A Picture Worth A Thousand Words

“Ngh…” Kishima groaned as she tried to shake off the cobwebs in her head. That kick had really rattled her brain. The room seemed to be slowly spinning for a few moments. And by the time she was starting to see things clearly again, it was too late. Risako was already coming at her again.

Kishima rolled onto her back and started to push herself up, but that effort was quickly put down as Risako sat herself down on the Bomber’s toned abs, pinning her in place. She tried to put up her arms up in a guard, only for a fist to suddenly swing right through and blast her in the face!

“Ugh!” she cried out at the hit. “Get—“ *SMACK* Another landed.

“…off me!” *BANG* Another punch. That one split her bottom lip, which was quickly covered in blood as more and more punches rained down. The trapped Bomber tried to cover up, but it hardly seemed to be doing any good. Her arms protected her from some of the blows, but plenty still slipped through the cracks of her defense and hammered away at her skull. Each hit drew a fresh cry of pain from Kishima’s lips, and her vision was getting blurrier by the second. By this point the battered angel was struggling to stay conscious.

She was holding out, but only barely. And she wasn’t sure how much longer she could keep it up.

Risako, for her part, was barely fighting with any semblance of style or skill and more: now it was just raw fury. So much pent up anger was roaring to the surface that she could contain herself no longer. Kishima was just unfortunate enough to be in her way.

She continued to wail down at Kishima, each strike making her knuckles hurt more and more. After the tenth or so punch, Risako would grab two handfuls of Kishima's short blue hair and ram the back of her head against the floor twice, before rolling off of her giant foe.

If this had been an official mixed martial arts fight, the ref no doubt would've already stepped in to break things up and award Risako a TKO victory. That would've been nice, but it wasn't the case unfortunately. No ref, no rules to stop this. Kishima had no choice but to endure each and every blow.

By the time the last few punches slammed into her Kishima's arms weren't even shielding her anymore. They just laid limply at her sides, and her vision blurred more and more with each strike that hammered down on her face. Then her head was lifted up, and a sudden blast of immense pain rushed through the back of the Lariat Queen's skull as it was slammed down onto the ground!

But as intense as that pain was, the one relief was that it only lasted for a brief second. Then everything went dark, and Bomber Kishima was completely unconscious there next to Risako.

All of this over a damn picture...

Chris Morgan had just finished a brief interview with an AFW's announcer. The tall blonde had battled the former Rumble Rose Fujiko Hinomoto to a draw on a previous show, and had been asked her thoughts on the Asian. After giving Fujiko her due for being a tough, and very formidable opponent, Chris had ended the interview by stating she would be looking forward to settling things with Noble Rose before departing.

However the former Wrestle Angel didn't get far before a stage hand rushed over excitedly to the announcer.

"It's a brawl in the catering room! Bomber Kishima and Panther Risako!" the man breathlessly panted.

Chris's eyes opened in surprise as she overheard that. Not bothering to hear the interviewer's reaction, sje hurried to the site of the brawl. When she arrived, thr American saw Risako slam Kishima's head into the floor before rolling off of her. She stared for a second in shock and horror before she called out "Risako!"

When the woman turned to face her, Chris stared into her eyes.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" the blonde would say in quiet voice that quivered with anger and intensity.

Chris wasn't prone to screaming. In fact, the angerier she was, the more quiet her outbursts were. And when she cursed, a rarity for her, it was a sign of approaching rage...

As Kishima finally stopped moving beneath her, Risako in turn finally stopped punching and took a deep breath. The unfathomable rage that she had been feeling by this point had subsided, and now she just felt drained and exhausted, like almost like she had lifted several dozens weights in a row. Rolling off of Kishima into a sitting position, Risako caught her breath, looked down at the amazon, and noticed, for the first time, exactly how much damage she had done. Exactly what she had done.

"Risako!"


The shout caused Risako to spin in the direction of the voice. There stood Chris, standing near the entrance, looking...aghast seemed to be the right word for it. Shocked. Horrified. And as everything fell into place, Risako knew that yes, that was because it was shocking and horrifying.


"Chris, I..." Risako said, the words tumbling out of her mouth before she knew what she was saying.


"What the fuck is wrong with you?!"



The words hit like a punch to the gut. It wasn't just the words themselves, but also the way she had said them-- with the quiet intensity that Chris had always shown when she was truly angry. She wanted to avoid Chris' eyes, but she looked into them anyway, and saw outrage in there. Outrage, and disappointment.


"I....I...." Tears welled in Risako's eyes. "I'm sorry, I..." Feeling a mixture of the shame of being caught at her worst like this, and knowing full well that everything had just happened because she had lost control, she averted her gaze, stood up, and ran as quickly as she could for the exit. She had to get away from here, away from her. She couldn't bear to stay and look any longer on what she had just done.

"Risako!" Chris called as suddenly the Panther whirled and ran.

The blonde was shocked, the sight of tears welling up in Risako's eyes stopping her. She had been prepared for a violent response, given Risako's recent actions, but her turning and running left her dumbfounded. The instinct to reach out and take her into her arms welled up for a moment, a leftover from an earlier time, before she reminded herself that time was long ago.

Coming out of it, she took a step after Risako, getting ready to give chase. Chris didn't know if she wanted to fight or comfort if she caught up to her, but still.

Then she caught sight of Kishima. She hadn't moved the whole time! Kneeling down she began to shake the other woman gently.

"Kishima! Kishima, wake up!" she called.

Kishima had been out cold throughout Chris’ arrival, and Risako’s retreat. And once it seemed safe to do so someone finally ran to search for paramedics to come help her out. But well before any of them came back with any help, Chris’ voice faintly reached the Bomber’s ears as she at last began to come to.

Her eyes shuttered open, only to slam shut at the first glimpse of the lights overhead, which were almost blinding to her. A hand gingerly moved up to shield herself from it briefly and a heavy groan rolled from her lips.

“Ugh…. Anyone get the number of the bus that just hit me…?” Despite the intense, throbbing pain in her skull, she still managed a bit of lighthearted humor. But then her vision started to clear up, and once she recognized Chris hovering over her, everything quickly came back into context.

“Chris…. I’m sorry, I--agh!” she said, starting to try to sit up, only to stop when the strain of the effort sent a pulse of sharp pain through her skull. That immediately prompted both hands to move up to cover her head while she tried to wait out the miserable throbbing. Once it finally subsided a bit, she tried to explain again, this time staying still where she was.

“Some asshole at the bar that night...took a picture of us and put it online. Risako saw it… I tried to talk to her but….she wouldn’t listen…”

Chris thought it was a good sign that Kishima still managed to crack a joke despite what she just went through. But when the other woman started to attempt to sit up only to bring her hands to her head in obvious pain, Chris shook her head.

"Lie still for a bit....that last hit looked really bad." she advised. Turning to the crowd of lookers the blonde said, in a firm voice that brooked no argument "Go, get one of the doctors. She's been hurt. Now."

Chris turned her attention back to Kishima as the Japanese woman began talking again, telling her how the battle started.

"That? That was what made her do this?!" she exclaimed. "Why would she even care? What business is it of hers...?"

Chris certainly wouldn’t need to repeat herself. The moment she told the onlookers to get help, the crowd scattered, many going to do exactly as told, while some of them simply wanted to avoid getting on the blonde’s bad side by watching any longer. And Kishima stayed in place, hoping the pain in her head would subside soon.

“Yeah… She was convinced there had to be something between us. I tried to tell her all we did was talk, then she snapped,” Kishima said, groaning a bit afterward. “If I ever find the guy who took that stupid picture…” Her voice trailed off there, knowing there wasn’t anything she could do about that. Still, it was infuriating. That night she and Chris had buried the hatchet in a way no Wrestle Angles fan familiar with the two of them ever would’ve guessed. It was supposed to be the end of one chapter and the start of a new one, for both of them.

But evidently, fate had other ideas. One picture going viral was all it took to bring those days back into focus, and in the process it had thrown Kishima into the middle of the ongoing drama between Chris and Panther Risako. She’d always respected Risako. Until only moments ago, getting attacked by her would’ve seemed every bit as unlikely to Kishima as making up with Chris had.

Chris looked down, a frown crossing her features. She didn't know what was going on with Risako, but....if she was going to lash out at people, especially people from her old wrestling league, the Californian knew she was going to have to confront her former flame.

"I'm sorry you got caught in....whatever this is between Risako and myself." she said. "I don't know what's going on with her. First Suzumi, now you. But, I swear to God, nobody else is going to get hurt over this." she vowed.

Some of the AFW's medical crew began to file in, rolling in a stretcher for the fallen Kishima.

Stepping back to allow them to do their work, a crestfallen Chris couldn't think of anything else to say, except to repeat, "I'm sorry..." in a quiet, somber tone.