Una Lección del Maestro

Mako Adachi:

Mako had been in a really bad mood lately. Recently, her first ever loss in Tension was against a man who not only looked down on women everywhere, but he also won with a cheap shot to her crotch! Honestly, next time she saw him, he was dead! It even didn’t have to be a match, the shark just wanted his head on a pike, which was why she just couldn’t stay in her home any longer.

It was really starting to get ugly just sitting around in her big empty house. Having so much room to be alone with her angry thoughts was just driving Mako mad. The problem was that the shark couldn’t do her normal routine either. On the night she lost to Dasher, Mako went to a bar and was banned after only an hour when she caused the biggest brawl the bar had ever had. So in an attempt to make sure she wasn’t banned from another place she liked, the young woman decided to go somewhere new.

That place being a gym she’d heard about from a friend. The guy said she’d love it there, but didn’t say why. Mako just figured it was filled with hot women, but anything was possible.

The place wasn’t too hard to find, a little bit of a walk, but nothing too bad. If she liked this place enough to come back she’d probably drive her car or something, though. Mako arrived at the place around noon, wearing jeans and a coat over her tank top. The gym looked kinda average, had a nice sign and all on the front…but that’s not what got the shark’s attention. There was a man out front…sitting at table…and next to him was a large poster board reading…

“BEHOLD! THE DASHER CHALLENGE SIGN UP SHEET!"

Of all the things that could’ve happened…this was by far the worst. For some fucking reason, the guy was trying to get random girls to sign up to fight Dasher. It didn’t look like anyone had signed it…and it looked like the guy was getting some odd glances by the woman passing by or entering the gym. The only woman that wasn’t looking at him like he was a creep was Mako…who was burning a hole into his head as she walked up to him from the side.

“HEY FUCK FACE!” the shark would shout from the right of him, causing the man to spasm and fall from his chair. “YOU JUST PICKED THE WRONG FUCKING PLACE TO DO…THIS!!!” she’d scream while motioning to the sign up board that actually had two faces on it that were covered by "X’s”. One of the two was a tough looking, bald women, and the other had short, black and yellow hair…just like Mako’s...

“Is…is that supposed to be my face!?” Mako would ask before she started to look back and forth between the board and the man. The poor guy was too stunned to reply though as it looked like he was still trying to catch his breath from the shock she had given him.

“IS THAT SUPPOSED TO BE MY FUCKING FACE!?” she’d shout before flipping shit...literally in fact as she tossed the table over. Sending all of the guy's papers into the air as he started to crawl backwards. “You have ten seconds until I break you balls like egg shells…but before I do…can you tell me WHY you’re set up here of all places!?”

The poor guy couldn’t give her a straight answer, though, as he began to stutter horribly. Unable to get even one word out as Mako stared at him like he was an idiot. Her jaw slightly open as she couldn’t believe how hard it was to get a simple answer from him.

Carmen Rodriguez was a woman of many life goals, someone who liked trying out new things and setting higher standards to aspire to. It was that sort of drive that had gotten her marked success as a boxer, and currently as a wrestler. When she set herself to something, she focused on it, made it a top priority. That was her way in life, and it remained true no matter what she was doing, up to and including her ownership of the gym.

That being said, it could be boring at times. Achingly boring. Agonizingly boring.

Her office was on the second floor of the gym, overlooking the street below, not that she was in any position to appreciate the view. She currently had her nose deep in paperwork, and that was all she had the time to contemplate. Taxes needed to be filed, which meant there was a slew of paperwork to be done for the gym and its growing list of members. She didn't have anyone to handle that yet, so the options were either to trust Army with it or to do it herself. Not being crazy, she chose the latter option, handling the work herself.

She’d been making decent progress on it, too, stopping every now and then to work out something with her lawyer to get clarification on this item or that, when her concentration was broken by something else entirely. Someone was yelling outside, which wasn’t the most unusual thing - Kyoto was far from the best city when it came to noise pollution. Whoever this was, though, it sounded like she was causing a real ruckus. Right out of Carmen’s establishment. That needed to end.

With a deep sigh, she pushed off her desk, made the long trudge down the steps, and came outside, storming through the door and sticking her head out. There she found a man and a familiar looking woman getting into it, with the woman tossing around his signs like a fight was about to break.

”Hey! You two!” She yelled their way. ”Knock it off before I call the cops!”

Mako was angrier than she'd ever been before. This prick had forced her to lose it, big time, and if someone didn't stop her...best case scenario was that this guy was heading to the hospital. Then the one thing that could get the shark to stop happened...someone said they were calling the cops.

Having grown up around crime all her life, Mako had learned to stop everything and be ready to run when someone mentioned the cops. Sure she had never involved in her organized crime roots, but she'd been taken to the precinct every now and then. Plus with her history of street fighting, bar fighting, pit fighting, and so on, the shark knew when the cops showed up she was supposed to run.

Now there were two ways she could handle this, run, or talk her way out of this. Mako knew that the smart thing to do was to run, but she still wanted to send this guy to the hospital. So looking back at the newcomer, the shark decided to use her "people skills" to somehow get away with assaulting this guy. One look at the woman, though, and Mako couldn't speak a word.

It was mother fucking Carmen Rodriguez. THE mother fucking Carmen Rodriguez. One of the top badasses in Tension, and a former Olympian. Suddenly, speaking was becoming a lot more difficult...

"Uuuuhhh.....Hi!" Mako would shout back while waving at the woman awkwardly. She had no clue what to say now that a top fighter was right in front of her. "So um...my name's Mako...and uh...can I just have like five minutes with this guy? Trust me he really deserves to get his ass kicked..." she would say knowing this was never going to work as she gestured towards....he was already gone...shiiiiit...

Looking back to see the guy was already turning a corner downtime street, the shark would watch as the object of her hate got away. Mako couldn't fucking believe it. For a skinny, little bitch in a suit he sure could run. The problem was now that he had gotten away, the shark was left with a whole lot of rage that she needed to release.

"Well...thanks for telling me he was running..." she would shout sarcastically at the woman. Getting mad at Carmen was not what she wanted...but right now the young hot-head couldn't help it. "Great now I'm mad at Carmen Rodriguez! Could this day get any worse!?" Mako thought to herself before picking up the big poster board and walking it to the gym owner.

"FYI...I think you would have beat his ass too if you saw this!" the shark would shout before showing Carmen their X'ed out faces on Dasher's little advertising campaign.

Carmen Rodriguez was confused. It was a common feeling since she joined the AFW. It seemed like she found herself in some strange, wrestling-based situation at least once a week, even when she didn’t have match. Like her job never really stopped, in-ring or out-ring. When she was a boxer, she scarcely ever ran into her opponents in the street, never had any major unscheduled conflicts with them. As a wrestler, it happened all the time. All the time.

Today, it seemed, was no different, as she found herself staring at an oddly familiar woman in front of her building.

Her head tilted to the side, a slight dip, as the woman introduced herself. Mako. She knew that name, and now that she heard it out loud, the memories came flooding back. A fellow Tension wrestler, one who’d been making a few waves the past year. Carmen had seen enough of her to know she was no scrub, and to know that Dasher would’ve likely disagreed, given how their match had went. Then again, Dasher would've likely thought the same for every single female wrestler on the planet. So.

Nonetheless, she took notice of what Mako had to say, all the way until her hapless ‘victim’ wound up running for the hills.

Mako startled her for a moment with the sudden yelling - for a woman nicknamed after a shark, she was quite excitable. She followed her pointing to the sign and, sure enough, there was picture of Dasher’s shining mug, still taunting her months after they’d left the ring.

Carmen had managed to keep stone-faced for the most part, but just saying that face put a wrinkle on her brow. She straightened it out after a moment, though, and looked back toward Mako, thinking for a moment. ”There’s a dumpster in that alleyway over there.” She thumbed towards it. ”Toss it in there, then come inside and I’ll fix you some tea.”

With that, Carmen stuffed her hands in her pocket and made her way back into the building.

Mako knew she was letting out her anger on the wrong person. She knew it and yet she kept on shouting. If by some chance she managed to make a good impression it’d be a miracle. Surprisingly enough, though, Carmen was doing a pretty good job of staying cool and standing her ground. Mako could learn a few things from her example. The Puerto Rico native even managed to stay calm after seeing Dasher’s little jab at her. Something Mako had failed at completely.

So when Carmen told the shark to toss it in the trash over in the alleyway, she decided to listen. It was where anything with Dasher’s face on it belonged, honestly.

“Uh...sure thing.” Mako would say before Carmen went back to her gym. She was a little surprised that the woman would invite somebody who’d just got done shouting in her face to tea. Whatever her reasoning was, though, Mako wasn’t going to turn Carmen down. She had already been coming to this gym, anyway, and the shark didn’t have a reason to turn back. Plus, it seemed like the cops were no longer getting called.

So after walking down to the alley with the sign, Mako would open up the closest dumpster and toss in the sign. Looking down at Dasher’s face, the shark couldn’t help but spit on it before slamming the lid shut. With that done, Mako would start dusting off her hands as she walked out from the alley. The shark would then head through the door of the gym and walk right into the building.

Looking around, Carmen's gym looked pretty nice. It had some good equipment for lifting weights, punching bags, and all sorts of other stuff. Then looking around for the owner herself, Mako would call out to see where her host was.

“Hey Carmen! Where you at!?” Mako would shout as she walked around the gym a little. Maybe there was a back office or something around here. Standing close to a ring, Mako decided to just stay put until Carmen showed up. She was probably just getting some tea, after all. So the shark would wait for the woman to come to her. Wandering around inside a new place just seemed too odd. She’d probably end up somewhere she shouldn’t be, and that would just be really awkward for her.

So taking a seat on the ring apron as she leaned against the ropes, Mako would wait for Carmen to come back.

True to her word, Carmen went off to make some tea while Mako waited below. In part, she did it to be polite. The woman was clearly under some stress, not in the calmest mood, so she figured it would help her simmer down a bit after all the noise outside. But, also, she did it to give her a moment to think about the possible opportunity that had just fallen into her waiting lap.

She’d seen this woman in action before, enough to know that she was fairly talented, one of the more promising prospects on the Tension roster, and that she deserved better than the nonsense that had happened with Dasher. What to do about that, though…

After taking a few minutes to think, she made her way back down the stairs with a tray in hand, bringing two piping hot cups of tea along with her. Her footfalls echoed around the area. It was a slow day, and they had the gym mostly to themselves, save for a couple of girls cross-training on the other side.

”I’m here.” She answered Mako as she approached and sat the tray on the apron beside her. She motioned for her guest to help herself, then took a cup for herself. She had a sip, savored it for a moment, then spoke. ”So. What are you thinking? I’m curious.”

Mako would watch as Carmen returned while carrying a tray with some cups of tea. It was probably more than the shark deserved for venting on the woman like that, but it wasn’t like she’d turn it down. Carmen was being pretty nice and cool headed…Mako needed some of that honestly. So when the Puerto Rican woman placed the tray on the apron and gestured her to take one, the shark obliged by picking one up and taking a sip.

“I think this tastes pretty sweet…what kind is it?” Mako would ask as she looked up at Carmen while resting back against the ropes of the ring on the apron. The woman was pretty tall, had about three or so inches on the shark. She was pretty tough looking too. Her muscles looked like they’d been chiseled out of marble. Realizing that Carmen probably wasn’t talking about the tea, though, Mako tried to correct herself.

“Oh wait…you weren’t talking about the tea…if you meant about the scene I started outside…I’m just so pissed. I’m betting you saw what happened in my match with Dasher. Everyone did. It’s just so hard to stay calm when an asshole who’s basically just in the ring to undermine all women ends up being the first guy to beat me in the ring.” Mako would explain as she let the gym owner know what was on her mind.

“That’s what pisses my off the most, honestly. The fact that it was my first loss in tension. Sure I already lost once in friction to a girl named Alaina…but back then I lost because she earned it. With Dasher...I lost because I got low blowed in the crotch…that’s what really gets under my skin…” the shark would say with a heavy sigh as she looked down at her own reflection in the drink. “But here’s my question to you Carmen. Why do you care? I mean, I think it’s really nice that you do. Seriously, thank you. But why are you giving up your time to listen to the bitch who was just shouting at you like five minutes ago?”

Mako hoped she wasn’t sounding like a whiny bitch. Sure she sounded like a loud ass bitch already, but to her the former was actually worse. Either way Mako would just wait and listen to see what Carmen would say in response. After all, it was really bugging the shark why anyone would put up with her in the state she was in.

This was going better than Carmen had envisioned, honestly. She’d heard stories about Mako, seen her in action, and the general feeling was that she had a hot temper, was took quick to run into things. A few people she knew even thought of her as some kind of villain. But, for the moment, she seemed agreeable and approachable, sociable and polite. Whether that would last, she couldn’t say, but the prospects were good.

She liked her tea at least. That was a good start.

”Thank you. It’s raspberry.” She sat her cup to the side, and let Mako speak her peace. Sure enough, she had a lot to get off her chest, and sure enough, it had a lot to do with her loss to Dasher. Losing match to a man like that through cheating was a dark stain on anyone’s career, and one that she hoped to get erased.

But she asked a good question: why did Carmen care so much.

She took a moment to think before she spoke, then nodded. ”I was in the same boat, so you can call it sympathy. I know what getting screwed over by Dasher feels like.” She sighed, remembering that sham of a match. ”Are you thinking of taking him on again?”

Raspberry? That surprised the shark as she thought it tasted more like cherry flavored. But that wasn't what she cared about right now. Mako was focusing much more on Carmen's agenda and why she was so curious about the stranger she'd just met. The woman took a moment to speak, and when she did it was a pretty simple answer. Carmen had been screwed over just like Mako, so the veteran fighter felt like she understood what the younger woman was going through.

She seemed to be upset over her match with Dasher as well judging from her heavy sigh. It looked like both women were pretty upset, the difference between them being that Carmen was handling it better the Mako was. Then came the next question. Was she going to take him on again?

"Oh hell yeah! I'm not about to let a guy beat me with a low blow and get away with it. If I did, other assholes would start thinking they can try the same thing!" Mako would respond loudly but not angrily. "Next time thing I'm gonna be out for blood. And there's no way I'll let him pull some cheap ass stunt again."

Mako would then pause and take another sip from the cup of tea before setting it down on the ring apron. Then looking back up at Carmen, she'd start speaking again.

"You're going after him too, right? I mean he clearly needs an uppercut to that smug jaw of his." Mako would say with a chuckle as she imitated a boxing uppercut. The had to admit she was starting to feel better as she talked with Carmen. Something about it was just relaxing for her. Kinda like she was slowly letting out all of her frustrations as she talked about them. It was like therapy, but instead of a old guy, she had a a pretty badass woman to talk about it with.

Mako didn’t lack for energy, Carmen had to give her that. She could easily see how that could be turned into a negative, but also how it could work to serve the younger woman. It was the kind of agressiveness, she wished she saw more in her own students, if she was being frank about it. An abundance of energy was something she could work with, a sword that needed tempering. Not enough energy, though? That was a harder challenge. The difference between a sculptor having too much clay on his table and no clay at all.

She did motion for Mako to keep it down a bit, though. All the yelling was not necessary.

”Oh, he certainly needs an uppercut to the jaw. Among other things.” She nodded Mako’s way with a soft smile. ”But I’m not sure I’m the one to give it to him. Truth be told, I’m thinking of taking a break from wrestling, if just for a little while. Maybe going to Momentum and seeing how well my boxing arms are doing. Back to my roots.”

She looked down at her fist and gave it a good squeeze, getting anxious just thinking about it. While she loved Tension, she was a boxer from birth, and a part of her always craved to return to the four ropes, if only for a little while. With things beginning to pick up in that league, she saw the opportunity to scratch that itch.

She broke out of her reverie and looked back up at Mako. ”When do you intend to go after him? Soon?”