New Champion! New Challenger! [For Daaharu]

Tsukasa's music appeared on the arena's speakers as the new Kawaii Champion appeared on stage. The title was wrapped around her waist as she raised her arms to the crowd. Tsukasa felt amazing to have that strap of championship gold around her waist as she was basking in her victory. She was so happy about having the belt in her possession that she decided to really show it off by unhooking it from her waist and raising it above her head with both hands. The belt made her feel that she didn't waste her time in the League and validated all that she did along the way. Smiling silly to herself she made her way up the stairs and walked into the ring, continuing to show off the Kawaii belt to the fans before finally grabbing a microphone.

"Hi guys! I can't tell you how great it is to stand in front of you with this!" she said as she rose the belt one more time for good measure. "It's been a while since you guys seen this right? It's a shame because I really like seeing this belt...though not as much as seeing it on my shoulder!" she joked, "But that's not the reason I came out here, to brag about having the title, I'm here to tell you guys that you're going to be seeing a lot more of the Kawaii Championship, because I'm out to prove that I'm not a fluke! I'm here to issue an open challenge to any Kawaii back there who thinks that they can take this belt away from me!" Tsukasa shouted, feeling pretty confident about herself as Kawaii Champion.

But she didn't know, was the person who was coming out was...

The challenge was made, and the audience replied to Tsukasa's declaration approvingly, cheering loudly and applauding as the lights in the arena all went up, making the belt that the kawaii champion was holding up really shine. It was definitely a prize worth fighting for—and Tsukasa's challenge did not go unheard backstage. Several kawaii girls who happened to be in the AFW arena that night heard the call, but only one could accept the challenge. There were a few quick kerfuffles and arguments over who was going to present herself for the fight first.

But there was only one girl who could say, without a doubt, that she had earned, through her superior fight record, a chance at the title—or, rather, a second chance at the title. And more than that, she had history with the champion. Their first match had ended decisively, but it left them both wanting another shot at the other. It was time, now. The kawaii title had spent far too long in the darkness. It was time to bring the Kawaii League back to center stage in the AFW world.

A new song started, and the spotlights would re-center at the top of the ramp. When Claire St. Clair appeared at the top of the ramp, looking casual but determined in a pink T-shirt and a pair of jeans shorts, her arms crossed over her chest, the crowd responded loudly. They still remembered her kawaii title match against Kagami over a year ago, and some of them might have even remembered the match she and Tsukasa had several months before that. Claire was a veteran of the kawaii scene, like few other girls were, and she was confident that there was no one better qualified for this title shot than she was. Her first title fight had been marred by interference and questionable tactics. She might have still been frustrated with Tsukasa after their first fight, when tempers had flared, but she was sure that the girl would, at the very least, fight fair.

Claire marched purposefully down the ramp towards the ring, keeping her eyes on the title belt. She would slide in under the bottom rope and then pop back up onto her feet, and her eyes would meet Tsukasa's. Claire paused for several seconds, looking at the girl whom she had not met in this ring for a long time.

"I could hand you my resumé to look over, but I think you're already aware of what I can do," Claire would say, her voice calm and even. She had been in a title match situation before. "There's no other kawaii who's as qualified as me to hold that belt...and that includes you. Congratulations on winning it...but I don't plan to let you keep it for very long." She would smile, her eyes glancing up to the golden belt once more.

Tsukasa waited to see who would step to the plate and try and take her newly won championship from her. She knew that there was a lot of hungry girls who would love to add their name to the list of Kawaii Champions, but they had to go through Tsukasa to make that happen. Curiosity continue to build within Tsukasa as she wondered just which one of those girls was going to step through the curtain, was it going to be a face she already knew? Or was it going to be one she's never seen before?

Her question was answered as she heard a familiar song that she hasn't heard for a long while as Claire appeared on stage. She remembered their past encounter where she was very upset at losing their Sumo Panties match and had an altercation backstage which brought up some bad memories. However as Champion, she felt that she had to be the bigger girl and take that loss in stride, after all she was the one with the belt.

When Claire entered the ring, the two of them stared at each other as Tsukasa wasn't going to back down from her old opponent or give her any reason to think that she was just going to let her take the title from her as she could see it in her eyes, how she looked at the belt and felt that it should be her's. The staredown was getting to Tsukasa as she never felt the kind of pressure that she was feeling now with the title hanging in the balance as Claire spoke.

"Tough words Claire, but I hope you're not thinking that you can beat me like you did before, I'm a different girl now. A girl who has this championship belt." she said again, once again bragging about the belt as she pointed to it on her shoulder. "So since I laid down the challenge, I'll let you think of the match we should fight in, name any situation because unlike last time, I'm not going to lose." she declared, she really wanted to avenge her previous loss to Claire due to how Claire left her to run to the back in nothing but her birthday suit.

Claire couldn't help but feel awkward staring Tsukasa down like this. The last time they had seen each other they had parted on anything but cordial terms, and it was really tempting to Claire to still be angry at Tsukasa, to get mad at her for the poor attitude she had put on display during their Sumo Panties match.

But that was over a year ago. Claire was not the sort of girl to hold a grudge. More than that, she was a very reasonable, intelligent, understanding person. She recognized that there could have been a lot of reasons for Tsukasa behaving the way she did back then. She even conceded that she herself might have been partially to blame, as well. Ultimately, she was going to give the new kawaii champion the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they weren't going to be friends, but they could at least respect each other. She tried to convey that as she made her challenge.

Tsukasa responded confidently, but Claire knew she had to be feeling the pressure. Claire was feeling it, too. She hadn't managed to win that belt the first time she had a shot. She would not get another chance if she failed again. "It's not like you're the only one who's changed. I've changed, too. I've kept up with you. I can still beat you, and I will. I want there to be no doubt which of us is better by the time we're finished."

Tsukasa narrowed her eyes, she had calmed down about the loss to Claire pretty quickly, though it was her attitude that was really irking her off. Still, she feel quite confident regardless of her previous loss and despite her new challenger's arrogance that she could beat her no matter the match.

"Beat me? If I remember correctly, you lost your first try at this belt. I didn't." she retorted as she tried to present herself as the better competitor out of the two and also to let loose some of the passive aggression she had. "You had one victory over me, and it was a fluke victory at that! You flaunt that victory over me, but it was over a year ago! If you think that things will turn out for the same, with a fluke victory, then you're more stubborn than I thought!" she really let loose on Claire.

"But! Since you seem so confident, I'll say it again, name any type of match! With any kind of stipulation! I'll beat you this time and prove that you only have luck on your side and that won't save you this time!"

"And do you remember how I lost my first title match? Or did you not pay attention that far?" Claire would ask, understandably a little frustrated when Tsukasa brought up her title match against Kagami. Claire accepted it for what it was, but what it was was far from a fair, clean loss. "Interference. Some girl ran out in the middle of the match and caused a scene. Kagami attacked me while I had my guard down. She cheated. I would have won if she hadn't," Claire explained, making sure that Tsukasa understood what had happened perfectly well.

Tsukasa seemed to have trouble with that sort of thing, in Claire's eyes, because now she launched into some tirade about how Claire's victory over her had been a fluke. Claire snorted and rolled her eyes as Tsukasa accused her of being lucky and nothing more. It was frail, pathetic reasoning, serving only to make Tsukasa feel better. But it was managing to annoy Claire on top of that. "Come on, don't make yourself look bad, here. You know that I won that match because I was better," Claire would say.

"Besides, once I beat you this time, you'll just say it was a fluke, too. I don't want to have to deal with those sorts of complaints from you," Claire would explain, putting her hands on her hips as she stepped close to Tsukasa, still staring her down. The two of them were right in front of each other now. Claire would smile. "I think there's one way to prove to you just how small a role luck played in my victory. We fight not just one match, but a whole series. You'll have no grounds to complain once I've beaten you three straight times."

Claire would pause for a second, and then continue: "So, unless you're afraid, I challenge you to a best-of-five series. First of us to win three times is the champion. I'll even let you pick two of the matches—you won't be winning even one, anyway."

Tsukasa saw that she hit a sore spot of Claire when she saw how defensive she got, understandable as it was as Tsukasa would feel the same way Claire did if someone cost her the opportunity to hold the Championship. But that wasn't the case as it was still on her shoulder. She wanted to bring up the topic of cheating with Claire, as she felt that's how she lost to her despite what everyone thought about it but she didn't want to make too big of a scene just yet. However a scene is what was playing out with what Claire had offered to do, a best of five series.

"Best of Five series? And I'm going to lose three straight? Not only are you lucky, but apparently you're delusional as well!" Tsukasa shouted, baffled at her first challenger's craziness that she could beat her three straight in a row. "Fine, I'll take you on! Best of Five series it is!" she wasn't going to back down from Claire and not from a challenge like that. She never heard of a championship being defended in anything like a Best of Five series, it was definitely going to set her apart from other champions when she won against Claire.

"You're going to see that luck had a lot to do with your win over me, because when you step against me, the Champion Tsukasa, you're going to realize that you need second and third chances at beating me!" Tsukasa boasted, very confident in her abilities to win over Claire in their challenge. "Now then, my matches that I'm going to set, I say that we should do....a Wild Tea Party Match and since I'm champion, I'm going to pick our last match, if you make it that far, a Irongirl Bed Wrestling match!"

Smirking at Claire as she walked up to her challenger, she was very confident that even if she was beaten by Claire in two of those matches, she was going to win at Bed Wrestling since it was the match she won the title in. "Now go ahead, pick your three matches. Anything you want, and I'll beat you in them!"

"Of course you're going to lose three straight. I don't plan on losing to you, not even once," Claire would explain, very matter-of-factly, as Tsukasa insulted her and bragged about how there was no way she was going to lose to Claire. "You're good, but I'm better. I've already beaten you once, and no matter what you say, everyone—you, me, and all the fans—know that it wasn't a fluke." She put her hands on her hips and stood as tall as she could, trying to look as strong as possible, though it was sort of difficult to do with her little kawaii frame.

It was going to be grueling, even if Claire swept Tsukasa in three matches as she intended to do. Fighting that many matches against the same opponent in a somewhat limited time frame would exhaust anyone. Claire knew that when she made the challenge. But she wanted that championship belt, and, if this was the way to put Tsukasa in her place, then so be it!

Claire waited and held her confident position as Tsukasa chose two of their five matches and took a few steps closer to her. When it was Claire's turn to talk, she would lay out all the rules that they needed for this championship series. "First off, to make sure that there's no possibility of cheating, all of the matches will take place in private arenas. Second, I think that the winner should get to give the loser...a little punishment after each match." She smiled and glanced Tsukasa over.

"As for my three matches, I want to beat you in all sorts of different ways, to leave no doubt that I am better. I want to start off with a spanking match. For my next choice...a hogtie match. And for my third choice, let's do a pins match. We'll have a list of pins, and the winner needs to pin the loser in every one of those different ways to win."

Tsukasa brows furrowed at Claire's proclamation that she was going to beat her in a three straight win, but even with her anger building she kept her cool as she didn't want to create an unsightly image of herself as Champion. "Talk all you want, you can boast about how great you are, how you beaten me once but when we start our series you'll realize that you're in over your head." Tsukasa counter proclaimed as she matched Claire's posture, showing that she was not backing down from her challenger and trying to seem as tough as she could with her kawaii body.

Although the thought of wrestling at maximum of five matches wasn't her main one, Tsukasa knew that in the back of her head that she was going to have to pour everything she could into the series if she wanted to keep her title, no matter how much she knew that she was going to beat Claire. When Claire laid out the other matches, Tsukasa saw that it was definitely going to be an interesting series with the different matches and how they were going to be in private arenas...they also came with penalties which Tsukasa was all to eager to accept with the thought of making Claire suffer through them. "Fine, you have a deal! No matter what match you think you're going to win in, I'm going to show you why this Championship is going to stay around my waist."

With all of her boasting and proclamation, Tsukasa was ready to show why this belt was hers as she stuck out her hand for a handshake to make it official. "May the best girl win....and I plan too." she shot in as she waited for Claire to shake her hand. But even as much as she wanted to hide her aggression towards Claire, she couldn't help but try and squeeze Claire's hand as hard as she could to 'vent' some of it out of her.

"I'm not boasting about how great I am," Claire would say, correcting the champion. Claire was not going to be seen as some big-headed, self-important blowhard. "Don't make it sound like I came out here swaggering like some old-time gangster. I'm here for one very specific reason, to win that title. Everyone can make their own judgments as to just how good I really am, but the one thing they will know for sure is that I am better than you." As Tsukasa mirrored Claire's pose, Claire would try to stand a little straighter, and make herself just a little taller, as they tried to intimidate each other.

It was going to be an interesting series, if nothing else, and, judging by the first match the two kawaii girls fought against each other, a long, difficult one. Even if Claire won three straight, as she intended to, she knew that she was going to be exhausted by the end of the war. But it would be sweet to force those penalties on Tsukasa. Claire already had several good ideas for them. "Great. It's a deal, then," Claire would say, smiling.

When Tsukasa offered the handshake, Claire would accept it, grabbing the champion's hand and shaking it twice up and down. She would hold on after that, though, squeezing harder, and feeling Tsukasa trying to squeeze her hand harder in return. "Heh...you should go out and enjoy your time as champion while it lasts, Tsukasa," Claire would reply.