A Deal of Desperation

When she later looked back on the events that transpired, Suzu wouldn't remember much of the specific details - the only thing she'd recall with any clarify would be the sick, hot feeling of anger that had driven her to act as she had. The rest would all just be a blur of sight and sound in her memory.

Suzu hadn't been able to go along with her sister Kameyo to the PLUMP photo-shoot, as their friend Kandi was due to arrive today and someone needed to be there to help her move her stuff into the new apartment. Kameyo had insisted she'd be OK, but the younger sister had needed some convincing before she'd finally conceded, although under the condition that she'd be around to pick her up once the shoot had finished. Fortunately, Kandi's arrival had gone without a hitch, the plane even arriving a little earlier than expected. It had been great catching up with the bubbly, pink-haired Brit, the two of them chatting away as they brought her boxes into their new place, and finding they were ahead of schedule a little, Kandi suggested hitting the gym to check out how the facilities looked. They'd continued to talk as they went through the light workout session, to the point that Suzu lost track of the time, only noticing she was in danger of overrunning her time to pick up Kameyo as she was changing back into her regular clothes. Cursing as she had to contend with Tokyo's traffic, she tried calling her sister, only to be greeted by the answering message.

When she'd finally arrived at the set, almost an hour late, there was no sign of Kameyo waiting for her, and her phone remained off. Suzu had felt a gnaw of worry in the pit of her stomach as she waited, uncertain whether the shoot was still going on, or whether something had happened. The answer came as two staff walked by her, idly talking to one another.

"So, you think we're going to use all of it? I mean we've done topless stuff before, but there's always been some covering or something, nothing full-on like that."

"Relax, the post-guys will tweak the lighting a little, put in a lens flare to obscure the stuff that'd get people writing angry letters, and boom, problem solved."

"I dunno, the stuff at the end seemed...well Miss Bryant seemed pretty into the moment."

"Sure, but you can't deny the shots we got are going to make for a sell-out issue."

It was around that point that Suzu felt the anger explode in her. Her fists clenched, she stormed off in the direction the two men had came from, and kept going until she reached a large room, the remains of a ring being carefully disassembled. Suzu sucked in a deep breath, and yelled out.

"HEY! WHERE CAN I FIND MIA TALLY BRYANT!?"

"She left about a half an hour ago."

That was the only thing one of the crew members had said, almost in passing and probably because Suzu was screaming. They had just thought it was another obsessive fan. They snuck in every once in a while. Tally wouldn't like it but he gave Suzu another clue.

"She has a signing in a few days, I think." He said and went back to rolling cables.

**********

Tally was relaxing in a comfortable chair that hugged her plump form. Being a plus sized model was tough enough as it was but trying to make in roads in Japan was a herculean task. Tally was up for it, however!

She had just done a "Plus Sized Anime!" spread for PLUMP and the issue had just come out. It was an attempt to bridge her many faceted career paths into convergence like the up and coming "Round Girls of the Squared Circle issue that would be on shelves early next month. Her agent was never a fan of these sorts of things as she felt they were more for books and not magazines but the draw was JUST enough to make it a profitable endeavor.

Still, the sorts of people that showed up was not exactly the kind Tally would have guessed. She began to wonder if there actually WERE any big people in Japan. Her queue was a weird mix of tittering school girls and pimple faced slobs who looked like they hadn't been out of the house in years.

Oh well. it didn't matter who it was, as long as they loved her.

Tally was eager to get on with the signing and soon the velvet rope was pulled away and the first eager patrons held out the magazine, complete with Tally in a Sailor Moon like outfit that bulged at the seems. A translator told her what the fans were saying and soon Tally's head began the rhythmic bobbing as each new person stepped forward. She really found the culture to be silly but the American never lost her smile.

As Suzu pulled her short black jacket closer around her, she cast a sidelong glance at the people gathered around her. She hated crowds. Being far bigger than the average Japanese citizen, she hated how even the slightest movements could wind up bumping someone entirely by accident. She'd have stopped using the rail system entirely if it wasn't so necessary to get around.

This crowd was especially bad, consisting of nerds dressed in clothes ranging from the bizarre to the unwashed. She was pretty sure some guy had tried to grab a feel of her ass three times now, and she was ready to clock him in the face if he attempted it a fourth time. Kameyo had always been more into this kind of thing, with her board games and comics, but it had never appealed to Suzu as a kid, and it certainly hadn't changed now she was older. But she wasn't here for this crap - she was here for one reason, and that reason was sitting with a plastic smile on her face and wearing an outfit Suzu was sure was meant to be some popular anime character. Mia Tally Bryant, signing autographs and handing them out like they were a valuable treasure.

Suzu felt her fists ball. She'd avoided talking to Kameyo about what had happened at the shoot - she knew her sister was timid, and she'd just clam up and try to brush it off if she said anything. She'd been putting on a brave face, all smiles and jokes, but Suzu knew she was just hiding from what had happened. All she wanted to do right now was go over to that arrogant bitch and...

...And what? Punching her wouldn't change what had happened, but there was perhaps a way she could make a difference. As the line crept closer and closer, she took a deep breath to try and steady her tempter, until at last she was standing before the table, the interpreter hovering at Tally's shoulder ready to translate. She wouldn't be needed - Suzu knew enough English to say what she needed to say here.

"We need to talk," she said, simple and direct, ignoring the crowd behind her as she glared down at the woman who'd treated her sister like trash.

Tally was too busy signing away to even notice Suzu until her large shadow cast upon her. When the large girl approached and tally looked up, expecting to finally have someone who was appropriate ask for an autograph, she instead found Suzu. It was the obnoxious girl that was yelling during her match with Kameyo. Tally had to try very hard to keep a scowl from forming on her mouth but she managed. She'd become very good at smiling.

She was pretty sure what Suzu wanted to talk about but she wasn't going to give the girl the satisfaction. In fact, she wasn't even going to acknowledge the girl's existence. All she did after she flashed her smile was look down at one of her magazines. "Oh, someone who speaks English, great!"

"Well, sweety, you've got until I finish signing this magazine, so you better hurry!" She said as she swiped her pen along the cover. "It's so great to meet a girl who can be inspired by me!"

She shoved the magazine into Suzu's belly and smiled at the girl. The autograph read: 'To my BIGgest fan! Love, Mia Tally Bryant XOXOXO ~<3'

"Next!"

OK, why was she not punching this woman in the face again? She only barely managed to supress the urge to slap the magazine out of Tally's hands as she thrust it forward against her stomach, instead snatching it without so much as looking at what had been written. Her eyes remained focused on that smug, egotistical face.

"Yeah, I'm not going anywhere until I've had my say," she said flatly, trying to keep the growl of anger out of her voice. She could feel the hesitance behind her as the next person in the queue waited for her to move, but she ignored them, leaning forward so her eyes were more level with Tally's, her hands resting on the table edge. "I know you did something to my sister during that photo shoot. Something she wouldn't want shown to the world. I want it out of the magazine, and I know you can make that happen."

<"Um, excuse me?"> The person behind her managed to pluck up enough confidence to speak up, <"I think it's my turn to-">

Suzu's arm whipped back without looking, holding out the magazine Tally had signed for her. <"There, you got one, now buzz off,"> she snapped irritably over her shoulder, before turning her attention back onto Tally. There was likely some form of security staff nearby that would be over in a few moments, and Suzu wasn't willing to get put in jail by putting up a fight, so she needed to sum it up fast.

"You and me," she said simply, "If I win, you pull strings and get the shoot buried. Don't care how, just do it. If I lose..." She paused, even the idea of what she was offering repulsive to her, but she couldn't think of any other way to snag Tally's attention. The bitch was an egotist, so wrapped up in herself that the only way to hook her into the fight was to offer her both the one thing she needed most, and a chance to put Suzu down while doing it.

"...If I lose, I'll be yours for one month," she managed to spit out the words, "I'll do whatever you ask of me, I'll sing your praises, whatever. No complaining, no backtalk. So, before I get thrown out of here, we got a deal?"

Tally raised her eyebrow as Suzu decided to continue to speak. She went on about doing something to Kameyo but Tally, as malicious as she could be, had honestly thought she did nothing wrong. She was a bit perturbed by Suzu's claims.

Soon Suzu was making demands and Tally didn't like it one bit, however, she knew she could handle it. "You're... challenging me to a match?" She said, as if the idea was preposterous. "Be ... mine?" She said, blinking at the insinuation as her cheeks began to redden deeply. "What do you think I am, some kind of... pervert!? You're only trying to get me to sign onto this match because it's clear you want my perfect, plump body!" Tally said, turning her head and running her hand down her chest, letting her big boob wobble.

"If I lose, I have to destroy one of the biggest opportunities of my career and if I win, then you get to hang around me like a creepy stalker for a month?" Tally shook her head. She was starting to get angry. Then, suddenly she paused. Maybe she did have something...

She grinned wickedly. "There's a certain magazine that has been trying to get me to do something for them for a while. If you win, then I'll cut Kameyo out of the shoot she was a part of. But... if I win, you're going to admit that you and your sister are just absolutely pathetic compared to me. You're going to kiss my feet AND my perfect ass! All in the ring! And then..." She said. "You're going to come with me on a shoot, no questions asked!"

Tally crossed her arms under her chest. She was standing now. "So..." She said. "Take it or leave it because I don't need the match. You do."

Suzu was almost trembling with anger. Who was Tally to call her a pervert and act so superior!? The only reason she'd even made such a proposal was out of sheer desperation, going for something she felt would appeal to the plump woman's egotistical sense of superiority. She hadn't had anything else to offer, but now the bitch had upped the stakes, and it galled her to know that at least one thing the preening model had said was right; Suzu was the one who needed this match, not the other way around. She bit back the tirade of insults she so desperately wanted to hurl into that smug face, and swallowed her pride. She had to remember, she was doing this for his sister.

'You know what, whatever,' she said, her voice thick with barely-restrained anger, 'Doesn't matter either way to me, because I'm not going to lose to you. I'm not letting you humiliate my sister like that, not any more than you already have.'

Suzu spotted the signs of movement out the corner of her eye; a man in a security jacket, moving with purpose towards her. Right on cue. The hefty Japanese woman didn't want to have things devolve into a scene, not in public anyway, so she didn't resist as the man placed a hand calmly but firmly upon her shoulder.

<'Ma'am? Could I ask you to move along please, you're holding up the line.'> The man said in a stern tone, and Suzu cast one last glance back at the smug-looking model.

'See you in the ring, fatso,' she said, firing off a final shot. She couldn't help herself, after seeing Tally's reaction during her match with Kameyo she knew it was a trigger for the model, and Suzu wanted to wipe that grin off her face, if only for a moment.

Tally craned her neck and smirked. "I didn't do anything to her." She said defensively. "Modeling is rough. If she didn't think she could handle, it, she shouldn't have gotten INTO it." She said and turned her head. The nerve of these people.

She was pleased to see her shuffled away when the girl lead with a fatso comment. Tally's eye twitched and she punded her fists into the desk. She stood up and smiled as sweetly as she could muster. "Look, everyone." She said as she puffed out her chest. "This is the kind of spectacle PLUMP hopes to capture in the next great edition of their magazine. You've all been part of the magic so please come see my conquer int he ring and then pick up the latest PLUMP to see how my match really unfolded."

She was seething under her smile but she wasn't going to let some fat , no talent bitch upstage HER! She was going to suck all the attention fromt he room and Suzu would just be some dumb, ornery bitch who no one would remember. They'd remember Tally for sure though. "I'll be sure and do a great signing as well! It's the Round Girls of the Squared Circle and you shouldn't DARE miss it!"

The translator hurriedly rattled off Tally's rant and the crowd seemed to be enthusiastic at the prospect of being in part of a publicity stunt.

Suzu ground her teeth together as she heard Tally making a plug to the crowd for the shoot she'd just put on the line for their match. It took some arrogance to make a deal like that and then start hyping it to your fans right after. Suzu would have loved nothing more than to turn back around and pop that self-deluded harpy one with everyone watching, to see how that aura of smugness she seemed to radiate handled getting dropped like that, but she knew she'd just get herself arrested, and what good would that do? If she wanted to get that shoot buried, then she'd need to do it right, and that meant holding off until the match.

Once she'd been led out of the building, she shrugged off the security officer's hand from her shoulder and walked out onto the busy sidewalk, shoulder slumped. As her anger cooled, it was replaced with a leaden feeling in her stomach, the doubt gnawing at her insides - she'd made this deal behind Kameyo's back to protect her feelings, but in her drive to get tally into a match she'd put both of them on the line. Had she gone too far? Was she even in any position to turn back now? It wasn't like Tally could force her to accept the deal if she turned down the fight, but even the idea of how much she'd gloat about her backing down caused Suzu's fists to ball up. No, it was done now, and the best thing she could do was focus on winning the fight. With a heavy, frustrated sigh, the hefty Japanese made her way through the bustling streets, trying to think of how best to take on her equally hefty opponent...