Eye of the Tiger

This was tricky. Tricky, tricky, tricky.

Ryoko absolutely did not want to workout in her wrestling attire. It was functional and formfitting, sure, but for training it sort of sucked. She’d learned the hard way that it didn’t do too well when she got super sweaty, tending to soak easily and get her in all the wrong places. Not comfortable. Not even close to comfortable.

But at the same time, she didn’t want to give away too much of her body, because if AJ saw anything recognizable, like a scar or a scratch or something she’d seen on her out of costume, well…

Cover. Blown.

At the same time, she didn’t want to dress too heavy, workout and all. So she settled on a compromise, wearing a bright white AFW t-shirt, one that was a size too large, and tight, black leggings that covered her all the way to calves. She’d work a Zorro make to cover her face, a little something that she’d bought for a previous version of the costume but never got around to using, and tied her hair up in a bun, something she hadn’t done since her mother used to force her to. With any luck, that would make her look about an un-Ryoko as possible.

She was getting stares as she stretched off to the side, doing a little yoga on the floor, but she ignored them and kept an eye out for AJ. It was getting close to the time, and her friend was crazy punctual when it came to stuff like this, so...

While she hadn't had a chance to see Ryoko the last day or so, she had buried her friend in a mountain of texts informing her about her new situation under the tutelage of Black Fang. The young rookie seemed to think this was all she needed to get out of her recent losing streak, unintentionally mounting pressure on her friend who was in fact her new teacher. She seemed more committee to the idea that training under someone else were going to erase all her own shortcomings if she did well enough. That remained to be seen.

Alexa had headed to the gym a bit early, wanting to make sure she wouldn't wind up being late. It was close to her apartment, but you could never really account for what could happen on the way. She had stayed in the locker room though until it was closer to the agreed upon time, not wanting to come across as desperate or anything… she had a life, sorta.

Once her plain clothes were stored, she came out in her usual workout clothes. An old shirt with the word "SHAY" printed across the chest in a faded chipping font that once looked like it was made of diverted metal. The sleeves had been cut off and the shirt itself hung a bit loose on her, likely made to fit a guy rather than her. It was old merch from her father back in the day and his "Steel Body" gimmick. Underneath she wore a simple black sports bra that was sometimes visible with how open the holes with the missing sleeves were.

She wore dark grey shorts that had been full length sweats at some point which had also bit cut to be shorts, a cheaper alternative for some of the sporty more breathable options she might have found at the store. Ankle high socks and her usual beat up plain red and white sketchers. As per usual she wore her hair ties back into a ponytail, nothing but her long bangs framing her face.

With a small towel slung around the back of her neck and a large bottle of water with a few mostly melted ice cubes floating along the top she came from the back. The mostly empty gym made for an easy time finding the oddity in its midsts, the masked woman over by the corner doing stretches. It was strange not seeing Black Fang in her full getup, but even still she managed to look cool. She wished she had the confidence to go out masked like that.

"Hey." She called out from a distance, perhaps catching her teacher off guard as she came from the side opposite from the entrance. She tried to hold her head up high and walk with a bit of a spring in her step. As excited as she was, this was a bit terrifying. She had faced this woman in the ring before, even so, she was worried about calling short of expectations. It was almost like she wanted to make a good impression more than learn… she really did want both though.

The Black Fang had a little spare time, so she spent it going through her phone as she waited for AJ, seeing all the text messages that came her way. It was kind of weird to look at her inbox these days, noting how it had pretty much quadrupled in size she met the American. That was a statement which spoke to how active her friend was and how barren her social life was elsewhere, but she tried not to think too much on it. Kind of a depressing note, and she didn’t need that negative energy.

Today was for AJ. Today was her day.

She’d been getting into it - and maybe contemplating a quick game of Paper Toss - when she heard AJ’s voice. She spun about in a hurry and quickly tucked the phone away, not wanting her friend to get a good look at it - she might see the Pickachu-styled case and put two and two together.

Hi! Cool seeing you.” She threw up a quick peace sign to greet AJ, before stepping back to get a good look at her. She seemed a bit nervous, but that wasn’t too uncommon for her friend these days. It was a marked improvement over being depressed and sullen, and it was something she could work with. Just need to get her motor moving.

Focusing, she clapped her hands and nodded. ”So!” The Black Fang reached out and put a soft hand on AJ’s shoulder. ”Tell me, your own words - what are some things you’d like to improve? What should we work on?”

Under the scrutinising vision of her hero, any nervousness she had seemed to intensity. Regardless of the public setting, this was a rather personal affair for the two which left her without a confidence boosting lifeline of trying to save face for a crowd. She awkwardly fidgeted in place as Black Fang got a good look at her.

"Everything." She blurted out almost immediately. She sounded an odd mix of excited and desperate. Seemingly aware of how she sounded, the rookie found herself blushing in embarrassment, holding a hand up as if to request her teacher to wait as if Black Fang may walk away after that answer.

"I… don't really know what's wrong with me. I think I have decent fundamentals but I'm not sure. I normally train alone so I might be doing things wrong. So I guess maybe we can try… erm… setups and escapes? I know a lot of moves… a lot…" Her body swayed and eyes wandered as she spoke, unable to keep still. She had slipped a stand of her hair into the corner of her lips to gnaw on it in record time, a nervous tick Ryoko knew quite well from their interactions

"I don't really know how to get from a to b though." She motioned her hands side by side from the left to the right. "If I am in a match, I mostly have to do it raw or I can't transition into it… does that make sense? I am not rambling am I? Sorry."

Ryoko couldn’t keep a deep frown from coming over her face when her friend said that single word. ‘Everything’. It wasn’t just the word itself, but the way she said it. That defeated tone, the desperation. She really believed that there wasn’t anything amazing about her, and Ryoko just wished she could reach in her own head and show AJ all the great things she saw in her.

She let her keep going, though, didn’t stop her  until she finished what she had to say. When AJ was done laying it out, the Black Fang rubbed her chin, lost in thought for a moment, contemplating the best way to proceed with this.

”Your fundamentals are solid.” She spoke with confidence and nodded to cement the statement. Were she being honest, AJ was probably one of the best wrestlers she knew when it came to the basics. ”And knowing a lot of moves can be helpful. Really helpful. So...”

She took a few steps back and lowered into a classic grappling stance, nice and wide. ”Putting A and B together, right? Maybe it’s just a matter of you getting lost in the moment, working on your reflexes. Come at me, take me to the mat with a move, try to transition to something else before I have the chance to escape.”

That got a small smile out of Alexa. Black Can't always want her praises, be it after their one and only match or the brief exchange in the backstage area. Being noticed by your heroes felt good… not quite as good as actually living up to that praise within her mind, but it was a close second. She took in a deep breath, nodding firmly. She was determined and looked the part, watching her teacher through narrowed eyes while the gears in her mind churned.

Two moves… that wouldn't be hard. Wait no, not just two moves. She said to take her down and transition. Okay so two moves but one would have to get Black Fang on the ground the other had to follow. Was her teacher just going to take the first move though and only try and avoid the second? Shit. That definitely mattered. So something fast or hard to avoid that got her opponent on the ground…

Alexa's brow furrowed in worry as she stood there, only half lowered to a grappling stance as if turned to stone mid way. She was clearly nervous and more likely than not overthinking what was a fairly straightforward prompt. She was a small airplane hitting a wall of turbulence or a row now circling a whirlpool, sinking fast.

She stopped.

Stopped everything. Just closed her eyes and took a moment to breath. No crowds. No distractions. It was just the two of them here. She didn't have to worry about the ridicule or those murmured rumors about her in the back while it was just them here. Her eyes opened and she stepped in, trying to throw out her arms to lock in with Black Fang.

There was no feeling out process here, not during practice, so she immediately tried to break from the shoulder and elbow lock, tucking a shoulder in to shove Black Came back. Alexa would step in, thrusting her hip into her teacher's midsection. Both arms reached out trying to grab for the other woman to yank her forward, trying to drag her up and over her hip to flop into the floor with a pretty basic judo toss.

She tried to keep hold of the other woman at the wrist, shuffling to position herself perpendicular to her teacher on the mat. From here she would hop up, letting go of the arm to let her weight come down in a simple and clean leg drop across her upper body. She had trouble thinking of a two step move on the fly that wasn't just a takedown into submission. Maybe that was her issue.

That small smile was all it took to bring a jolt of joy back to Ryoko’s heart, cementing this whole thing as the right course of action, risks be damned. It wasn’t the exact smile she wanted to see right now, but it would more than suffice until she got the real thing back in full.

She shifted in her stance, not going too fast, not trying anything tricky. Not that she doubted her friend could handle it, she knew she could, but she wanted her to be as comfortable as possible through all this. At least when they were starting out. She could see the corner growing in her eyes, the uncertainty, like she was overthinking everything and second-guessing herself. It was good to be a thinker, Ryoko loved that about AJ, but too much of that in the ring could get your head slammed into the canvas. Repeatedly.

”Hey.” She whispered, her voice calm and soothing, using the same tone her own teacher had used. ”It’s cool, really. Relax. It’s just here. You’re not being graded or anything.”

Either AJ took her words to heart or was already in the process of telling herself that, because she came out like a shotgun immediately after, closing the distance with explosive speed and force. They locked up, but not for long, as she deftly moved about and tugged her into the hip, sending the Black Fang up and over with a solid hip toss. A nice one, too. Would’ve made any judoka proud.

It brought the Black Fang down on her back, and it was only because she was expecting something to follow it up that she saw the next move coming - a leg drop, coming straight to her chest. Her arm came up just in time, letting the blow smack down across her forearms. Far from the most pleasant sensation, but preferable to the alternative.  

”Good!” She let all of her enthusiasm coming out through her voice, as she laid there and held the position, only taking a quick second to adjust her mask. ”Okay, you’ve got me down, I’m hurt, not going anywhere for a few seconds. What now?"

There was a bit of awkward hesitation to her movements, unsure if she should be going all in or not. Her experiences training with another person was incredibly limited so much so she could only pull examples from back home before she had run off to Japan. In those cases though, she had been with someone else she knew as well. The likelihood of her ever hurting her old coach with a move was very unlikely, which may have also been the case here but Black Fang was different.

Alexa gave a soft grunt as her leg came down across something notably harder than the other girls chest, remaining seated after the move. She did for her part lift her leg slightly, making recurving instruction less awkward. Her eyes rolled upward in though, lips pursed when posed the next question.

"Well… there is always a head scissors, but it's not already set up so you could slide out when I rolled on my side. I guess I could…" she parted her legs, letting them drape over Black Fang's chest and head. She reached between her legs to grab hold of one of the other woman's arms, but didn't make an effort to be forceful, just guiding her teacher through the process of she was allowed.

"Armbar most likely, or just capturing the arm with my legs and putting on a wrist lock." If allowed she would demonstrate one then the other, though going through the motions rather than applying the holds. "Then there is also the less elegant…" She lifted her right leg, letting it seesaw up and down like it was on a hinge over Black Fang's head, showing that she could in theory be slamming it down over the other woman's face on its own or with a hold.

It was hard not to be impressed by AJ’s moves here - not just what she was doing, but the way she was executing them. Ryoko took pains to keep her moveset balanced, tried to foster a style that gave her plenty of options so she could be adaptive in a fight, but she lacked the sort of polish and practised ease that her friend did. It would never have occurred to her to do an armbar out of the leg drop like that, but AJ made it seem like a natural progression.

”That’s good…” She tensed up a bit when AJ grabbed her arm, pure reflex, but eased up and let it happen after a moment. ”Not enough people use transitions like this in the AFW, I think. Most people are like - Boom, move, boom, move, boom, move. It’s kind of rare to see people linking things together, so you’ve already got a good thing going, here.”

She shifted a bit on the floor, trying to get comfortable without pulling her way free, letting AJ continue. ”It’s good that you have options, too. Let’s you stay dynamic, work with different opponents.” She rolled her tongue about her lips, thought for a moment, then perked up. ”How do you work the body when your wrestling? Like, do you focus on any specific parts, have anything you’re targeting?”

"Eh… yeah. I tried the whole "boom, move" thing, then the next set of boom moves tend to always be on me. It's sorta why I think transitions are important… for me at least." Alexa let her grip on Black Fang's arm fall free, not sure if she should continue to play crank at it while they talked shop or not. With a few small scoots on her rump away, she was no longer trapping her teacher under her legs anymore.

Crossing her legs Indian style she rested her palms on her ankles, a slight forward lean a marking of bad habits and posture. She rocked lightly as they conversed, a subconscious nervous tick that went side by side with chewing on things, most notably her hair.

"I don't really know what to do with that. I kinda just take what I can get. Like…" She sighed softly, scratching her face up. "So when you work a part of the body, should you be focusing on going for a weakness to fish for a tap, or focus on their strengths to make them less threatening? I just wind up flip flopping mid match and it obviously hasn't worked out for me." She let out a tired huff, deflating visible.