Head Games

Kozue stood in front of a generic looking door, which lead to what would likely be a generic looking, sitting smack dab in the middle of AFW headquarters...in Tokyo. Tokyo, which was a very boring train ride away from Kyoto, where she lived and ate and wrestled and did everything. But not this - no, her yearly required psych evaluation just had to take place at the main office. They couldn’t do this somewhere else, they couldn’t handle it over the phone, she could just fill out a questionnaire and be done with it like with most companies that didn’t give a shit. Nope. In person. Had to be live. So that was a pain in the ass.

The email she’d gotten told her to come in formal wear, but Kozue only had one outfit like that, a little number she busted out to see Melissa Sellers. This wasn’t as important as that, regardless of what the note said. For this, she was wearing her usual attire: sandals, some tight, hip-hugging denim shorts, and a black t-shirt with the snickering Duck Hunt dog on the front. Her hair was tied up in her typical ponytail, and it bobbed back and forth as she swayed in front of the door. Still not going in. Not just yet.

She looked at the door with a flat expression, broken only when she checked the time. Ten minutes until her appointment. Still enough time to, say, call in and say she was too sick, or say she got on the wrong train, or she got attacked by some idiot in a mask, or any of the near-infinite number of believable excuses made available thanks to her job. She could put it off forever, really. If they didn’t fire King for being King, they wouldn’t fire her for not seeing a head doctor.

She took a step back, then another, and was about to take a third when a nagging little thought hit her head: maybe, just maybe, this could be a good thing. It hadn’t exactly been a banner year for her, thanks to the likes of Black Dragon and Kent Quick fucking everything up. She didn’t really have anyone to talk to these days: Jackie left Japan, Alaina and Julia were hip deep in the title hunt. Nathan and Amy were cool, but she didn't know them well enough to get all that deep, and she was just not in the mood to rap with Johnny and risk setting off another drama mime. Having someone who had to listen to her and keep things confidential had its appeal. Would an hour of her time talking to a woman she didn’t know be the worst use of her time?

”Fuck it.” Kozue took out a coin, called heads on leaving, flipped it up, caught it, and…  ”Tails.” Long, deep sigh. ”’Kay, then.”

She opened the door and stepped inside of an office that was even more generic than she'd imagined. The walls were a light beige, as close to white as you could get without actually being white. The three chairs were all brown, wooden, and uniform, likely bought by someone who was given some money, sent to a store, and got the first thing he saw, because he couldn’t care less about the chairs matching a room he’d never be in. To top it all off, the speaker system was playing a stale jazz rendition of Andre 3000’s Hey Ya.

Kozue almost walked back out on the spot, but she steeled herself and closed the door behind her. She muttered as she crossed the room, signed in on a desk with the fakest plant she’d ever seen on it, took a chair, popped in her headphones, and started playing Angry Birds.

The rather bored looking secretary only spared Kozue a glance as she signed in and sat down, only pausing her endeavor into her juicy josei light novel long enough for Kozue to know that she knew that Kozue even existed.

She flipped a page and continued reading until finally there was a small buzzing from her desk. She picked it up and spoke a bit of Japanese into it before she set down the phone and looked up at Kozue.

<Dr. Weydman will see you now, Ms. Kaburagi.> She said dryly and went back to her light novel.

Inside, Femie yawned and leaned back in her chair. She loved what she did, but these psyche evaluations took their toll on her. Hardly anyone was there to actually get some HELP, they just wanted her to put a stamp on a file so they could continue getting beat senseless. As hot as it was, Femie still wished these girls that came through at least had the sense to keep as mentally fit as they did physically.

While she waited for Kozue, she took a moment to fluff her poodle like poofs of hair and check her make up. Even as a professional, she still had to look good!. She smoothed her hand down her skirt, and tugged at her thick turtleneck sweater. She was ready for business!

"Kozue Kaburagi..." She mused to herself, looking over the file while she waited. "That's a very eastern name for someone from New Jersey, ohoho." She chuckled to herself. "Mon dieu, she hasn't been very busy this year either... c'est dommage!"

Kozue had done it again. She'd gotten absorbed.

She'd play a game, and get so into it, so focused, so honed that the entire world didn't matter. As she sat there with the phone in hand and the earphones blasting away, she got tuned out. All that mattered was knocking off that stupid pig from that stupid tower...

"Huhwhat?" She jumped up at the sound of her name, barely hearing it over the sound of squealing pigs. <"Right, right."> She tucked the phone away and stood up quick, shuffling over to the door with a wasted wave at the secretary. <"Wish me luck.">

Kozue knocked on the door - she wasn't sure why - and opened it, nice and slow. She poked her head in, centering on the woman in the chair, and the rest of her body followed a moment later. <"Hey. You speak English, right?">

Femie lifted her head as her door cracked open and Kozue poked her head into it. She smiled warmly at the girl's Japanese and chuckled. "Ohoho, well, my Japanese still needs work, do you speak English? I see you're from the United States, so I hope so! Unless you know French! Ohoho!"

Femie stood up once she finished her soft chortle and slipped around to Kozue. She extended her hand and kept her inviting smile on. "Kozue Kaburagi? Pleasure to meet you. I'm Dr. Weydman, but you can call me Femie. I like to keep things as casual as I can."

She turned and motioned to the couch near her desk. "Please, have a seat and get comfortable. I have some refreshments, if you'd like. Coffee, tea, water, juice!" She said as she slipped over to a small serving tray and poured herself a cup of tea.

Kozue knew that this side of the AFW was known for some colorful personalities, but she thought that was only as far as the wrestlers went. Turned out, that wasn't the case. Femie was...well, she wasn't the typical sort of woman. Aside from being the first and only person she'd ever seen in real life with a monocle, she didn't have the body you'd expect on someone who spent most of their day in a chair. Great figure, and judging from the make-up and the way her hair was done, she realized it. She reminded Kozue of Velma, only with Daphne's body.

...shit. She was staring, wasn't she? Kozue had been staring at Femie for an awkward moment after she came in. She snapped back to reality, played it off with a cough, and made her way over to the couch. She tried to get a little energy in her voice, but it was hard to hide the disinterest. "Yeah, I took French, once." And failed it. "English is good, though."

Kozue plopped down, then wiggled her butt around in the chair and settled in. If she had to be in here, she'd get as much enjoyment out of the experience as possible. "Tea's fine, thanks." She leaned back in the chair and scanned around the room, only breaking away to give Femie a slight glance. "Your hair's awesome, by the way."

Just a little compliment, no harm. It really did look like she'd put some work in it.

"Oh, well, it's mostly what I grew up on." Femie said with a small shrug. "But I do like English, so it's fine." She began to pour some tea for Kozue as she asked for it, then Belgian then flashed Kozue a bright smile. "Oh, merci beaucoup! It is tres chic, for sure!" She said and gave her one of her puffs a little fluff and gave Kozue her tea cup. "You do not want to know how long it takes to make me this good looking..." She said. "But, I will tell you, it's not very long at all! Being this lovely comes quite natural, ohoho!" She chortled, loving to be quite egotistical in a playful way.

She then sat down and opened a folder. "But, as much as I'd love to keep talking about myself, we're here to talk about you, non?" She winked at Kozue and ran her finger down a piece of paper on the file. "Kozue Kaburagi, oui? Ninjette in the ring? Tres adorable, and quite coquettish without being lewd. Plus, your accessories are magnifique! You've really committed to the theme. Well, it's a shame that you did not come here for a fashion critique!"

Femie looked over Ninjette and folded her hands on the desk. "So, tell me, are you interested in trying to get me to stamp your file as quickly as possible or do you have something you would actually like evaluated? I am not interested in wasting either of our time, if I am to be frank. However, I don't like to be derelict in my duties either. So, why don't you help me help you, Kozue?" Femie nodded in approval of her own words and took a sip from her teacup, keeping an eye on Kozue as she did.

Kozue took the tea with a gracious nod. "Merci." After using up exactly 1/10 of the French she remembered, she couldn't help but get a soft smile as Femie lit up the room. It wasn't entirely voluntary, either. She was trying to keep her look cool and distant, but this woman had this refreshing energy about her. She just seemed so happy and excited and full of life. It was infectuous.

"I got no idea what 'coquettish' means, but I'll take the compliment. Appreciated." She took a quick sip of the tea and let the raspberry flavor dance on her tongue while Femie laid everything out. She was a playful kind of woman, but she didn't bullshit too much. Kozue liked that.

"Well..." She bit her lip and drummed her fingers on the side of the cup while considered the head doctor's words. She was being given a free pass out, but it wasn't like she had anything big planned today. Workout, maybe catch a movie, that was it. Even though she'd just met Femie, she seemed like a fun little lady. A far cry from the company robot she'd been expecting. Kozue did have some skeletons in her closet, maybe they could clean them out. Why not go for it?

"Know what? Let's spin the wheel and see what happens. I'm down for it." She brought her legs up and laid longways on the couch, like people always did with therapists in the movies. "How do we start this off? Anything you want me to hit on first, or should I just, you know, freestyle?"

"Ohoho, indeed!" Femie chortled and sipped her tea as well. She closed the file she was looking at and pulled out a small recording device and a pad of paper. She adjusted her monocle and then turned on the tape recorder and set it on her desk. "This will help with my evaluation, should there be any further sessions." She explained.

"As far as the topics go, nothing is off limits here and everything is confidential. Feel free to be as bold as you like, or, just get whatever's stressing you out currently off your chest. Sometimes just having someone who will listen does wonders for a person's mental health." Femie continued. "Maybe we should dip our toes in and wade in inch by inch for now." She suggested. "You haven't been very active this year, why's that?"

It took Kozue legitimate effort not to laugh everytime Femie did her little chortle. It was the absolute silliest noise she'd ever heard. "You want bold, I can do bold." She gave the Belgian Beauty a thumbs up.

Her expression soured at the end, though, as her smile finally faded into sullen grimace. She had a feeling that might come up. "Shit happened." She sighed, realizing Femie would need a bit more than that. "First part of the year, I got wrapped up in some heat with King and his harem, and that wound up being a clusterfuck. Then, I got in a fight with this asshole - a straight up fight, not a match. It got brutal, didn't end well for me. I mean, I wasn't exactly setting the world on fire before that, okay, sure, fine. But that took some life out of me for a couple of months. Trying to get my groove back."

"Well, merde IS a part of life." Femie mused once Kozue was finished. "But, Killer King... I could spend a lifetime on that brute of a man... and... some extracurricular activity. Well, I see..." She said and began scribbling on her notepad.

"You seem in good physical health, but maybe the injuries you suffered were mental. Most people can't even tell when they've sustained a mental injury, you know? And the healing process is just as important as it is when we're treating a wound or a broken bone. Unfortunately, the diagnosis isn't always as easy for mental injuries." Femie frowned.

"Well, Kozue, even though you're in good shape and have a very nice body, you are of average height and quite svelte. What made you decide to choose Tension? Were you unaware of the competition, or were you aware of the competition?" She questioned, raising an eyebrow as she took a sip of tea.