entered the locker room and closed the door. That was the last time anyone ever seen him for the night.

About half an hour later, a black haired boy in the janitor outfit came out from the very same locker room, complete with the cleaning tools like broom and such. A name tag above the pocket on his left chest spelled Mizuno. He looked around for a bit, his expression looked a little tired, but that's how work could affect you. Casually, he began to leave the scene. His shift was over for the night.

Who was that masked man, anyway?

That was the question on everyone's mind, it seemed. Most people's mind, anyway. Some of them. Pretty much just the people who'd watched the match, so not all that many when you stopped to think about. In fact, Kozue was pretty sure she was the one who gave the most of a damn to really look into it. It wasn't that big of a deal, being honest. The Mask had a fought a good, clean match. Weird as all fuck because of the noises he made, but fair. It wasn't like she needed to hunt the guy down for revenge on anything, she didn't even need to challenge him for a rematch. Tension's roster was growing, but it was still relatively small. They'd fight again, sooner or later, and she'd be more than ready that time.

But damn, he was just so...off. Kozue was curious. And curious Kozue does weird things, like wait outside the men's locker room for him to come out. Waiting...and waiting...and waiting.

"Oh, come on, nothing done in a locker room should take this fucking long." She checked the clock on her phone - thirty minutes had passed, and she was really starting to want to get out of her sweaty wrestling outfit. She was tempted to just barge in, but after what happened the last time with Johnny when she did that...no. No more bathroom related hijinks.

She sighed and started to walk away, when the door finally popped open, and out came...the janitor. Just the janitor. "The hell?"' She snapped her teeth, looking back at the door as he walked away. "Hey, yo!" She skipped after him, catching up fast. "Please tell me there's a deaf naked guy in there with a mask." God, that sounded weird to say out loud."It makes sense in context, just go with it."

"H-huh?" the janitor boy was startled to see the ninja girl, or Ninjette as she was known here in AFW intercepted him. "Deaf, masked guy... oh... The Mask?" he confirmed. "Err... he already went out, like, I dunno, 15-20 minutes ago?"

He sounded nervous, but there were a couple of factors that could lead to that. Like, being tired after hours of cleaning wrestlers' locker rooms, only to be called by a ninja girl that looked... agitated? The costume aside, it's never really a good sign to be called by an agitated person, male or female.

"Oh, hey! Aren't you... his opponent for the night?" he asked, before pausing for a bit.

The janitor looked uncertain about what he should say next. It might not be a good idea to say "good match" to the one who lost it. Some wrestlers didn't take their defeat too well after all. Still, he already brought up the topic and couldn't just jump on a different one all of a sudden.

"Umm, I watched it. That was... e-entertaining! And... uhh..."

Her mouth gaped. She blinked. Twice. "Wait, what? No...no." She looked between him and the door. He had to be wrong. He had to be. "I've been standing here for thirty minutes, there's no fucking way he...damn it!"

Screw it, she'd gone in there once, it wasn't like going in twice would light her on fire. She burst into the locker room and looking around, doing a quick check for anyone. Still had the faint scent of missed piss, but aside from that, no sign of any man, deaf or otherwise.

"Shit the fuck!" She came back out a moment later, shaking her head. "There was no way she could have missed him, no way. Unless he went out through the vents or something. Which wasn't that out of the question, he was sort of a weird dude...

Kozue let out a long, frustrated growl at the thirty minutes of her life she would never get back. She could have been doing something important, like catching up on Game of Thrones. Or working out. Or working out while she caught up on Game of Thrones. "Yeah, yeah, I was his opponent." She folded her arms and forced herself to radiate calm. "And thanks."

The janitor had to admit that it's rather a scary sight, Ninjette barging into the room like a cop busting a criminal. He really had no idea why would she do that. The match was fair, at least from his point of view, and the ninja girl didn't seem like she's that pissed about her defeat back then. Could it be she's holding back just to assault the masked wrestlers backstage? That wouldn't be out of question, not in a place like this.

Still, it never really hurt to ask. Sometimes. Maybe Ninjette wasn't really in the mood for question now, but he couldn't help but to feel a bit curious. Just a little. Maybe what's going on isn't really what he's thinking.

"Umm..." the boy began to talk after she seemed calmed down a bit. "N-not to pry or anything, but why are you looking for him?" he asked with a not so curious expression.

Would he even fit through the vents? That was always a lot harder than the movies made it seem, most of them weren't really strong enough to support much weight. There wasn't any fire escape that she was aware of - no, this was the only way out. Maybe he had some sort of secret exit? It would fit with the whole 'man of mystery' thing he had going on. Heck, he could've still been in there, just hiding in a locker or something.

It took her a moment to stop Encyclopedia Browning it up and turn back to the janitor. "Huh? Oh." She rolled her eyes and started ripping off some of the tap from her arm. "Just wanted to talk to the guy with the cameras off. Put up a good fight, got me a little curious. Sure as hell never saw him before."

"O-oh, I see," he nodded slightly. "Well, the guy is new. Tonight is his first match," said the janitor to Ninjette. "I heard they picked him on the streets..."

So it's not really what he thought. She was just curious, that's all. It's kinda surprising that she waited outside his room, though, not even bothering to change her dress first. It's surely easy to think otherwise. There were a lot of people with ill intention here after all, male and female alike.

"B-but yeah, it's surely one hell of a fight!" the boy said. "You look like, uh, had it rough at the end. You alright?"

"The streets?" Her face scrunched up and she snickered. Always loved when someone mentioned 'the streets'. "What kind of 'street' has a deaf wrestler in a mask hanging around it? The streets here must be a little bit different than the streets I'm used to. One day I gotta figure out where this street is that everyone comes from."

She started to tie her hair back up and walked around him. Janitor for the AFW. That had to be a messy job, especially after a hentai match. Get paid to go around cleaning jizz stains all day, not what mother planned. "Yeah, it was rough, but I'm all right. Back's a little a sore." She arched it a bit and hissed at the pain. A massage would do her good, real good, and she was starting to get enough money to actually afford it. "Give me a few days and I'll be good to go again, though, no big deal. You watch a lot?"

"Well, it's not like he's some hobo hanging around the streets. But you know, there's a couple of street fighting leagues all over this city. He's probably got picked from one of them," said the janitor.

She seemed alright in genera, but that's expected from tension girls. They're way tougher than what they seemed. Most of them, anyways. Some of them were also not as nice as they might look. Ninjette seemed like a reverse case of that, though.

"Ah, that's good to hear. Me? Yeah, on my free time. I'm a... a wrestling fan since a kid, you see. This job? Yeah, it kinda sucks most of the times, but I can watch live action for free, so..." he shrugged. "They said I can job instead of being a janitor, but I'm not too sure... I mean, girls here can be a bit scary at times, haha..." he forced a laugh.

"True, true." She even had some leagues like that back in Jersey. She never saw any guys like the Mask in them - mostly just drunk fat guys with too little hair on their heads and way too damn much on their chests, but different places, different tastes.

"Yeah, we got enough jobbers. I'd never fight any of them, though - guy wants to get paid for a girl to beat him up, he can go online and pay for it like everybody else. Either that or just get a freaky girlfriend. Not wasting my time."

She gave the janitor a little look over - he didn't look out of shape or anything. He was no King or Johnny, but he wasn't too off from being that Clyde Gastin guy's size. She reached over and gave his bicep a little squeeze. "I don't know, though. Little training and you'd probably be more than most of the girl's here are used to handling. What'd you say your name was?"