Friends Like You

-Week 1-

Right away, Kaede knew something was wrong about this.

She had been with the Dire Pack for a little while now, as their official unofficial member. It wasn’t exactly easy living - they worked her hard, didn’t stand for an inch of laziness, and weren’t afraid to use violence to drive a point home. But she’d made the best of a crazy situation, she’d thought, and was doing her best to get used to it, with differing levels of success.

Fuuma seemed to like her. Really like her. Maybe like her a little too much, honest. She was a sweet, kind woman...or so she could seem. She could go from giving pleasure to causing pain so fast that Kaede was never sure what to feel around her, giving her this constant unease.

Manami was...well, Manami. She hadn’t outright killed her yet, that would have to do for acceptance.

Yuki, though…

At the best of times, Yuki looked at Kaede like a roach in the middle of her kitchen, one that kept coming back no matter how many times she crushed it under her heel. At the worst of times, she didn’t look at Kaede. At all.

So, when Yuki invited her to Friction’s private gym for a little personal training, Kaede was...surprised? Curious? Terrified?

All of the above.

Nonetheless, it wasn’t something she had a choice in, so she was where she needed to be when she was supposed to be there. She showed up wearing green and white track pants and a match sports bra - it clashed like crazy with her natural pink hair color, but that was unavoidable. If she was a part of this team - or sisterhood or cult or whatever - she had to dress the part. Made sense. To her.

Now all she needed was Yuki. So, for the moment, she waited in the middle of the ring and performed her stretches, getting nice and limber.

Yuki Kitashima wasn't a masochist. Not by any stretch of the imagination.

Maybe, perhaps, given the choice of her company, there could be some way to rationalize the thought. That for all the sadism of Manami and Fumika, there had to be some masochism to balance it out. But she never thought of things that way. Pain was a medium of obedience, nothing more. There was no way she’d willingly subject herself to any kind of torment who so ever just get a few kicks out of it. That kind of stuff never sat right with her.

And yet she was about to walk into a room to help the person on the planet she couldn't stand looking at for two seconds let alone an entire afternoon. Painful. Just...painful.

There was a reason for it, however. Himeko Akan was in town. Her and her bunch of tagalongs in leotards. Manami came back with fire in her eyes one day to relay the news to her and Fumika. Things were about to be set in motion. An eclipse was about to dawn over Friction, and the Wolf Mother expected full commitment for what was to come. The Dire Pack had to make their position in the federation known soon enough. Everyone had to be at their best these coming months.

Everyone. Ugh.

Yuki hadn't made her feelings towards Kaede particularly subtle. Part of that was intentional. For all the attention their newcomer was being given, it seemed right to remind the punkette that she wasn't actually one of them. Not yet, anyway. Hopefully never.

But she was in. That was the reality of things. Even if Yuki didn't like it, it was her duty as the Claw to ensure the Pack was as strong as it needed to be. That included the dead weight. So, she made her way down the hall towards the room she had rented out. With a reluctant twist of the knob, she threw the door open to see the rookie standing by the ropes, getting herself ready for their session together.

Great.

“Hey.” She called out with a slight huff to accompany it. She only shut and locked the door behind her, tossing her gym bag to the floor before she stepped into the ring.

“I'm gonna be honest here.” She cracked her knuckles before going to stretch her arms. “I don’t like you. I don’t think you’ve changed one bit since you tried robbing our place and your hair looked like someone dunked it in shit.” She cracked her neck and took a couple steps forward. “I think the moment the shit hits the fan, you’re going to turn tail and run. I think you don't have the guts to stick around very long. So, I've decided. We’re gonna play a game. How does that sound?”

Kaede - despite popular opinion - knew that Yuki wasn’t doing this out of the goodness of her heart, if that was even a thing she was capable of doing in the first place. She’d did it because she was a good soldier. Dedicated to Manami and the team and wanting it to be the best it could be. If there was one thing Kaede could admire about all of them, it was how genuine they were, how entirely focused they could be when it came to being Manami’s ‘claws’. Impressive...in a creepy kind of way, but impressive.

So she wasn’t expecting a warm welcome when Yuki came in and slammed the door shut. But she wasn’t expecting to have her butt verbally chewed out, either. Jesus.

Kaede stood there, unblinking and unmoving, as Yuki said what she wanted to say, and for a moment, she said nothing in response. What could she say? Was there some magic combination of words that would make Yuki come around? Nope. She spoke with action. If Kaede wanted to get through to her, that’s what it would take.

She held her ground, despite being more than a little nervous about Yuki entering her personal space. ”I...okay.” She looked off to the side, trying to hide her mounting nervousness. And failing. ”What’s the game?”

Kaede wouldn’t like the answer. She knew it.

The meek look really suited Kaede.

Mind you, there wasn’t a single expression that looked good on Kaede’s face. Not even one stricken with pain. All of them pissed Yuki off beyond belief. But if she had to choose one that she wished she could put over the punkette’s face, like a mask that would never come off no matter how hard those skinny little arms tried, it would probably be that one.

She didn’t seem too happy to see her. No surprise there. She also looked kinda nervous, despite taking the initiative with the limbering up. Also no surprise there, but at least she was learning to keep her mouth shut and only speak when spoken to. Not sure who was having the greatest influence on her there, between herself and Kuroda-san.

All she knew for sure was that Kaede was practically shaking like a leaf about this whole thing. Cute.

Yuki leaned forward and gave her a light pat on the cheek. Not enough to sting, but enough to get her to face forward like a good little girl.

“Remember our first bout?” She quirked an eyebrow. “For the next five weeks, we’re gonna go at it again. Normal rules this time. Nothing fancy. No tricks.” She leaned back. “But we’re going to first knockout. Nothing else. The person with the most at the end is the winner. Simple, right?”

Not really. If there was one thing the pinkette no doubt picked up on during their time together, it was that nothing was ever simple with anyone in the Pack. No exceptions.

“Here’s the ringer. Whichever one of us can’t score a single knockout gets to be the winner’s punching bag. One week.” She canted her head, expecting something from that big mouth any second now. “Got a problem with that?”

Okay. She may have had some ulterior motives coming into this arrangement, but there didn’t seem any harm in it. Yuki had broken her other bag, a family heirloom, and she was in need of a temp until her order arrived. It’s not like Kaede was doing anything useful, anyway.

Yup, she did not like that answer. Not. One. Bit.

Kaede did, indeed, remember their first bout, well enough that she thought calling it a ‘bout’ was way too nice of a way to put it. She remembered being knocked around a room, smacked back and forth, nearly broken in two, and wishing she could’ve left the room as soon as possible so she could get to the persumably more pleasant Fumika. That presumption turned out to be so wrong it hurt, but…

Which brought a strange thought to Kaede’s mind. She’d been mauled by all three wolves in some fashion or another, right? Out of the three, Yuki had been...well, not a pleasant time, but the least unpleasant. She wasn’t a balls-out brutal as Manami, and not as deceptively devious as Fumika. Maybe it wouldn’t be that bad?

...yeah. Wishful thinking.

She started to open her mouth when Yuki had finisher her explanation, throwing in a hellish  stip at the end. Did she have a problem with being knocked out five times, then becoming Yuki’s living stress ball for a week? Yeah. Fuck yeah. Any sane human would. She’d taken more shots to the head in a year than most people did their entire life, but not nearly enough to think this was a good idea.

But, it wasn’t like she had much of a choice. She was in. Yuki was there, right there, so no getting away. Besides...maybe she could get lucky?

”Yeah...yeah, okay.” After taking a moment to breathe deep and summon her spirit, she dropped into her karate stance, arms up and ready, her bare feet properly spaced and placed. She also started to move back with a subtle slide, knowing that Yuki’s firing range was not a good idea.

Yuki could only scoff at Kaede’s reply.

The lost eye contact, the one-word answers. Even she knew that she couldn’t win this. Not that that was the intention, but there was something about her reluctant acceptance that really spoke volumes about how poor of a choice she was for an initiate. Manami’s judgment could truly be lacking at times.

The punkette dropped into her familiar stance and the wolf took a step back. She placed a hand on her hip and let her mouth droop into an apathetic frown. She was a stubborn one. She always was. Didn’t mean Yuki was going to take it easy on her. Especially not now. Needed that punching bag, if nothing else.

She knocked her fist against the air. “Ding ding.”

Yuki brought her arms and began to circle Kaede, slowly stalking about the punkette with one foot over the other. It was less about being cautious and more playing the mind game. Letting the tension build in the air and her opponent’s muscles with each passing second. The only sound echoing across the room being her own footsteps. Going nowhere. Doing nothing. Just waiting. Right until…

She pounced forward. Her eyes shot wide with red-hot fury. Stomping down hard enough to send shockwaves across against the ring floor, Yuki swung her right leg forward, cutting the air with the speed of the motion and the raw strength pulsing down her thigh. Her eyes never left Kaede. She was aiming straight for the head. Better to get this done quickly so she could head home already.

If there was one thing she’d come to learn about Kaede, it was that she got the message to stay the fuck down sooner than later. With the right amount of force, that is.

Ding, ding, indeed. Shit.

After the bell rang, there was a notable tension in the air, though not in the way an outside observer might’ve thought. Just to look at the two of them, you would’ve thought they were preparing for an even fight, two relatively equal sparring partners preparing to duke it out.

Kaede knew better. They were about as equal as a lion was to a gazelle, and there would be roughly similar results when Yuki pounced. The only question was where the strike would be coming from, how she’d go for it. The woman was nothing if not precise, moving with steps so practiced you could probably measure each one for equal lengths. She was waiting, stalking, closing in. Why wasn’t she attacking, though? What was she waiting for?

Whatever it was, Yuki didn’t wait for long, not that it mattered much from Kaede’s kick. She saw the kick coming half-a-second too late. No time to block. No time to dodge. It hit her skull like a shotgun blast, knocking all sense clean out of her in one moment.

She was out of it before her body hit the ground. That was where she stayed, too, flopped on her side, her eyes unresponsive. Unmoving

Round 1 to Yuki. Small surprise.

WHAP!

Well. That was that.

Even if she was going up against a whelp, it was still as satisfying as ever to put her opponent down in one fell swoop. The bleached blonde would be lying to herself if she said she wasn’t feeling a tad embarrassed by what just went down. Or, what didn’t go down, rather. But whatever. One down, four to go. The sooner they were done with this, the sooner Kaede would be out of her hair.

Not that it would make Manami happy. Yuki’s ego aside, the rookie’s performance would only serve to make the Pack weak. This was one of the few times she found herself doubting the Wolf Mother’s judgment. It was bringing back memories of their first encounter. That cocky grin on her face after she blinded her, the giggling as she made a break for the door, and all of that made worse by the fact that she couldn’t catch the punk on her own. Maybe she’d get used to it. Maybe she’d feel better after all was said and done.

Either way, Kaede wasn’t going to survive the next four weeks.

The instant the punkette’s body smacked against the canvas, Yuki turned around and slipped through the ropes down to ringside. She picked up her gym bag on the way to the door, checking her watch with a slight huff. Still a bit of time to spare for the rest of her routine. As she opened the door, she stole a glance back at the pinkette before hitting the lights and closing the door behind her.

Had to make sure she kept that room booked before she left.

-Week 2-

The Kaede Komatsuzaki who entered the ring this week was notably less confident than the one who’d entered last week. Quite a feat, considering how unconfident that last one was.

To say that her defeat against Yuki was a humbling experience would be a great understatement. The past seven days had been spent replaying the fight - if you could call it that - through her head. Yuki was bigger, she was faster, and she had an experience edge  that was hard to get around. Kaede, despite what an onlooker might think, was actually an above-average fighter, trained well in karate...she was just nowhere near that level. Yet. Maybe ever.

If she had sense, she wouldn’t have come back. If she had sense, she would’ve tried her best to not be in the same hemisphere as Yuki, much less the same ring.

And yet, there she was. Right on time. In the ring. Stretching. Waiting.

She had the same outfit on now, too, though this time she was keeping her hair back in a ponytail. She was not stupid enough to think that would help her survive, much less win, this thing, but it couldn’t hurt.

Kaede downed half a bottle of Pocari Sweat, smacked her cheeks and started to bounce on her heels, getting pumped up, summoning her resolve. She would need every drop of it for the next four weeks, she knew that much. "Get hyped, Kaede. Comeoncomeoncomeon..."

Yuki let out a yawn as she made her way back to the same door as before. To the same room. To the same routine.

She was a bit more chipper this time around. Now that all the formalities were out of the way, the only thing she had to look forward to now was beating Kaede to a pulp every week. And, now that she thought about it, that wasn’t such a bad deal. The kick to the temple was still fresh in her mind. She could feel the sensation against her shin, see the pinkette’s hair whip to the side, eyes roll to the back of her head, and fall limp all over the course of a second.

Pretty sweet. She wouldn’t mind making more memories like that this before this was over.

Still, she had a job to do. There were things bigger than Komatsuzaki on the horizon. Couldn’t have their recruit running out them just yet. Yuki didn’t intend to hold back, but she wasn’t going overboard just yet. That’s what the punching bag stipulation was for.

Nose to the grindstone. She turned the knob and pulled open the door. She had to hold back a bit of surprise on her face when she saw Kaede standing there, just the same as last week, getting ready as if nothing had happened. It was hard to tell if she was seriously committed or simply being obedient. Either way was fine, so long as she showed up.

Yuki locked the door, same as the last, and made her way into the ring. She gave her neck a couple good cracks left and right, then raised her fists. No need to stretch. This would be over soon enough.

“Ready?”

It didn’t matter what Kaede said if she spoke at all. The next moment, she’d find Yuki’s leg reeled back and shooting straight towards her face.