Stress Relief at the Dojo

'Yeah, I bet he does 'help you'.'

That was literally the first thing that jumped in Kozue's mind the moment Alaina mentioned Mamoru, and she was more than a little ashamed for even thinking it. Taming her tongue was definitely something she needed working on, but she was making gains. First step to solving a problem is admitting you have one, right?

"Nurse?" Kozue gave her a quick scan, then nodded. "Yeah, can see that. Got that sort of vibe on you, like you're the sort of person I'd really want taking care of me. Nice, nurturing, sweet, calm, smart."

She sped up a bit, getting a few paces ahead of Alaina, enough to make a ten-foot gap. "Let's throw clotheslines into it. I come at you with one,  you duck, you come at me with one, I duck" She did one more bounce, starting to get into the right position for the move. "So, why wrestling? Why here?"

Kozue bounced off the ropes, leaped up, and flew towards Alaina with a jumping clothesline. It was pretty well-telegraphed, almost impossible to miss. Just trying to get the feel for the moves, nothing too crazy.

"Nice!" Kozue gave Alaina a short round of applause as she ducked under the clothesline with expert skill and timing, the sort that had taken herself a few months to really get down and she still hadn't truly perfected. There was a gap between them and it was already starting to show. Not quite as bad as with the other wrestler they had to work with, but still noticeable.


"Lookatthisshit, lookatthisshit -" Kozue waited until the exact last second to duck under the clothesline, narrowly missing a blow that would've taken her head clean off, otherwise. "Ha!" Flawless.

Except for the way she stumbled after the rise, and she probably could have ducked a little sooner, being honest. But, aside from the flaws? Flawless.

"But I bet you do all right. 3-4's not a bad record. Sure as hell seen worse." She skipped ahead to gain a little speed, then bounced off the other side even faster than before. "What about your friend, how's she making it?"  She threw her arm out a little faster this time, giving Alaina some challenge. No point in soft-serving things.

Kozue winced as the clothesline went a little closer than she'd planned, so near to the target that she could feel Alaina's hairs tickle her arms...but she dodged it. Not the most natural move, but it wouldn't have looked any better if the roles were reversed. "See? That was gold. If you can dodge my shit, you can dodge anybody's."

She slowed the pace down for a moment, catching her breath and saving it for what she had in mind next. Something she Alaina said did catch her ear, though. "No kidding, Gnarly Charlie?" She added a quick springboard off the middle rope and landed beside Alaina. "Seen him wrestle a couple of times, your boy has good moves. Don't have nearly enough high-flyers in Tension. Plus, he doesn't seem like a raging asshole. Rare thing in the AFW."

Kozue liNed up as best she could with Alaina's stride and wiped her hand across her eyes, getting the sweat out. "Okay, you and me, straight run, hard as we can for one minute." She started to lean forward, imagining Junko's whistle keeping time and ignoring the growing burn in her feet. A few weeks ago, she would have been hitting pause and going for water at this point. Now, she just wanted to go harder. Things were changing. "Count of three. One, two, three"

She took off in a full sprint, moving as fast and hard as she could without tripping over herself, bouncing off the ropes like a giant slingshot. It was a hard drive, but it felt worthwhile, the sort of pushing she was learning to love more and more the longer she stayed in the dojo. Every day she could just a little more.

Kozue went at it on full speed, bouncing from one side of the ring to the other while she stormed across the mat. She wasn't the strongest or the toughest - though she was working on those - but at least she could always count on her feet, and she was getting that much better at it. A little harder, everyday. Incremental steps forward.

She focused on the sprinting, not really noticing Alaina until they'd come out of it and were starting to cool down. It took her almost half a minute of heavy breathing before she could put words together well enough to form a complete sentence. "That was a..." She ran her forearm along her face and wiped off a wave of sweat. "Good one, that was a good one. One sec."

She dropped down and rolled out of the ring, absorbing the last thing Alaina had said while she made her way to the gym bag. Talia. Talia. Talia. Not exactly a common name, and Kozue could have sworn she'd heard it somewhere in the AFW before. She couldn't put it together for the life of her, but it was so damn familiar, and she felt it was kind of important, too. For whatever odd-ass reason.

"Heads up." She tossed a water bottle Alaina's way and took her own out of the bag right after, gulping it down while she made her way back to the ring."Eh. Already in a love-triangle sort of thing, so Talia doesn't have a thing to worry about on my end. I'm not trying to make it a square. Or a pentagon, guess that'd be closer."

Kozue grabbed the bottom rope and started to pull her way in. "You ever think about joining him on my side, though? Maybe do the team thing? Tension needs more female muscle, you've got some to spare, good fit."

Kozue's plan had been to move on to the clocks after the sprints, but Alaina did make a good point - they were both drained, running closer to empty than she would have liked going into a spar. Better to save the energy for the ring and spend it in there, where they could learn more about their styles firsthand. If they had anything left after they were done, they could find some way to drain it out, too.

Though, Kozue seriously doubted she'd have all that much left. She had the speed and the agility, but Alaina had everything else. Not looking too good.

"Yeah, I've seen Tomko. Kind of hard not to see Tomko." She dropped down and rolled out of the ring, then took a few quick skips to the equipment rack. She ran her hands over the top until she found a dark blue sparring helmet that was just the right size for her peanut head. "There we go."

Kozue stepped back and started to tuck her hair into the helmet, trying to get a tight fit. "I can do whatever, really, don't have a match for a couple of weeks. I guess..." She snapped the strap in place and gave her head a few slaps, testing it out. Wrapped up, nice and tight. "Guess we can go for the two-count, that sounds good. Nothing too crazy, but no kid gloves, either. All right?"