Mutual Intrigue

Ah, there it was.

When Akino was getting to meet new people, one of three specific questions always came up sooner or later. “What’s with the eyepatch?”, “Is your hair really blue?”, and the one Alicia just asked. Not that Akino minded. But in the back of her mind, she’d wondered how long it would be until she heard one of those.

“No big reason,” she replied with a shrug. “When I was first getting into it, I tried training with a bunch of different outfits. Then one day I was wearing a dress when it was time to train, but didn’t feel like changing. I just sucked it up and went through it as I was, and it felt more comfortable than anything else I’d tried.”

Right about then, the waitress was returning with a pair of cups and a pot of coffee. Akino paused to let her pour both cups, and reached out to the side to grab a small packet of sugar from a little container, then tore it open and poured it into her coffee while the waitress walked off again.

After taking a quick sip of her coffee, she resumed. “Ever since then, that’s just how I’ve preferred to wrestle. Besides, I do look awesome in it,” she said, grinning slightly at the redhead.

Adding sugar to her own coffee, Alicia listened to Akino’s explanation with a thoughtful look.

Well that answered half of her question, now that she thought about it. It didn’t really explain how the ‘dress’ had ended up being a maid’s outfit. Unless Akino had been wearing a maid’s outfit for training but then that begged the question of why she’d been wearing a maid’s outfit.

Alicia didn’t subscribe to the idea that it was none of her business but she was not that bothered if she was honest. At the end of the day, Akino could wear whatever she liked and it wasn’t as if the blue-haired wrestler couldn’t kick some major ass dressed like that. It just wasn’t what most wrestlers would wear, and it definitely wasn’t what Alicia would wear.

So she’d been curious. Or perhaps nosy, depending on how you looked at it.

Still, she grinned back, raising her cup in a toast.

”That you do, but I think I’ll stick to shorts and sports bra for my matches.”

It might be boring but it was practical and, most of the time, that was all Alicia cared about. The way AFW seemed to operate, she was probably going to end up in a costume for some weird style of match or other, but she could at least put it off for a little while.

Akino chuckled a bit at Alicia’s comment. Not that there was anything wrong in the slightest with the redhead’s choice of combat apparel. It was practical, professional, not to mention she looked great in it.

But for a brief moment Akino couldn’t help but imagine the girl wearing a maid’s dress during a match. She didn’t doubt for a moment that Alicia could make it work. It would just be such a profoundly different sight in comparison.

“Maybe that’s for the best. You seem to be doing quite well with that,” she replied.

It was only seconds later that the waitress returned with the burgers and set them down in front of the two ladies. Rather than immediately dig in, Akino took a moment to glance it over. “I know these aren’t exactly western-exclusive, but it’s been quite a while since I’ve had one of these.”

A few months ago to be a bit more precise. Eager to remind herself of the taste, she picked the burger up and took a bite out of it. “Hmm... Delicious,” she decided after swallowing. “What do you think? Does it taste the same as what they serve where you’re from?” Akino asked Alicia, looking curiously at the redhead while awaiting the verdict.

”It’s what I’m used to,” Alicia agreed, taking a sip of coffee and deciding it wasn’t bad. Not bad at all. ”I’ve got to say, coming from where I do, fighting all of the people here who fight in stuff like that takes some getting used to.”

She shook her head.

”Not complaining, just… it’s different. The theatrics…”

Whatever Alicia might have said was interrupted by the waitress with the burgers and she fell into a thoughtful silence as she inspected the offered food once it was placed in front of her. It looked about right, though the proof would be in the eating. Taking a chip, she wolfed it down as Akino talked about it being a while since she’d had one.

The redhead nodded in agreement, eating another chip and watching Akino take her first bite before she picked up her own and followed suit. Thoughtfully, she chewed her mouthful, swallowed and – after a pause for thought – nodded.

”It’s good,” Alicia took another bite, ”Definitely good. Not the same exactly though. Don’t ask me to explain how but it’s different.”

It was probably to do with the ingredients, she thought. That said, Alicia was hungry enough at this point that, so long as it tasted vaguely like a burger, she’d have eaten it anyway. A third bite followed, before she turned her eyes back to Akino.

”Seeing as I’m asking questions, how’d you come up with your… Kumonosu, right? Didn’t see that one much back home.”

As Alicia spoke Akino nodded along, digesting the information. The ruling on the burger didn’t really surprise her, considering it was highly unlikely to taste the same here as it would’ve if made in a country halfway across the world. She was curious as to what exactly the differences were, but unfortunately the opportunity to ask about it closed before the blue haired maiden could even open her lips to do so.

That was fine. They were pro wrestlers, not food connoisseurs. And for someone as fit as Alicia to be able to go into great detail about comparisons between cheeseburgers in different countries, that might’ve almost been strange.

Akino ate a few more bites of her own burger, listened as Alicia asked about her unusual hold she liked to use. After pausing to swallow the mouthful of food and wiping her mouth with her napkin immediately after, she answered.

With a small smile, she put her burger down for a moment and held up a single index finger. “It was in my first wrestling match. Some girl in Korea. She was just starting out too, I think. Obviously didn’t have much training.” Of the handful of matches she’d competed in before signing with AFW, Akino could distinctly remember this one being the easiest of her career, despite being her debut to the sport.

“At the end I had her in a standing headscissor. She punched and punched at my legs, but couldn’t budge them. In a last ditch effort, she tried to stand up and flip me over her. I just folded my legs up around her neck, grabbed her arms for a bit of extra support, and kept squeezing while I hang upside down on her.”

A small grin tugged at Akino’s lips.

“She used the last of her breath to scream out her submission, but passed out before I even finished untangling my legs from around her neck... Is it wrong that I find that amusing?”

When someone like Akino or Alicia herself talked about an opponent not having much training, Alicia’s mind at least tended to read that as ‘squash match’ even though she hadn’t seen the match in question. Actually, she found that kind of funny. Her first wrestling match had been a squash match too, albeit Akino didn’t seem to feel quite so grumpy about facing a pathetic opponent as the big redhead still did.

She was going to have to find this one, she could tell. Listening to Akino explain how she’d come to the hold just reinforced that opinion, as well as adding to her appreciation for the other’s skill. Anyone, almost anyone could learn a hold by rote training. Good fighters could learn moves as they went along, from opponents or whatever. It took a damn good fighter to make one up, which is what Akino seemed to have done.

Ok, it was just a figure four headscissors but it had that special twist to it that made it unique. The bodyweight hanging off the neck, the trapped hands… The one flaw Alicia could see in it was the possibility for the victim to just throw themselves backwards and try and crush Akino under them.

But the bluenette wrestler wasn’t slow and it wouldn’t be hard to either get out of the way or turn that into a reverse… hurricanrana she thought it was called.

Seriously impressive stuff.

”Probably,” Alicia allowed in answer to the question, before an answering grin pulled at the corners of her own mouth, ”But it is kind of funny. Though I’m guessing you’ve improved it since – the two dark matches I saw you win with it, they didn’t even get a chance to scream.”

Still grinning, she took another mouthful of her burger, following up with a gulp of coffee to wash it down.

Alicia was certainly right. The bluenette had indeed practiced that move quite a bit since then. While it was already deadly enough to begin with, now it was something she had a lot more control over. If she wanted her opponents awake long enough to squeak out a submission, that was easy enough to make happen. But Akino just giggled and gave a modest shrug of her shoulders in response.

“I do my best. Some last longer than others.”

Her mind then shifted more to the woman sitting across from her. For a while now they’d discussed Akino’s signature hold, but Alicia was no slouch when it came to this kind of thing either. They’d briefly talked about it, but Akino was curious to learn a bit more about the redhead.

A shoe reached out and gave Alicia a light tap against one of her powerful legs. “I imagine you’ve probably choked your fair share of people out with your legs too, haven’t you? Just judging from what I’ve seen of you, I’d be rather surprised if that wasn’t the case really.”

”Don’t I know it,” The redhead shook her head, amused at the thought. Sometimes, they tapped right away. The smart ones did. Sometimes, they hung on and had to be stretchered out. Most were somewhere in the middle. But, for her, it was always on the mat. In easy reach for a tap on the canvas or – and this was Alicia’s preference – her legs.

Akino’s hold had them in mid-air, voice cut off, probably panicking until it was too late… Yes, she’d bet some lasted longer than others.

Still half chuckling, she bit into her burger again only to look up with raised eyebrows as she felt the tap of Akino’s shoe against her calf.

Ah, ok. Her turn to tell stories. Well, that was fair enough.

”Some,” Alicia agreed with a grin, ”Mostly, I go for the body. It’s kind of tough to get these big babies tight around the neck, so I can’t really get the carotids like you can. If I go for the head, usually it’s the pain that gets them, not the KO.”

She shrugged, took a sip of her coffee. She could brag about all the people, boys, girls, men and women that she’d made tap with her headscissors but… Well, why bother? Akino could probably guess. Had guessed, actually.

”If I want them out, I go for the triangle. That works pretty well. Or I’ve been working on a neat trick with the bodyscissors. Or I just kick their heads off. That one’s been working for years.”

Akino nodded and listened intently as Alicia spoke. It made sense that legs like hers might have a hard time choking people out. Though clearly, and not surprisingly, the redhead seemed to have no trouble getting around that minor obstacle.

Although, one of the ways Alicia mention did surprise Akino somewhat.

“Wait, you mean you’ve knocked people out with bodyscissors?” she asked. It wasn’t a concept that seemed out of the realm of possibility, but it was certainly something Akino had never seen before. She was quite curious to hear the story behind it.

Midway through a mouthful of burger, Alicia nodded in response, quickly swallowing so she could give Akino a fuller answer.

”Oh yeah. Knocked one guy out and got Kyoko Akan – calls herself the Belly Queen – to tap to it in a sparring session. I got the idea from big snakes, actually.”

Something told her that the other wrestler would probably be looking for a longer explanation than that though, so the redhead was going to oblige.

”It’s probably easier to show you sometime,” She began, ”And it’s fun on guys who think their abs are made of iron or something. Basically, you get your legs around them, and start squeezing a little. They’ve got to breathe eventually, so then you tighten up when their abs soften. And then just keep the pressure up so they can’t breathe in as much. Keep doing that every time they breathe.”

She paused to give Akino an evil grin.

”Keep it up long enough, they’ll go out like a light. I’m not exactly sure how it works, it keeps the lungs from inflating or the diaphragm from working – ask a doctor. But if you can do that to someone, I don’t care how good their abs are. They will go out. The only problem is keeping the scissors on long enough. That lactic acid buildup can be a real bitch.”

Alicia shrugged.

”If you try it, let me know how it goes. I’ve not done it in a real match yet but I definitely want to.”

Actually, she was thinking of using it on Valley next time around. The blonde might not be one of the ‘abs of steel’ crowd who liked to think their bellies were scissorproof, but it’d do a lot to take those acrobatics off the table if Valley couldn’t breathe.