A Trip Down Memory Lane

Risako had known she would find Kishima here. It had taken some searching, and some asking around. One of the neighbours in Kishima's apartment had said she had gone to the gym. Figures, Risako had thought: Kishima had constantly been hitting the gym and keeping her brawny figure back in the old league. Come to think of it, Risako couldn't remember the last time she had hit the gym either. Given how much she had been binge-eating lately...and binge-drinking, come to think of it...she was probably long overdue.

She shook her head. God, what was she even doing? She probably looked like a mess right about now-- last she had checked in the mirror, she had dark circles under her eyes from too many sleepless nights. She had gone over how she was going to approach Kishima again and again all day before coming here. I'm sorry, Kishima. I was going through a lot of emotional baggage that day. I didn't mean to start a fight with you in the food court, knock you out, and publicly embarrass the both of us. I hope we could still be friends. She knew Kishima well enough that she was likely to accept the apology. She was just as likely to knock her out in return.

As Risako approached the gym door, she hesitated. God, get it together, Risako! She thought to herself. Just get this over with. You have to. You've fucked everything else up, so at the very least get this one thing right.


Slowly, Risako, walked into the gym. It took some searching, wandering past the yoga classes and the line of active treadmills, before she finally found the weights section. Sure enough, Kishima was there, talking to...

Risako's heart froze. It was her. The short purple hair, the light build, the cocky yet playful tone to her voice. Her old partner, whose career she had almost ruined. Blade Uehara.


For a moment, Risako found herself having a deer in the headlights moment. For a few seconds, all she could think was please don't let them see me, please don't let them see me, please don't let them see me...

Kishima had giggled at Blade's teasing comment. Despite all the teasing the two did to each other, she'd never genuinely thought of her former partner in that sort of negative light, and she was fairly confident that sentiment was the same on Blade's side of things. But Kishima's cheerful thoughts and expression froze at the sudden suggestion that they reform their old tag team.

She'd never explained to anyone, Blade included, about her worries with entering tag team competition once again. It had made up so much of her career with the Angels, and it was something she was proud of. But here, she had a chance to do things differently. She didn't want to just repeat everything she'd done with the Wrestle Angels. But the world seemingly had only seen her as a tag team wrestler before, and the second she got into it again, that could take her career in the exact direction she was trying to avoid. But how could she say that without disappointing Blade?

"Well, I, uh..." she stammered for a second, not quite sure how to answer. But then the most awkward miracle occurred, and she spotted a familiar face not far away. "Risako?" she said out loud without entirely meaning to, while looking her way, unsure of Risako's reasoning for being here. Whatever the case, as awkward as this was, she was at least glad to have focus driven away from Blade's suggestion...

Blade's abrasive and downright polarizing proposition towards Bomber wasn't without it's due reasoning. Amidst a sea of unfamiliar faces in an entirely foreign wrestling federation, Blade found someone from her past that epitomized the glory days of her Wrestle Angel run. And reconnecting with Bomber got her spastic mind fluttering back to the good old days of tag title belts and squashing the competition. So when the prospect of reliving those days suddenly seemed possible now that her partner was by her side, Blade eagerly jumped at the chance without taking into consideration anything else or thinking it through in the slightest. Blade tended to act first, think...whenever.

Though while she was smiling brightly in heightened anticipation for her muscled compatriot to say yes already, she would cock an eyebrow when Bomber didn't quite answer how she expected.

"Risako?...Why are you still on about...oh." Blade turned her head in Bomber's direction to see the cause of the interruption, the aerial artist for once being rendered speechless as her gawking eyes centered on another figurehead from her past. Pangs of nostalgia and regret kept Blade frozen in place herself before she eventually took a deep breath and hopped off the bench-press, having forgotten entirely about whatever her and Bomber were just talking about.

"...*sigh*...well, guess I better bring my hatchet." Blade whispered out in regards to her earlier statement in regards to quashing any beefs the two may have had. Or at least try to anyway. Blade than soldiering up and taking the first steps in Risako's direction, a somber look on her face while she scanned her mind in search for the right words. Not an easy task, considering the years of time apart and their tumultuous meltdown of a break-up. Blade didn't have much time to think on it...she was beginning to approach Risako now. Best if she just went with her instinct.

"...uh, hey Risako. You're lookin-whoa..." Blade stopped both her cordial greeting and her steady approach upon getting an eyeful of Risako's disheveled state, made even more noticeable under the judgemental fluorescent lighting. Bags under her eyes, not in the best shape, looking decidedly worse for wear. Blade responded as only she could. "...terrible. Sheesh...you know it's bad when I'm the prettiest one here. The hell happened to you, man?"

At first, Risako was speechless. Uehara, here? With Kishima? She hadn't been expecting that at all-- given how they had last parted, she had never expected she would ever see Uehara again. As she tried to find words for the situation, she realized that Uehara was noticing how they looked. Hell, they both noticed. It was then that Risako realized just how much she had been neglecting herself, and her shame increased at the fact that Uehara was now seeing her like this.

"Kyouko, I..." She felt like she was on the verge of tears, before she clenched one of her hands. "I...Kishima, I...I came to apologize," she forced it out. "About our...about our fight back in the cafeteria. I was wrong to attack you the way I did. I'm sorry."

She took a deep breath. That was now over and done with. She let out a short, stressed laugh as she turned back to Uehara. "Yeah, about this...sorry, Kyouko. You're not exactly seeing me at my best."

Things had just gotten awkward incredibly fast.

Kishima was glad to have a distraction from Blade’s unwelcome question, but now she was looking at the same woman who’d left her unconscious on the floor not long ago. Her initial instinct was to wonder if Risako was here to pick up their fight where it had left off. But from the rough shape the veteran appeared in and her entirely unaggressive body language, that didn’t seem to be the case. Though the Bomber was still surprised to hear the apology that came from Riskao’s lips.

“It… It’s cool, Riskao,” Kishima said half-reluctantly. She couldn’t deny part of her still felt less than happy about what had transpired that day. But she knew the whole incident was born out of misunderstanding and quick tempers. There was no use holding a grudge over it, especially considering Risako seemed genuinely sorry for her part in it. “I... probably couldn’ve handle things better on my end too. Don’t worry about it.”

With that out of the way, she waited to see what Blade and Risako would have to say to each other. No doubt they would have plenty to talk about, enough that Kishima almost felt it might be too inappropriate to stick around. But she stayed, largely out of curiosity. And...there was a small part of her mind that thought it might be nice to have her around to break things up if another fight somehow managed to spring up from this.

As jarring as it was for Bomber to see the self-proclaimed Queen of Queens looking like this, Blade immediately recognized this miserable side of Risako all too well. In fact it was almost as if no time had passed whatsoever since their tumultuous breakup all those years ago, when Panther was in arguably one of the worst states of her life after that whole Dragon Fujiko debacle. The similarities were kinda eerie actually, and those pangs of deja vu made Blade reflect on herself during that time as well. Particularly how she acted like an abrasive asshat, shouting at Risako to "Get over it already!!!" after about their umpteenth tag-team loss.

Blade glowered and balled her fists after hearing Risako humbly apologize over and over, her irritation visibly swelling up from witnessing the hopelessly downtrodden state of someone whom she once regarded as her greatest rival before becoming one of her most trusted friends. Her hands than shooting up before she started waving them wildly in front of her with her eyes sewn shut.

"AlrightAlrightAlright!!!...Enough!!! Just...Just stop apologizing already...Jeez, I always told ya you'd fall apart without me, but I thought I was just being sarcastic..." Blade sharply retorted before taking a deep breath and settling her hands on her hips.

"...*sigh*...Look...I'm... I'm not gonna let someone who gave me a run for my money back in the day end sinking any lower than this. It'd just make me look bad..." Blade muttered that last part while cutely pouting off and to the sides before raising her head to glare straight into Risako's sullen eyes, clearly making up selfish excuses as to why she was showing genuine concern for her former partner.

"You and I might not be partners anymore, but...but that doesn't mean I'm not in your corner. So congratulations, cause you're gonna have me hounding your butt until you finally snap out of this funk of yours. And while I'm glad to see you two hug it out, the first thing I want you to do, is to stop feeling sorry for yourself, alright?" Blade authoritatively poked her index finger into Risako's shoulder along with her first bit of life coaching advice.

Risako, admittedly, didn't know what to expect when she made that little apology. She half expected Kishima to just bash her with a chair or something then and there, as payback for what had happened in the cafeteria. What Risako discovered, however is that she had forgotten just what a good sport Bomber Kishima really was. The fact that she was just letting it go like that (albeit reluctantly) was a good reminder of that fact.

What Risako had also almost forgotten, though, was just how much Uehara had had to put up with her in the past. She was given a vivid reminder of that when Uehara proceeded to give her an earful. She was reminded then of her long fallout, following the whole Dragon Fujiko affair. Risako had been on a downward spiral then...and, come to think of it, that was exactly what she was in now. Despite promising Uehara otherwise, Risako had just let her feelings get the better of her again.

With a weary chuckle, she found the nearest chair and sat down. "Eh, sorry to drag you through all of this again, Kyouko," she said, absent mindedly rubbing one of her eyes. She could kill for a coffee right now, she realized. "I know I promised you this wouldn't happen again. It's...a long story. But since you're here, and I don't want to drag you through this all over again, I hereby promise, here and now, to stop feeling sorry for myself, okay?"

Blade wasn't exactly the type of person to offer a friend a shoulder to cry on. Their wasn't much room for getting in touch with your emotions in a household as testosterone fueled as the one she grew up in. Tough love being the only brand of consoling affection she could demonstrate to Risako without things getting incredibly awkward for her. Though as much as it pained her to see her former partner be in such complete disarray after so many years...a light bulb did click over her scruffy head upon seeing how low Risako had fallen.

Blade may have rekindled her wrestling career out of selfish motivations and an intense desire to jump-start her renowned career in her home country...but maybe there was another reason why she was here. Seemed like quite a coincidence for Blade to choose now of all times to weasel back into the wrestling business. And in the process, maybe have a chance to redeem herself from being that aforementioned asshat to a friend in need...

"Hey...you say sorry one more time, I'mma have Bomber here dump you head first into that trash bin over there. I've seen her do it too..." Blade jokingly warned with a stern glare before collapsing down to her backside and crossing her legs Indian style, recollecting how Bomber actually did use to do that back in the day for hazing the newbies or if someone genuinely ticked her off. Good times...

"Ah, you don't gotta tell me the whole story. You're just in a slump, is all. Ya took one bad loss and it's been messing with your head every since. It's no biggie. What, you think you were gonna outwrestle the nearly undefeated champ from our old league and make that shit look easy? Even the Queen of Queens would have a hard time against Chris Freaking Morgan. Despite all those rumors about her ruining the old company and all that...girl can still wrestle, man. And getting your butt whupped is no excuse to fall to pieces like this and start blindsiding Bomber and that airhead Suzumi." Blade admonished while looking up at the seated Panther, her arms folded while leaning forward to make sure they were seeing eachother eye to eye here.

Risako laughed, despite herself. Despite everything, now that she thought of it. It had been a while since she had felt anything but miserable about this whole situation. It was then that she realized just how much she had missed her old tag partner, and just how much she had regretted the dissolution of their partnership. 

Sitting down (or rather, collapsing), into a nearby chair, Risako never once let her gaze leave Blade's. "You're right," she breathed. "Oh, what the hell am I saying? You were always right about this sort of thing, Kyouko-chan. I was always just too pigheaded to admit it." She brushed her long lavender hair out of her face. "Look, winning a match and ending this damn losing streak is one thing, but..." She paused, fumbling as the words refused to come out of her mouth. "I...I have no idea how I'm going to be able to talk to Chris again after all this, Kyouko-chan."

This whole situation was definitely way more serious than she anticipated if Risako actually admitted that she was wrong about something, something she never would have imagined hearing when they were partners. The role-reversal wasn't lost on her either, Blade recalling the early days of their partnership when Risako was the one lecturing Blade whenever her rambunctious attitude needed to be put in check. Blade didn't think she would survive having the mother-hen of the locker room be her partner. But in retrospect, it was probably exactly what she needed at the time. She just really wish she recorded Risako admitting Blade was right...

"Umm...s-sorry, Risako. When it comes to salvaging friendships, I'm probably the last person you should be talkin to about that..." Blade awkwardly joked while scratching the back of her scruffy head. A fair point considering she was only just now trying to mend the broken bridge between themselves, but than Blade folded her arms and looked back at Risako with a curious glance as if she were straining her mind. As if she were thinking really hard about what to say just before it was coming out of her mouth.

"But..I guess, nothing beats just manning up and reaching out to her. I mean...if she's a friend worth keeping, she'll see it in her heart to at least hear you out. Heck, she's probably been waiting this whole time for you to speak to her, and is probably aching to forgive ya...just...like..." Blade's voice started to patter away towards the end, the suddenly somber W.A. now staring towards the floor with half-lidded eyes.

"Just like I kinda hope you'll do for me. I...I wasn't a friend to you when you needed one, with that whole Dragon Fujiko thing. I was just...*breath*...a stubborn jackass who was only concerned about her win/loss ratio. You...deserved a better friend...and I guess, I'm kinda hoping...you'll forgive me..." Blade's half-lidded eyes never left the tiled floor while she got a lot off her chest.