Stress Relief at the Dojo

Friday afternoon, getting close to dinner time, and Kozue was hanging out in the gym and getting acquainted with her new best fried: the heavy bag. She was dressed for a workout. Her usual black shorts, matching sneakers, her white-t. She even had on the pads, dark blue and covering all the vital spots save for her head. She looked ready and professional. She didn't feel it, though.

"Stupid, fucking, stupid, assholes, fucking, cunts..." Roundhouse kick, roundhouse kick, left jab, right elbow.

Time had passed since the royal. Things were getting back to relative normality in Kozue's life. Settling back into the daily grind, training at the Dojo, trying to find new, healthier habits to spend what little free time she had. She was ready to put all of that crap behind her and just get on with her career. That was sensible thing, right? It wasn't like she could undo what happened at the royal, clusterfuck that it was. Let it go. Just...let it go.

"Stupid, fucking King. Fucking Kent Quick, fucking Kent Quick, Jesus Christ..." Jab, jab, pull in for a rising knee, push off.

She couldn't quite do it. Oh, she would have her little quiet breaks. She'd be calm for a few hours, manage to push it aside while she was doing her reps or watching some old videos. Immerse herself in the work. But then she'd hear something about the battle royal on the news, or she'd feel that little pain in her back when her spine bent in just the wrong way, or a random thought would drop in her head from the ether. Bam. She remembered it all, and she was pissed off again. Easy as that.

"Seriously, the fuck? What the fuck?" Fake jab, quick right cross, step back, spinning hook kick.

She thought she was done with, she wanted to be over it, especially today. She and Alaina were going to get in some training time together on their light day, work on some technique. This was not the crap she wanted to bring into the dojo, she knew Junko would be all over her for this attitude, but it was not going away. It gnawed on her, and she knew Alaina would take some of the heat if she didn't calm the fuck down and stop muttering curses like a loon. Fast.

"Come on, come on." Kozue gave her cheeks some soft slaps and took a few paces away from the swinging bag. Just finishing her warm up before Alaina arrived. She grabbed her water bottle from the side and sipped away on the last few gulps.

Alaina arrived at the dojo feeling quite chipper. In the last couple days she got to spend some quality time with Mamouru, and she picked up a win against another Takeuchi family loudmouth. Yep, it felt good being Alaina right about now.

She changed from her regular, casual clothing to her training attire. Alaina preferred to train in clothing akin to what she wore in the ring. Today she opted to wear a to wear a dark blue sports bra and bottom, along with black knee as well as elbow pads.

As Alaina made her way out to train she saw Kozue and smiled at her. "Hey there! How are ya?" As Alaina approached, she realized she didn't know Kozue all that well. How would she train? Would it be endless drills or a match? Regardless, Alaina was up for anything.

"It looks like you've been going at it for a while now, what should we do next?"

"Stupid!" Right cross. "Lame!" Right cross. "Jackass!" Right cross. "Motherfu-"

She eased up on the aggro when she heard Alaina come in, not wanting to immediately spoil the good mood she seemed to be in. Come to think of it, Alaina always seemed to be in a good mood. Even though they hadn't known each other too long, it was hard to miss - the girl was so nice and cheery and all smiles. There was a time when Kozue would have found that nauseating, but these days it was a welcome burst of light. Nice to have someone around her own age who wasn't an emotional trainwreck waiting to happen.

"Hey, sempai." Kozue gave Alaina a quick wave. "I'm fine." She caught the bag as it came back and wrapped her arms around it, keeping it still. "Kind of, sort of, not really. Getting by." She let it go with a long, exasperated sigh that knocked the stray hairs on her face away. She was having a hard time matching the smile on Alaina's face, but she didn't look like she wanted to murder someone, anymore. Improvement.

"I was just warming up some, trying to get this crap out of my head." She shot her arm up and pulled it back at the elbow, getting in some extra stretching. Alaina looked dressed for just about anything - which reminded Kozue, her next outfit was going to need pads - so they might as well go all the way. "How about you and me do a couple of drills, then have a spar? One on one. We can figure out what to do after that, sound straight?"

Kozue seemed like she had a lot on her mind. Alaina had no idea what, but maybe during the drills she could get the girl to open up a little bit. Alaina smiled as she jumped onto the apron and climbed inside the ring.

"That sounds great! Drills are always fun and with my record in spars... heh, you will enjoy it more than I will I imagine. I am ready for whatever drills you feel like doing, and while we're at it tell me a bit about yourself! Its always good to know a bit about the speedy looking lady I am gonna spar with soon."

Alaina did some stretching, holding her arms acrossher chest as she watied for Kozue to answer. Once she did, Alaina was more than ready to chat about herself.

Kozue watched Alaina get in the ring with a cocked head for a few moments, before just letting it go and having a little laugh. "You are a just a living ball of caffeinated cheeriness, you know that? It's cute."

She grabbed the ropes and pulled her way up, then leaped over the top rope and landed a few feet away from Alaina. "And at least you have a record." She rolled her head from side to side as she made her way over to the corner. "This'll be my first spar, and you look like you could break me in half. Bet you'd keep that smile up while you did it, too."

She leaned on the turnbuckle while Alaina kept on stretching, taking some time to let her heart slow down before they went at it. "Okay. You're big and strong, I'm small and fast, so we'll do a couple of drills that help us both out. Like, say..." She started up at the ceiling as if the answer was written up there, before she looked back down with a quick snap of the finger. "Backwards sprints. One side of the ring to the other. And we follow that up with the clock. Get down, push up position, extend arms, move our legs around in a circle. Trying to improve my upper body." She did a flex. Still not much to look at, but looking more defined than a couple weeks ago.

"I am just having a god day thats all." Alaina said with a shrug as she stretched out her legs. The two certainly seemed to have opposing physiques, and styles in the ring. Kozue also had a certain sarcasm about her. Jury was still out on that. "Just because I am bigger doesn't mean anything. You could easily move around me and catch me off guard I would bet."

Alaina looked up and nodded approvingly as Kozue proposed her idea for drills. Sprinting backwards was something Alaina could do, albeit more slowly than Kozue. She smiled as Kozue flexed her arm, which looked better than the last time Alaiana saw her. "All right sounds good to me, I'll do my best to keep up!"

Alaina moved to the ropes, facing outward. As soon as Kozue moved into place Alaina began a countdown. "3.... 2.... 1... Go!" Alaina began sprinting backwards as quickly as she could, doing all right for her standards but lagging behind her counterpart. She would try to catch up during pushups.... "So.... where are ya from?" Alaina asked, trying to engage in small talk as the drill ran its course.

"Hey, I am not complaining." Kozue gave Alaina a quick pat on the back as they made their way to the ropes. "Most of the Friction girls I've met are seriously spastic. 'Cheery' is a nice change of pace, way better than 'psychotic' and 'bitchy'."

Kozue took out a pin and rolled her hair up into a bun, so it wouldn't be constantly whipping her in the face while she ran. "And thanks for the pro-tip." She smirked as they moved into position. "We'll see how that pans out. Not putting up any bets."

She broke off on Alaina's mark and moved across the ring,  bouncing off the ropes and spinning around to keep her back moving ahead. It was a little awkward at first, but she started to fall into the rhythm after the first few bounces.

"New Jerusalem." She bit her tongue, remembering to ease off the slang. "Jersey, I'm from New Jersey. Hoboken." Kozue fell back and threw a roll into the mix, quickly popping back up and moving on. "You? Get a little west coast vibe from you, I'm close?"

Alaina was moving along better than she thought she would, having worked on her footwork recently. However, she was impresed by the speed and ease that Kozue moved.

"Haha yeah, you got it. I am a total Cali-girl. San Diego to be exact" Alaina said with a laugh. "How long have you been wrestling in and out of AFW? I hear that you Jersey chicks are a tough bunch, so I bet you have a good record huh?"

Deep down, Alaina hoped Kozue was as new to the sport as she was. She viewed herself as someone who had it in them to be a mentor or big sister type..... she just had a ton to learn first. For all she knew, Kozue would wind up teaching her a few things in the ring. Either way, the prospect of sparring with someone who had a different style than her was exciting. Alaina focused all she could on that, as it helped her forgot how tired this drill was starting to make her.

After the successful roll, Kozue was feeling bold. Just bold enough to try something a bit crazier. "Cali-Girl, called it." She did a back handspring at the right moment and bounced off the ropes halfway, fallling fast back to her feet, hopping into the air with the added momentum, and throwing out a hard straight right into the face of her poor, invisible opponent, taking care to give Alaina ample space. "Hung around LA for a month before I came out here." She stumbled with the landing, but managed to get the move mostly right.

"But that's what you heard, huh?" She moved back into a normal run, tossing in the back role every other lap. "Don't know about all that, sounds like something one of my girl's would say while she's mouthing off. Better than what people usually say about us, though."[/color] She huffed and cleared the hairs out of her face. "But I'm half and half without the tag-team win. Three losses, three wins. Not setting the world on fire, not as bad as some assholes like to think."

She let a little vitriol slip into that one, but it was just a flash, and she lightened up by the time she and Alaina were side by side again. "Started wrestling, what? A year ago, about. Close to it. She sighed at the thought of it. Felt so much shorter than it really was. "Just got into fights before that, learned to handle myself, nothing special. What about you, though? Same questions, back at you."[/color]

Alaina watched as Kozue performed a more complex maneuver than she could hope to. "Ha.... I'm at three wins and four losses right now. My boyfriend helps me out a lot though." Alaina said. Indeed she had made strides since she met him, but Junko was right that a love interest can only do so much professionally.

"I had my first match here in March, and wrestled for a year in a small time local promotion back home. I still have a ton to learn though." Alaina paused for a second. She figured that most people laughed at her first career or thought she was "soft" or lacked "killer instinct" because of it. "Before that, I spent a few years as a nurse and competed in a few fitness competitions. I guess I missed trying to be the best at something so here I am in Friction."