A Date With Disaster

Valerie was nervous.

A casual passerby would not have known that to look at her. She was sitting at the table in Fukamachi, one of the best restaurants in Tokyo, if not, all of Japan. Her dress was a shimmering blue number, one that left her shoulders bare, with a skirt that opened up plenty of thigh - but not enough to make her look desperate, in her humble opinion. Earrings, shimmering on each side. Her long hair tied up top with a bit of braiding, giving her an orderly, yet slightly wild look.

She sat there at her booth in the corner of the restaurant. It was fairly late, the place wasn’t too crowded, just the way she liked it, no one but her, six or seven other patrons, the waiters and a bunch of expensive-looking fish, floating about in a large aquarium at the center of it all. Valerie kept her back ramrod straight, sparing the menu a casual glance here and there, looking like the picture of calm serenity. In truth, she was anything but.

Valerie was here for her first date in...a year? Two years? It had been so long, she hated to even think about it. That was one of the many drawbacks of living on the road, always being on the go. It made having a stable relationship nigh impossible. Sure, there was the occasional hookup with guys and gals she met in town, but that was so fleeting. She needed some connection. The only other option was meeting with someone at the Circus, but she'd grown up with everyone there. It would almost be like dating Tatiana, and even though they weren't blood-related, that was still too weird to picture.

That was one of the great things about their more permanent residence in Japan. For once, she was afforded the chance to settle down, get her roots into something serious. She’d put up a few profiles on various dating sites, and lo and behold, one of them struck gold.

Adalie Cordes. The two of them shared similar tastes, both into reading, quiet nights, with a taste for shrimp - hence the rather expensive place she’d chosen for their first date. Expensive, yes, but she wanted to impress, lay the foundation for the date after and the date after that. An investment of sorts.

She was eager for this to work. So, while she was all pins and needles on the inside, she kept a calm front for Adalie to see. Tonight, she was going to be the perfect date. Say all the right things. Laugh at all the jokes. Giggle at the flirting.

Now, all she needed was the date herself. Any moment now...

For all of Valerie's many, many flaws, she had decent taste in places to eat at the very least. Kaylee had come a bit prior to the arranged meet time. Enough to establish herself in a good location. It hadn't cost must to get the perfect spot by one of the street side windows, but still keep Valerie in view. So prim and proper looking, when she wasn't being a heinous bitch. She'd have to see how long that lasted. She thanked the hostess as she settled into her chair, eyeing the food selection between eyeing the blond across the way from over the lip of her menu. Hidden in plain sight, she had a front row seat for it all. It was a shame Fukamachi was the appetizer tonight. The main course was still on its way.

Having a professional makeup artist on your payroll did have its perks. Tonight, she was dressed to suppress rather than impress. A tastefully wig of long flowing black hair tucked back at the nape of her neck into a small braid was fit snugly atop her head. Bright green eyes had been dulled to a dark brown through use of contacts. A thin, small set of glasses perched on the bridge of his nose, the lenses were simply normal glass. Her complexion was pale, but fair missing most of the makeup she used on the regular, even in the ring. She was dressed conservative, but high end enough for the weather. A pale maroon sweater with knotted thread work along the length to give it a textured look. A long black skirt, deep brown stocking, and cute knee high boots.  She even went though the trouble of faking an accent when she spoke. A subdued British accent to be precise. After all, she wasn't Kaylee tonight, not to the public, she was just some tourist.

She had placed an order for herself. A salad, an entree, and some wine. She thought she might indulge a bit despite her diet. Tonight was a special one after all, cause for a celebration.

She had been working hard at being Adalie Cordes, the French Canadian pilot who just so happened to be working out of, you guessed it, Japan for the last few years. Such a coincidence. She was a quiet thoughtful woman to spent most of her free time admiring arthouse films and reading non fictional stories revolving around the histories of places she has flown to. Thankfully, one of her main hobbies was yoga, which was easy for her to practice even when away from home. But look out, Ms. Cordes had a bit of a wild side. Uh oh! She had a lovely little tramp stamp tattoo, as well as a not at all google image one right above her right breast. Both of those went really nice with that fancy sports motorcycle she had... which Kaylee couldn't recall the name of it now. It didn't matter really.

What mattered was Valerie bought it all, hook line and sinker. It was a shame Ms. Cordes couldn't make the date tonight, on account of her not existing. Kaylee however, had made for some other arrangements instead. It would have been a shame if Valerie had dressed up for nothing...

She hadn’t ever had the pleasure of taking one before, but Tokyo cabs were a million times nicer than the ones in Seattle. Drivers were conversational and didn’t seem to get mad. Floors kept clean without so much as a speck of dust between the cushions. Helped that it was all free of charge, too, thanks to her biggest fans in the administration. She had to make sure to pat those guys on the back once everything went smoothly here.

Yup. It would have all felt perfect if weren’t for the fact that Zoey was running late. God damn it.

In her defense, traffic in Tokyo could be a nightmare even you knew every shortcut and turnabout like the back of your hand. Zoey had had the foresight to call for a pickup a half-hour ahead of schedule and it still wasn’t enough to beat the rush.

Crap. Nothing to do about it now, though. All she could do was stare out at the passing skyscrapers and dim lights from the evening windows as she went over the details in her mind. The person she needed to meet was already there. She was already informed of that much. Supposedly things weren’t too different from her bout with Jessica Wright a while back. Bad memories from that one. She was still feeling sore in a few spots, but she did her best to ignore as she tried to remember the rules. Hardcore. No referee. A bunch of covert surveillance. No pins. Knockout or submission. This time, however, leaving meant disqualification. How’d they’d managed to get permission to trash a camera a nationally renowned restaurant is beyond her, but she just couldn’t wait to get started.

Her opponent probably couldn’t either...damn it, damn it, damn it.

She felt bad. So bad, in fact, that she actually picked up some flowers on the way over. She was already holding her up anyway. What was wrong with a couple more minutes of boredom?

Sure, at the end of the day, it was just another match. They were here to fight, not sit around and talk current events, as fancy as the locale may have been. It would have been easy to blow things off that way. But Zoey was a woman of class. Kind of rough around the edges when push came to shove, but deep down she was a truly refined person. Would she expect to be treated like this? How could she keep someone waiting like this without a little something in return? Just horrible.

Soon enough, she pulled up in front of Fukamachi. She threw the cabbie and tip and hurried inside, nearly bumping into some fatso and spilling the roses out of the bouquet. One step through the door and Zoey already felt out of her skin somewhat. A real soirée, this joint. Tuxedos, cocktail dresses, strollers, homongi, furisode, irojumi. Almost made her feel stupid for just wearing her ring gear. But whatever. Not what she was here for. She glanced her phone and looked for the picture of the woman she was looking for. Some Russian babe is she remembered right. A look to the left. A look to the right. Annndddd...ah, there she was. There. She. Was.

Hubba hubba. Someone was pulling out all the stops tonight. Didn’t seem very smart to fight in that kind of getup, but she wasn't complaining. Really made her figure shine even from across the room. Must have been doing it for the cameras, where they were.  Maybe they could get some dinner afterward? Heh heh, no. Zoey walked up to her table, showing off those pearly whites with one hand on her hip and the flowers slung over her shoulder before making introductions.

“What up, gorgeous?” She scratched her nose. “Sorry, I'm late. Traffic’s a bitch this time of day.” She brought her finger from her nose to point it at the woman. “Valerie, right?”

This was how the worst night of Valerie’s life began.

She had been sitting there, growing more and more impatient with each passing second. Her date was running late, which was always a pet peeve of hers, but one she was willing to cope with - to a point. Five minutes turned to ten. Ten to fifteen. At twenty, she would seriously consider leaving and cutting her loses.

Valerie had just started on the final piece of complimentary bread, when she saw someone heading straight towards her in the corner of her eye. After a quick sigh of relief, she put on the best smile she could, prepared to laugh at whatever the excuse was, and stood up to face…

There were no adequate words to describe the look on her face when she stood up and saw Adalie’s face. If Valerie had to compare, it was the same face one would make after pouring a bowl of cereal, taking several bites, then noticing that a roach was swimming in the milk. The woman standing before her was...to be truthful, far from the ugliest person Valerie had ever seen. Asian, if she had to guess, with a fit body, and a certain ratty cuteness about her. She was dressed like she’d just come in from a workout.

But she had the flowers. She recognized her by name. So...maybe the picture she had on her profile was old? But she looked young, so…

She shook it off. Questions for later. Smile up, back straight, take the flowers. ”It’s no trouble, really.” She sighed and sniffed the flowers. ”I’m sure you’re worth the wait.” Valerie looked her way with a playful grin. ”Shall we?”

Cool. She wasn’t pissed. Or didn’t look it at the very least, which was also a good enough sign. Seemed to appreciate the flowers, too. She better have, because those things weren’t exactly the cheapest roots around.

Either way, Val seemed to be a pretty stand up gal. Heck, just all around pretty. Great complexion, shimmering blonde hair, pretty pink lips. It was hard to tell how much was just for today and how much just came natural, but it suited her either way. Hope she didn’t mind it all getting messed up a bit.

While her date gave the flowers a bit of a whiff, Zoey gave the place a quick look around. Nobody was really paying them any mind. Just a couple gals getting to know each other. Nothing to see here...yet. Waitresses were walking around with lots of platters and plates. Chefs were doing some live cooking along the counter next to the wall. The place wasn’t exactly in full swing, but that was fine. It was just good that there was plenty of space for them to do their thing.

What was more important, though, was that Val was ready to go. Time to rock.

“We shall.” She held up a finger. “Un momento.”

Zoey grabbed her chair by the seat and pulled it out from the table. She’d turn it sideways and set it in front of her, making sure the back of it wouldn’t get in the way between her and Valerie. Then, taking a couple steps back, she’d have a slight breath, look at her date and-

“HOWATAAA!”

-lunge forward and leap off the chair to throw a jumping roundhouse kick straight towards her head.

Perhaps this wouldn’t be so bad. Yes, Valerie didn’t care much for Adalie’s attire, but, well, she did live something of a busy life, right? Perhaps she hadn’t had time to slip into something more formal, or she hadn’t known how fancy an establishment this was. The latter made more sense to her. She should’ve stressed that more in their correspondence, this was on her.

It was a small thing, something she could move past, so they could have a nice, pleasant evening, and…

”Hm?”

Valerie looked on, befuddled and bemused, as Adalie moved a chair about in front of her. She sat the flowers down on the table and downgraded her smile to an unsure smirk, as if she knew there was a joke she was supposed to be getting, but couldn’t comprehend the punchline. ”What are you about to-”

Valerie had bought her shoes, just for tonight. Her old heels were broken, so that was a necessity. These were better, anyway. Black pumps, with a little lace in the front, a spiked heel. Cute, but with some edge to them.

Adalie’s kick knocked Valerie clean out of them. She didn’t even know that was a thing that could possibly happen.

It sent her flying away, sliding over a table that still had food on it from previous guests, sending forks and knives and napkins and plates and half-eaten crab flying from every direction. She came down hard and rolled about on the floor, twice, before grabbing hold of the nearest table and feverishly pulling her way up.

”что?!” She yelped the words out as she staggered, nearly slipping on the food for a moment. Her head flitted about, confused, trying to draw a bead on Adalie, while her brain struggled to wrap its head around what had just occurred and make some sense of it. So far, no luck. ”What, what is-”

This wasn't exactly what she had planned. In her mind Valerie would have gotten sloshed on wine while she was stood up, and gotten jumped outside by her overeager adversary here. When she had her the other woman was brash and a bit outspoken, she didn't expect her to take the fight inside the restaurant like this. While admittedly hilarious, and juicy as hell, it rendered using this as a prank video out the window. Tying her name to it, taking responsibility for what was going to be a lot of property damage, wasn't in the plan. She already had plans for this though. It would be easy to post this from a no name account, and with the right coaxing get it viral through her social networking. It would put a light big enough on Valerie she could still rip into her, and she wouldn't even know it was her doing.

She was thankful she was far enough away from the action to justify staying around. But given a fight was about to break out, no one would bat an eye bat an eye at the looky-loo recording it all. This was almost too good! She had subtly slipped her phone out from behind her menu to start filming the second Zoey had approached. She almost choked on her water at the sheer bluntness of it. The restaurant staff seemed utterly confused by her walking into a place like this, dressed like that, but nobody even tried to stop her. She thought they were going to step outside then Zoey pounced. Oh... she picked a good one.

Kaylee shot up from her chair, phone in hand as she screamed, like any other meek and hapless bystander would, drawing the attention of patrons and staff who hadn't seen the initial altercation. She backed away from the scene, phone up as she recorded it all. It was so hard to hide her smirk. Where were all your threats now Valerie?

Aw yeah! The Jae Oh Battlecry never failed her! Val must be quaking in her shoes in right about now. Or rather, she wasn’t anymore, considering Zoey had kicked her clean out of them. Didn’t even mean to do that. Damn, she was good.

The moment the TKD chick landed on two feet, she did a quick once around to see what kind of damage she’d done. Plates falling, people gasping, silverware clanking, fish getting burned. Yeah, more or less what she was expecting. Clearing the table with her opponent’s body, though? That was what really put a smile on her face. Looks like she was finally getting her groove back. Took long enough.

However, the next thing she saw was Valeri’s head poking up from over the table, albeit looking a bit taken off guard. That was a surprise, honestly, to see she was getting right back up from that already.. Tough chick. All right, guess she couldn’t play around here. Noted.

While her opponent was still on the recovery, Zoey hurried her way around the table, her vision staying the general area of Valerie while she looked for something to use on the way over. As luck would have it, one of the waitresses dropped their serving tray on the ground. Not far from the Russian blonde either. Someone was getting a tip after this.

As Zoey rounded the table, she’d dip down and pluck the tray from the floor with both hands. As she rose up to face the woman, she’d bring the tray right along with her, whipping it straight up and to smack Val right across the face with the sheet to send her tumbling right back against the table.

Valerie was, needless to say, a bit confused about...everything going on around her at the moment. Understandably so.

Her mind was still trying to piece together what was happening as she scrambled about the floor, reeling from the hellacious blow to her head. Her hair was starting to come loose with long, lopsided strands. Her brain was divided, half of it intent on finding a way to recover from the blow and defend for the future ones that were likely coming, while the other half was interested in finding out why she’d been attacked by her date in the first place.

Her date who, if she wasn’t mistaken, kicked like a professional kickboxer. That wasn’t in the bio, she was fairly sure.

Whatever the case, she needed to get up and regroup, think straight for a second. She was one her way to do just that, too, when she heard footsteps coming her way. She turned quick, spun about, and found herself looking into a tray, the moment before it slammed into her face. ”No-”

Her plea came to late. Valerie’s world went white for a second, and when it recovered, she was on her back, laying atop the table with her legs dangling off the side, staring up at the ceiling, watching stars dance across her vision.

Man. She kicked her out of her shoes. Zoey was still riding the high from when she noticed that little feat of amazing. Definitely putting that on the highlight reel.

The platter was still shaking long after Val had been laid out on the tabletop. It was as if the smack had been so powerful that the laws of magnetism had just gone haywire. Like the physical world couldn’t handle that much force at once. That wouldn’t have come as a big surprise. Zoey Jae Oh was the one who swung it after all.

She twirled the plate between her hands, letting the largest smile she could muster take over her face inch by inch. Yeah, she knows she said she shouldn’t take this too easily, but come on, she was on a roll here. Speaking of which, what to do next? Her eyes, however, were drawn to a nearby chair, left between the rows of tables by a patron too eager to get away from them than to push it back in after they got up.
How nice of them.

“Hold this, my good man.” She handed it off to the waiter. The employee’s mouth still hung open, his mind failing to process any of this at the moment.

Quickly, Zoey would scramble up onto the chair, placing one foot up on the back and pointing her fingers out to the crowd. Or whatever part of it wasn’t booking it for the doors. She’d turn back to Valerie, leap up, and jut her arm out, looking to send an elbow drop right into the woman’s gut and through the table.