Friendly Face to Face

It was a beautiful day in Kyoto. Birds were chirping about, vibrant flora was in bloom, and the park Nami had set to meet her best friend Natsuko at was sparsely traveled mid afternoon during a weekday. She had chosen this particular one due to not only its closeness to the Tension arena, but the playground that was very reminiscent of one the two girls lived near back home.

It was the perfect place… for an ambush.

There was an unspoken rule of one upsmanship at play when it came to Nami. One might say she was fiercely competitive, others might simply call it an annoying little sister complex. It was part of who she was though, having found a rival in her best friend Natsuko, it was a no brainer that she would try to emulate the other girl's successes and try to surpass her achievements. That was what friends did, right? So what if it tended to be a mostly one sided thing or if it made some of their interactions needless awkward.

Many of the normal trappings of a playground were here, monkey bars, swings, see-saws, a merry-go-round. Most of these were newer and garishly bright with how they were colored. One structure however stood among them all, the centerpiece of history that outlasted many of the other attractions. A massive stone frog, painted who's ago with now faded and chipping paint. It sat proudly, its front legs making up a curved ramp with uneven clickable mounds leading up inside the frog's head. Its mouth was opened wide, tongue stretching out to the ground in a long curved slide.

Here she was huddled, partially hidden, waiting for her prey. Phone in hand, she glanced at the screen for texts updating her of Natsuko's coming. She would peek out from behind the cheeks of the frog to look out across the playground as well, making sure she was covering all her bases. She was dressed casually, a short cut white top with an exposed midriff and no sleeves underneath some denim overall shorts with the straps up. She sported her lucky red and white sneakers with her long socks rolled down to bunch up at her ankles. At a glance she also looked like she belonged here, the only oddity, in how she was dressed anyway, was her red headband.

Spoiler:

Luckily for a certain panting tomboy, Natsu had long since mastered the laborious juggling-act of jogging and texting at the same time. A task she had ample practice for, what with her being perpetually tardy for her morning high-school classes due to her flagrant abuse of punching her ringing bed-side clock and nodding back to sleep when the poor machine was merely performing it's task of waking her up on time. Her disciplined older brother being the final say as to whether she was going to school or not by literally rolling her out of bed and hauling up the entire mattress at a slanted angle, Natsu languishing in a disheveled heap in her unmentionables underneath a mountain of comforters and fluffy pillows. Though now that her big bro was off fighting around the world, there was no-one around to aid her out of bed anymore...which was why her schedule was all screwy today.

Still...she was making good time. She hoped, anyway. Natsu seeing that this was not the case as she repelled with a collar tugging grimace at the current time on her cell-phone. Even after shaving some minutes off from her usual morning work-out, she was still cutting it kinda close with her appointed rendezvous with someone she'd feel terrible for making wait. Seeing as the Tension gym was so close to the park Nami wanted to hookup at, she figured she could work in a quick sess' after scarfing down some breakfast on her day off from wrasslin in Tension and from her part-time gig being one of the hype-girl's for a massive video-game arcade uptown. Honestly sometimes she pondered as to which of her jobs was the more stressful...at least in the ring she could sock her nuisances in the kisser...all this and more was fluttering through her mind as she jogged in place at a crosswalk. Waiting patiently for the go-ahead walking dude to flash before she went off sprinting once more into the cheerful looking park, white bandana fluttering in the breeze. Adorned in a red tracksuit jacket with white lining around the zipper and collar, only with a free-flowing skirt instead of her track pants that was more accommodating for the warm weather.

"...*phew*...Made it~..." Natsu noted to herself as she pumped the brakes with her Converse sneakers skidding to a screeching halt, the school-girl flailing wildly before proudly propping her balled fists on her hips. Beaming merrily and taking in the gorgeous scenery, including all the kids nearby playfully screaming from games of tag or making liberal use of all the swings and slides and stuff. Warm nostalgic fuzzies started ruminating about in her head...whilst standing in front of a well-sculpted stone statue of a frog...seemingly unaware's as to all else transpiring around her...defenseless...untilsheabruptlyduckeddowntopicksomethingupoffthefloor...

"Oh, a coin~..."

"Natsu… where are you~?" Nami whispered in a soft singsong tone, holding looked fingers up over her eyes like binoculars. Sure, it didn't really help her see further, but it did have the unintended side effect of helping to mask her further. Suddenly, she felt hairs on the back of her neck rise… she was being watched. Turning she was left face to face with a small black haired boy staring at her while she faxed back with her finger glasses.

"What do you want, I'm on... a stakeout." The brunette lowered her hands slowly, giving the child a look of cool interference as if she had just delivered a witty one liner and removed a pair of sunglasses.

"I wanna slide." The young boy looked to the frog tongue, raising an arm to point.

"Eh?" Nami peered over to the big red slide. In truth, she really wasn't positioned in a way that would prevent the kid from using it but she didn't want to draw attention.

"Slide is off limits. Sorry...hrr!" Nami suddenly jerked back, throwing an arm wide to pull the boy out of view with her. Natsuko was here! The moment was finally upon her.

"You're weird." The boy chimed in, ducking under her arm as he scuttled past, hopping on the edge of the slide to coast away with impunity. It left Nami watched, pressed into the inner wall of the frog's cheek, paranoid her cover had been blown.

"No... you're weird." She whispered with a huff.

Upon a second look, Natsuko just seemed to be looking around, unaware she was about to be heated by her bestie. With a giggling cackle, she slinked away from the wall, roadie running towards the slide, keeping her head down. With a hop, she planted her soles on the surface, surfing her way down to the bottom with only a muted squeal. Being found out now wouldn't matter, Natsuko was fast but she couldn't possibly stop Nami at this distance… the brunette pumped her arms as she flashed through the thinly laid out cedar chips, hurling herself at her friend to try and glomp her from behind!

"Oh shoot!" She came and went like a bullet, zooming over her ducked friend to be sent free and clear through the air. With a surprised cry she hit the ground in an impressive side, leaving a path of dispersed wood chips and loose soil like a ufo crash landing. Nami groaned softly, laying in her failures. "Hey Natsu…"

While by no means a penny-pinching tightwad, Natsu couldn't help but grow up with an inherent sense of frugality. Money was almost never an abundant resource in her humble abode, not when the typical breadwinner of her family had long since passed on and left that immense responsibility upon her mother. Her older brother and herself chipping in to help with the bills once they were old enough to start contributing themselves through side jobs and martial arts tournaments winnings, but until than every yen mattered. Up to and including wearing hand-me-down clothing from her older brother from time to time...not that she minded considering how much she idolized the big lug. But there were times she swore he had to have closets full of nothing but the same old white gi...

Regardless, Natsu couldn't help herself when she spotted the glimmering sparkle from a floored coin practically winking at her. Free money was free money in her mind~...and well worth the simple task of just bending over and-...*whoosh*...-Natsu perked up to her feet with wide-eyed innocence. Swearing she just felt a swift breeze just pass her by, and hearing someone go whizzing by at the same time, Natsu pivoted her head from side to side to find the source of the disturbance. At first imagining it as some type of flying raccoon...until she darted her eyes forward. Recognizing that ponytail anywhere. Natsu swelled up with jubilation and swiftly stuffed what turned out to be 500 yen into her jacket pocket, than sprinted besides her face-planted, dirt-eating compatriot.

"...whew, yah almost had me that time. I uh, I think that's attempt eighty-nine, though. But hey look on the bright side~..." Natsu remarked before reaching down to aid her absolute bestie off of the freshly cut grass, tenderly tugging her upward by maneuvering one of Nami's arms over Natsu's shoulders and standing her up beside eachother. Once back on their feet, Natsu stepped right in front of Nami and mindfully started wiping off any dirt from her clothes and plucking out any stray grass from her hair. "...if this were baseball, you'd have been safe by a country mile~..." Upon completing her big-sisterly duties and checking to make sure Nami doesn't have scrapes or scratches, she paused briefly with both hands taking a firm grip on her bestie's shoulders. The schoolgirl brawler was all warm and congenial smiles, positively beaming from seeing her BFF again. "Hey, Nami..."

Nami was content to lay here for a while. Just sink into the wood chips and grass and vanish from existence. She just knew that little kid she met atop the frog slide was going to judge her now. After all, she had condemned the frog off limits to the park patrons all for this moment, another failed attempt to best her bestie.

Nami's arms were like wet noodles as they were guided up around Natsu's shoulder. A pitiful blob of a girl being scooped from the ground by her friend, lending to real and to the process of rising. Woe was her, this wretched girl who would plan such an elaborate trap only to fail.

"Ninety." The boneless husk of a girl replied with a whispy groan. The number was an ambiguous thing, the start of the running tally was a thing of debate. She knew Natsu wasn't counting one of their early exchanges when they were kids. After being saved from bullies she had meant to hug her knight in shining school uniform but had tripped on a rock and eaten dirt. Much like now really.

Her incredibly convincing act of being a dead body immediately sizzled away when Natsu managed to salvage the failure turning it into something positive. It perked Nami up instantaneously, allowing the brunette to find her footing and stand without aid. She couldn't help but give her friend a huge grin, even as she was babied and cleaned up like a child. She didn't care really, at all. Attention was her lifeblood and Natsu was always generous when it came to that… it was probably one of the things that she loved most about her. Such a huge heart… plus she was pretty much the coolest… oh! And that track jacket looked really good on her! Nami practically staring with stars in her eyes, propping her best friend up impossibly high on a pedestal.

"Haha, yeah! Swing for the fences, right Natsu?" That was a baseball saying, right? "I am so glad you could make it! I wasn't sure if you would be able to since you are being a star and stuff now." Nami was priming with pride by proxy, the type of girl to easily point to successes of people around her and claim to know them. It wasn't really her trying  to brag, just happy to be involved in some way even if it was only as a passerby.

"I saw you knock out the fast food guy in ONE punch. Ho-ly cow that was AWESOME! Was that a new move? Did you harness all your chi for it? Oh oh! What did you name it, the knock out punch, it needs a really cool name. What about… um, um… what about the "Natsu-Fast"?! Get it, cause it's like saying "Not so fast!" And stopping them dead, but it uses your name and the fact you knock people out like, immediately. I think it has legs. Big strong legs... like tree trunks." Nami did what she normally did, ramble. Talking on and on, obliviously to any real interjections of thoughts her friend might have had on the matter.

Scraping her disheveled bestie off of the ground after another failed hugging tackle attempt. Salvaging Nami's dirt-caked pride while chatting up about sports and junk. What a nostalgic blast from her not so distant past~...her carefree high-school days barely in her rear-view mirror and it felt like decades had passed. Seeing Nami again really made her think back and reflect on how much her world got turned upside down since last seeing her bosom buddy. Her older brother initially signed up alongside her, but soon afterward high-tailed it for a globe-trotting journey of self-discovery through fighting random people in the streets. She'd been knocked down but than got up again from her debut loss to her redemption feud with the Burger King. She wound up hobnobbing and buddying up with Tensions GM. She'd gotten a sidegig being a hostess at an arcade down in Akihabara. Sheesh, one year in Tension felt like...SEVEN, in the real world. So seeing Nami smile again...and being relieved that she hadn't changed one iota...just filled her with old kinds of nostalgic fuzzies. But HOO BOY, was this a whole heapin lot of undue praise being levied upon her~...it really was like old times!!!

"Ha, yeah well...I just wish he'd gone down that easy the second time around. I kinda got a name for that move already, but maybe I should rename it the "Lucky Shot"...cause that was prolly the only reason I beat him so easy the first time." Natsu remarked with a sheepish smile whilst scratching the side of her cheek, eyes closed as she reminisced about her Burger-Time feud and how hard that sucker-punching knucklehead could hit once he was finally given the opportunity to. Meanwhile, the boy who'd been waiting for Nami to go down the froggy slide was finally doing so himself behind Natsu, than standing up to stick his tongue out at her and give Nami a full-blown raspberry before scurrying off. "But come on, I ain't now big star or nuthin. Certainly not big enough to miss out on chillaxing with my BFF!!!" Natsu ending her words with a sudden chummy side headlock on her bestie, wrenching it in with a playful noogie before relenting and motioning for them to start walking and talking. So they could see the sights of the park and enjoy the windy breeze while also shooting the breeze. "Sooooooo, why don't ya tell me what you been up to?! You can see me on T.V. every other week and follow my life along, but there's no cameras following you around. Whatcha been up to since graduating? Got any big plans, major moves and junk?"

"Lucky shot? No frickin' way! He was talking all sorts of junk and you knocked his block off. He should have been paying better attention, so that was totally fair and square. He should have taken you seriously… you proved it wasn't a fluke when you beat him again…" Nami's pep talk faded off at the end as her attention turned momentarily to the boy blowing a raspberry her way. She narrowed her eyes, motioning two fingers towards them before pointing them towards him. He was on notice. If Natsu tried to look at what she was doing, the brunette would clap her hands on her friends shoulders to keep her front facing.

"You are so humble too! You pretty much are the gr-urk!" Nami was yanked forward into a headlock. She kicked and flailed, tugging back as her hair was missed up by being noogied into submission. When she was released, the young girl stumbled and stood up, playing if off like she was cool and collected… just with her hair jutting out to either side of her head.

She gave a firm nod to her wordless suggestion to walk, taking a few jogging strides to put herself at her friends pace so they could be side by side. "Oh, you know. A little bit of this, a little bit of that." She was dripping with that time that screamed "I know something you don't know." Which, for someone so often left in the dark, was a big deal for Nami. "I'm actually out this way now, not just visiting."

Nami was practically grinning ear to ear, softly chuckling despite her attempts to hold back a laugh. Rather then explain, she fished out her wallet from the front pocket of her overalls, opening it up. From two fingers she produced a laminated card, holding it out to Natsu. A Tension ID, with Nami's name and face on it. The young girl waited with bated breath to see her friend's reaction.

...okay, maybe Natsu appreciated the fawning adulation a teensy tiney bit. The schoolgirl brawler remembering back in high school having to reign in Nami at times whenever she started heaping on the compliments like that, but she never took for granted just how highly Nami thought of her. It actually kinda made her want to better herself and strive to be the role model Nami envisioned herself as. By right now, Natsu was just appreciating having someone in her life who had her back again. Whose admiration and shimmering positivity helped to balance out all the negative ickiness that had been stewing about in her noggin. A brisk wind picking up and bringing a flutter to Natsu's white bandana and Nami's ponytail as they walked along the paved walkway and took in the vibrant Summer scenery. Natsu was more than content to have things stay just the way they are now, with her crazy "Tension" life and normal everyday schoolgirl life be effectively separated.

"What? Come on, what's so funny~..." Natsu queried with a giggle from noticing how her sidekick was obviously hiding something behind that brimming smile of hers, the little rascal finally coming clean with a laminated card from her wallet."Oh, you've got your driver's license!! Way to g-" Natsu balked when she recognized the layout as the same Tension I.D. she has, plucking the card out from Nami's hand and bringing it right up to her face. Her widened eyes zipping from the smiling photo on the I.D. to her bestie sporting the same beaming smile. "Namiiiiii...are you crazy?!" Natsu groaned with a mewling pitch, a worried grimace spread across her face before she affixed both of her gloved hands on Nami's shoulders. "Why didn't you tell me about this beforehand? These guys aren't just random thugs hanging by a pier that we used to beat up after school!!! These Tension people are NO joke!!! There's bowl-cut behemoths who can twist you into a pretzel!!! There's creepy dudes with Tiger masks and biker ladies who could bend you over their shoulders no problem!!!"

"That's my name~" Nami bubbled with her own laughter, wishing she had the forethought to ready her phone to snap a picture of Natsu's priceless expression. Clearly her friend was overcome with not only joy, but stunned excitement they would be together again. Back to back, taking on the world of wrestling. It was like the old days... a few years ago. Just now they were getting paid, and Nami had some legit training. Well... at least enough to claim she had actual training. dojos and training camps were hard work and she didn't have time to slow down and study. That was school stuff and she was totally done with school. No homework anymore, she was a big girl now.

"Crazy EXCITED!" She bobbed in her sneakers, she brought her arms up to clap hands on Natsu's shoulders as well. Mistaking her concerned gesture for one of mutual happiness. She hopped a bit, bouncing her buddy with her.

"Um... I don't know... Maybe because that is what surprises are? Its hard to keep things a secret if I just go blabbing to you about it before hand Natsu, jeez." Despite having the stakes laid down before her, her friends words just seemed to slip into one ear and go spiraling off out the other. She was laughing now, in her warm goodhearted way. "You were gone for like, a whole year! I have gotten way better. I am a professional butt kicker now. Hwah!" Nami twisted her body, spinning out of Natsu's grip and deftly snatching her ID card back with a single motion. She held the card between her fingers, locked in a tense pose like the finishing blow dealt by a martial artist after a climatic fight. "Choooo~."

"I'm going to take..." She paused briefly to turn the card over, scanning the words. Once she found what she wanted to, the young rookie would fire back with stars in her eyes and passion in her voice. "...Tension, by storm! I'll kick behemoth butt, cruise through the creepers, and put those bikers on training wheels! Natsu, this is going to be SO FUN! Seriously. It was so boring back home without you around. Now its going to all be awesome again! ...Aren't you excited?" Much of her flames began to simmer down as she noted her bestie didn't seem to share her enthusiasm. Maybe this announcement had been too much of a shock? The brunette was pouting now though. She had thought Natsu would be over the moon with this idea. It didn't last long as she went wide eyed with a sudden thought.

"Oh... right! I need to prove it to you, right? Okay! How about I take on that Burger King guy too and show you I am just as good as you now? I'll put him on his butt in no time flat, then we can go get pizza! How does that sound? I don't even need a ring. Do you know where he lives? We can just go to his place." Yep... she seemed serious.

Welp...that was a separation tragically short-lived. Natsu's aforementioned crazy "Tension" life and normal everyday schoolgirl life were now careening straight towards the other with her BFF being smack dab in the middle of this impending pileup. How could Natsu not be swamped with concern when she's witnessing what looks like Nami merrily skipping right into a lion's den with slabs of raw meat hooked to her clothes?...okay, Natsu may be over-reacting. But she supposed it all stems from...well, just how much she worried about the little scamp. And from having been through the Tension wringer herself and having barely managed to pick her battered body off of the floor, dust herself off and get back into the fight. That firsthand knowledge of what was to come in Nami's probable future timeline not exactly filling the schoolgirl with supreme confidence in her buddy's chances...

Natsu bobbing along with Nami as she hopped in place with ecstatic glee. She positively shined with shimmering positivity and boundless enthusiasm. And than she swiped her Tension identification card our of Natsu's hand...pretty darn fast, actually. The schoolgirl gawking at her bare-hand and back at her martial arts posing friendo, earnestly impressed by Nami's bolstered speed. Maybe she has improved since last they teamed up in those old street fights of theirs...but Nami listing down her intended conquests still had Natsu's thought bubble filled with rather uncomfortable images. Of those certain behemoths making Nami humble in camel clutches, creepers muscle-bustering her into the canvas, and bikers contorting her over their shoulder like a beach towel. Natsu wincing with each envisioning, and furrowing her brow with concern once Nami had finally needed a second to breathe. Cool. This was the perfect chance to intercede and splash some cold truth onto her. Natsu opening her mouth with her index-finger pointed to the sky...

...before looking at her best friend, and balking from seeing herself. Well, herself from one year ago. When she was the one with eyes sparkling and enthusiastically dragging her reticent brother Goto through the double doors to the Tension building. When he was the one questioning whether Natsu had the fighting fortitude for the challenge to come. The freaky-deeky parallels had her pumping the brakes on just repeating what her brother would have said. Instead she'd take a deep, introspective sigh...before propping her balled fists on her hips. "...*giggle*...Wow...I'm kinda starting to feel sorry for that Burger Gai now. Getting his sorry keister handed to him by two badass fighters back to back, sheesh~..." Natsu settled a hand on top of her best friends head, a sign of affection she'd been doing with Nami since forever now. "But c'mon Nami, you've never had to prove to me how strong you are. That's somethin I've known about you since day one. Besides, that was the closest you've ever come to catching me back there. It looks to me like you're gonna run circles around some of these guys~..." Natsu smiled wholesomely before scratching the side of her cheek bashfully. "And, uh...sorry for doing a lousy job of keeping up with you this past year. If I'dda known how bored you were, I would have cut some time out of my training to come back home and chill with you, maybe even get in a quickee spar for old times sake."