Wanna Be Stronger

Navi's mixed success in her still young wrestling career was weighing on her mind as she made her way towards one of the many AFW's gyms in Tokyo. Some of her matches she won, against some big people in the company as well, but she also had a lot of key losses, and a key draw, which, out of all her matches in 2017 was on her mind the most. And the worst part was she couldn't do anything about it to fix it...

...still, she decided, with how good she was, there was no way she could go down from her current position in the company, so the only way for her was up. And that road started from training at the gym. Although she would've liked Melody to accompany her, but her friend came down with a bit of a cold (which made Navi chuckle slightly since she caught it in summer!), and she decided that there was no way she would allow her friend to train in that condition, thankfully convincing her to sit out today's training at home, sadly meaning that she didn't have a sparring partner for today.

Arriving into the gym, and quickly changing to a yellow sports bra and trunk, and after doing a few stretches to get her body in workout mode and hitting the treadmill for a bit, Navi would go towards the punching bags to train up striking game. In case nothing went awry, Navi simply planned to finish her regimen (sans the spar), and go home...

After picking up a loss against a fellow new-comer, Sakura Hagiwara was determined to come back strong. She wanted to be the strongest in the world, that's why she left the Berserk Gym to find a competition where wrestlers come from all over the world, if she were to make a name for herself and even become champion one day, the teen idol would surely be the strongest in the world. Sakura was not a stranger to defeats, with her Berserk Wrestling promotion she went into a 50 match losing streak before she got the hang of it. However, she was a better wrestler than she was in Berserk and hoped not to repeat that embarrassing losing streak.

Which is why she was in the Friction gym today. There was no friends, no mentors to help her here (Despite Misaki coming to AFW from time to time) this time Sakura had to make it all on her own. She was fine with that though, she needed to stand on her own two feet as well. Sakura changed into her grey black sports bra and briefs as she looked to hit the gym.

Sakura:

Sakura was busy working up a nice sweat as she worked on the punching bag, practicing her kicks and grapples. After a while, she would stop and take a moment to catch her breath, wiping the sweat off her forehead as she walked over towards her gym bag on the bench, taking out a bottle of water and drinking from it. "*Gulg*gulg*gulg* Ahhhhh! Boy, that sure hit the spot. I need to keep training though, I.....I can't make a fool out of myself in AFW, I need to this for myself...for Berserk" she would whisper to herself with a determined look.

As Navi continued to punch and kick the punching bag, left alone to her thoughts for a while as her mind filtered the sound of people working out in the gym into the background noise.

However, in the corner of her eye, she noticed a woman going towards a nearby bench to take a sip of water. At first, she paid no mind to her, and wanted to simply continue her workout...until she instinctively took another look at her face.

The woman looked familiar. She definitely saw her before, but she couldn't quite tell where. Trying to remember, Navi continued staring at her for an uncomfortable amount of time...

...until finally remembering. She read about it online, about a pop idol turned wrestler to avenge her friend...and her subsequent failures. She had minor curiosity on the subject, but stopped following it as the news became fairly same-y, Sakura consistantely losing each and everyone of her matches, with no changes in sight.

Navi had a different question on her mind. What was she doing in an AFW gym? Did she sign with the company?

Although she wanted to simply go and continue her training, her curiosity was taking a hold of her more and more, until she finally couldn't help but find out, what was a jobber like her doing in AFW? And she had her own way of finding things out.

Going directly to Sakura, and would ask her:

"Aren't you that pop idol who constantly loses to the Boston Crab? What are you doing here?"

Sakura had come to the AFW with a reputation. A reputation that she was give in her previous wrestling association, Berserk. However, even the fame that she built up in Berserk was slightly different than she would imagine. As the hype around her was not too much as a wrestler but because she was a famous pop idol singer from the Sweet Diva promotion. She came to the wrestling business as a famous idol and perhaps that elevated her status in Berserk a little more than her fellow, more accomplished wrestlers.

However, Hagiwara wanted to change that. She wanted AFW to recognize her fame as a wrestler and not a idol. Still, her status of a former idol always brought her in the spot light whether she liked it or not. After a hard training regime, Sakura looked to cool down as she took a moment to rest up and have a nice cool bottle of water.

As she finished her bottle, she noticed a presence around her. Soon enough, a woman clad in sports bra and tights- who had just interrupted her own training regime to walk over to Sakura, spoke to her.

"Umm......yeah, that's me. Sakura Hagiwara is my name actually. That was.....quite a long time ago, I mean I've gotten better from that time" she tried to explain, a little embarrassed in her tone that even this unknown woman knew about her embarrassing losing streak.

Navi continued looking at Sakura with skepticism. Granted, it was a LONG while since she last paid any attention on the news about Sakura, and it was highly possible that things turned around for the idol. But she expected most people to simply stop and go back to their regular job after that many failures. She was interested just how much better she got since then...

But rather than just simply ask her directly for a spar, Navi decided to go a different route:

"Well, guess there were wrestlers weaker people than you after all. Did they not even know how to apply the Crab?"

"But, hey. AFW always needs people to make others look good. You'll do your job just fine", Navi would say with a smirk, trying to rile Sakura up...

Sakura first thought this woman was just taking a jibe at her but suddenly thought differently about it. Perhaps the woman only knew her during the days she was a glorified jobber. I mean, she didn't say anything wrong, Sakura was the woman who was constantly put in the Boston Crab and went on a 50 odd losing streak.

She tried to turn the tide of the conversation but Navi brought it back to square one and that's when Sakura knew....that she was just looking to rile the former idol up. Sakura learned from Misaki's experience that AFW wrestlers are more competitive, more bitchy than her previous league and the amount of friendly wrestlers one might find would be 50/50 when compared with the amount of heel wrestlers.

In any case, Sakura puffed and pouted angrily. "Actually Berserk is a female wrestling league with top talent and I beat the same woman who beat me....so I think it's safe to say that I got better" she would say before grabbing her towel, wiping her face with it and then hanging it over her shoulder.

"I'm not here to make other people look good....I'm here to become the strongest wrestler in the world" she would say with determination.

It was one thing to ask a wrestler to a spar. But Navi loved it when her opponents went all out on her. And was there a better way to do that than to rile Sakura up?

She scoffed at Sakura praising her old wrestling league. Sure, she heard of Berserk, but didn't believe that the wrestlers there were that good for her to be impressed.

Sakura's second sentance however...made the blonde genuinely roar with laughter:

"BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! S...Haha...no seriously, you are not lying about this? How many losses did you have? I stopped following at 20. And you think you can become "the strongest in the world?". This sounds like a prelude to a joke. What's the punchline? You getting back to singing a few months later? Ahahahaha..."

Sakura was always a genuine baby-face wrestler, believing in hard work, dedication and respecting other wrestlers. Coming from her background, she knew how to take a loss and how her losses as a rookie improved herself as a wrestler later on. Sure, it may seem cringe worthy to the naturally talented wrestlers but for her, her losing streak only helped her realize the real hard-work and dedication needed to survive in the pro wrestling world.

So, naturally, Sakura did not take it too kindly when Navi started to.....laugh. Sakura would huff her cheeks and glare at the blonde woman as she started to ridicule the former Japanese pop star. "I........I......NO!"Sakura would shake her head as she regained her composure "Those losses only taught me what it takes to be a real female wrestler. I took those loses like a woman and only got better, I beat the people who beat me and I came back stronger each time. If it means taking a 1000 losses and then one day becoming the best wrestler, I'll gladly take it because that's just what I am aiming for." Sakura would say with great confidence.

Navi stopped laughing the moment Sakura let out her loud "NO". She listened intently to the pop idol explaining her wrestling philosophy. Even she had to admit, she had good points in there.

"But to so good to make people forget about the mentioned 1000 losses...do you really think it's possible to do that?", Navi would ask: "Buuut, you seem very confident in the words you just said,"

Navi believed that she had Sakura riled up pretty well right now. So she cut to the chase:

"Want to back them up?", she would say, pointing in the direction of nearby sparring rings in the gym...

Navi seemed to have a good point, how good would someone have to be in order for the fans and other wrestlers forgo one's awful wrestling record in the past. Her answer was going to be simple "*Nods* Yeah, it's possible! By becoming the Friction world champion!"she would say in a excited and cheerful tone, fist pumping the air.

Sakura soon was shocked, her eyes wide open as she looked at what Navi's finger pointed to...a....a....wrestling ring?! Sakura would take a moment, composing herself. This was the moment, to prove herself.

"Hai~ I would never back down from a challenge!"