Backstage Encounter With The Queen of Queens

Kazuma:

Tonight was going to be a special night for Kazuma. Why, one might ask? Because tonight he had a front row seat in the main Friction arena for a show! Now, Kazuma wasn't turning his back on Tension, the rules made it quite clear. He was here as a fan, ready to cheer on his fellow AFW talent as they competed for glory and while he would cheer and applaud the ladies in their matches, the one match that he was here to see and completely fangirl, or fanboy in his case, over was the one that had the one and only Queen of Queens; Panther Risako!

She was one of the most beautiful and skilled women in the Wrestle Angels league and a multi time champion before it fell apart, and even after it did she continued to prove her abilities in several of the various indie shows that Kazuma had watched. Even after joining AFW's brand, Friction, she continued to impress time and time again. To Kazuma the only person she could ever be second to was Chris Morgan and was hands down one of the few people that he absolutely have at least one match with while he was here. This was going to be the first time he'd ever see her in person and Kazuma and he was going to enjoy every second of it. As soon as that thought passed through his mind he heard the Queen's music begin to play.

Kazuma stood up, phone at the ready to take pictures, and began to cheer. This was going to be a good match!

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Time skip (after the show)

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"Man that was amazing!" Kazuma beamed as he made his way to the exit of the Friction Arena. As he expected Risako came out on top over her opponent, she may have had size and strength on her side but Risako cleverly used her speed and smaller size to bring her down. He had also gotten a lot of great shots of the match that he was definitely going to post once he got back to his apartment in Tension Heights. Kazuma noticed a few of the merchandise salesmen were still trying to get a few products sold to leaving patrons, and among those products was a poster of Panther Risako! Kazuma quickly approached the person at that stand and purchased it from him without a second thought as a memento of the evening. "Friction really is amazing! Not just talent wise but the arena and the stage were well maintained." Kazuma internally thought to himself as he once again made his way to the exit.

Friction was the older of the two main AFW brands, as such, much more time was invested in it and it's operation. That wasn't to take anything away from Tension but it really felt like a whole other show. Kazuma would've liked to see what went on backstage.........wait a second! He was AFW Talent, even if he was from another brand, he could go backstage, right?! They wouldn't mind if he took a quick look around, right?! Kazuma turned around and began to make his way to one of the backstage entrances in the arena, unsurprisingly when he approached had to identify himself to the security guards with his ID whom were very wary of him even after he had done so. After telling them he'd like to go in, Kazuma was given a very strict set of rules to follow.

No men allowed in the locker room, do not inappropriately approach the female talent, you will be monitored by a shadow, and etc. Really goes to show how on guard they were with men. Finally Kazuma, got backstage and began to wander around with no real destination in mind, making sure to not get in anyone's way as he did so. The equipment was high quality, the stage crew were professional, and the female talent were gorgeous but that last one went without saying. Seeing all of it actually sort of motivated Kazuma to do his best so that Tension could catch up with it's sister brand. With a new sense of motivation Kazuma turned around and would've finally began to make his way back home if..... he hadn't accidentally bumped into someone as he did so. "Sorry bout that. Are you o-" Kazuma started to ask only for the words to get caught in his mouth as he got a look at whom he had bumped into.

There was, Risako thought to herself, no workout quite like a good prostyle match to leave one feeling energized and relaxed. It was a weird thought to have, especially how rough and strenuous a tough fight could be-- and Risako's last opponent had gotten a lot of good hits in. But at the same time, there was a lot of tension that built up towards a match that just vanished afterwards, and a lot of leftover adrenaline that still coursed through her veins afterwards. Despite the pain and the bruises, it was often a good feeling, and one of the many things she enjoyed about her sport of choice.

She was brushing her long violet hair, having just dried off after a post-match shower, a towel wrapped firmly around her slender, naked figure. Admittedly, it felt good to have a win after that hard-fought tag team loss she and Emily had suffered against the Irish Amazons, though to be fair, Alaina Sanders had been on top form in that battle. Risako looked forward to facing the Amazon again to even the record between them.

Of course, that might have to wait...after all, there were other scores to settle as well: there had been talk of a tag team bout against Freia Kagami and Thunder Ryuko, and if there was anyone who needed to have odds settled against, it was Kagami. Not to mention, of course, that she and Blade had plenty of battle to fight together still as well.

Sighing, she turned and got dressed. After changing into a simple black blouse and a pair of tight jeans, she brushed her hair back, packed her gym bag, and headed out to exit the change room. She figured one of her favourite restaurants on the grounds was still open, so she was hoping to stop there for some dinner, and then maybe call Uehara or Emily and see what they were up to.

As she turned the corner to exit the locker room, though, someone bumped into her, a face briefly colliding with her chest. Any other person might have recoiled from such an impact, but Risako was used to having shorter girls working on the same roster as her, and this hadn't been the first time that one of them had bumped into her bosom. Hell, sometimes she had been guilty of accidentally smothering one of them against her chest in a big, matronly hug.

Except, the person who had bumped into her was not part of the Friction roster. For one thing, he was, as far as she could tell, the wrong gender.

"Eh?" She raised an eyebrow at the young man who had just collided with her. A fan, perhaps? He was looking up at her with wide-eyed amazement, and she quickly concluded that he must have won a backstage pass or something. Oh great, a fan just collided with my chest. He's probably going to brag all about it on the message boards now.

All the same, she decided to keep her cool. "Ahaha, no harm done!" she said, smiling a little. "It's easy to bump into people in a place like this!" She noticed how the young man was staring up at her in wide-eyed amazement, and she smiled and extended a hand. "The name's Risako. Panther Risako. I'm guessing you've heard of me?"

Kazuma was completely and utterly shocked upon looking up at whom he had bumped into, it didn't even register in his mind that for a fraction of a second that his face had been in Panther Risako's bosom as his emerald eyes looked up at her amethyst eyes. Kazuma had seen her in action several minutes ago getting battered and beaten and now here she was standing in front of him looking as fresh as someone having just come out from a shower. Kazuma blushed as her smooth as silk voice reached his ears, followed by her extension of her hand for a handshake.

Kazuma robotically raised his own hand and took hold of Risako's, accepting the handshake all the while amazed by soft it felt in his. "Y-y-y-y-yes I have your h-highness. I'm K-K-Kazuma. I work over at T-T-Tension as one of it's wrestlers." Kazuma stuttered as he replied and introduced himself, making sure to properly address Risako with the proper respect. Normally, Kazuma would introduce himself with confidence as a wrestler, but he was standing in front of a woman whose in-ring ability eclipsed his own. To use each other's title as a reference; she literally was a Queen and he was just a lowly Adventurer, bragging about it would've been like a child trying to showoff the tiny fish they caught to their parent that had caught several large fish.

"Y-you were great in tonight's match. N-n-not that I'm saying that y-you aren't always grrr-eat in your matches. It w-was just amazing how you won. It kind of reminded me of this one match that you had with Grizzly Yamamoto back in the W-wrestle Angels league." Kazuma said, having somewhat recovered from the initial shock of meeting Risako in person.

Your highness. Despite her nickname of "the Queen of Queens," Risako had never been called that by anyone except in ironic mockery. The fact that Kazuma was saying it with such earnestness caused her smile to widen. No, scratch that, such adorably nervous earnestness. Here he was, an (apparent) wrestler from Tension, and he was stuttering like a schoolboy in her presence.

"Kazuma?" she echoed. "Kazuma...oh yes, I think I've heard your name mentioned more than a few times!" She leaned forward a little so she was more level with him, and grinned. "I hear you've already gotten yourself into quite a handful of matches, hmm?" As she heard Kazuma go on about how great she was in today's match, though, the kid surprised her when he mentioned a battle from the good old days of the Wrestle Angels league.

She blinked. "You remember that?" She rubbed the back of her head, and gave a good natured chuckle. "Yeah, truth to be told, Yamamoto was a handful. She hits like a dump freight train and is about as hard as one too-- I barely managed to win that one. Yamamoto and I shared a laugh and a beer over the whole thing afterwards." She turned back to Kazuma. "Not that many people remember that one, though-- they usually look back to my feuds against Mimi, or Yukiko, or Ichigaya instead. You really are a fan, aren't you?"

"Yes, I'm Kazu-." Kazuma was about to say under his breathe when he first heard Risako say his name twice but that was before he heard her say that she had heard of him! Shock and Happy couldn't even begin to describe how he felt that knowing that a guy that was plain enough to be considered a background mob character in a video game was on the radar of a world class beauty like Risako! What's more she even knew about the numerous matches he had been in, hopefully not the exact contents of those matches. Last thing he wanted was for Risako to think he was some pervert that had gotten into wrestling just to do it with women in the ring.

Thankfully she was more amazed that Kazuma remembered her match with Grizzly Yamamoto and even told him about what happened after the match. It was no surprise to him when Risako told him about how she normally heard people talking about her feuds with Mimi Yoshihara, Mighty Yukiko, and Beauty Ichigaya, after all those feuds were intense and often times had huge steaks on the line ranging from championships to public embarrassment. Still, there were plenty of matches and feuds that were right up there.

"Y-yeah I guess you can say I am." Kazuma blushed as he replied given that Risako had leaned a bit closer to him to sort of be on the same level as him. "Those were some amazing obviously but that isn't to say that there weren't other amazing matches; Maria Crawford, Michele Taki, Dynamite Rin; each one of those had me on the edge of my seat. I still have the poster from when you were in a triple threat match with "Admiral" Shizuka Yajima and Emily Nelson during a special WA show the company was doing to support the troops! You really are amazing Risako-neechan!" Kazuma blurted out and immediately turned red as he realized what he had called Risako. The big sister aura she gave off was so easy to get swept up in.

But, for all those matches that he remembered, he made sure to avoid one match in particular; The "Dragon Fujiko incident". That match was probably one of the few low points in Risako's career as after injuring Dragon Fujiko, Risako started holding back in her matches which ultimately ended her partnership with Blade Uehara. That match was probably more of a personal matter to Risako as far as Kazuma knew and he really doubted she'd talk to him about it. She was more likely to laugh at or ask him about his slip-of-the-tongue than talk to him about it.

Damn, this kid was a fan. The moment Risako even brought up the topic, he began to excitedly list some of the more noteworthy matches from Risako's past career, and past Wrestle Angels that Risako had fought way back in the day. Maria, Rin, Michelle...admittedly, Risako sometimes missed them more than she thought she would. And then Kazuma excitedly mentioned the triple threat she had fought against Emily and Shizuka Yajima at the "Support the Troops" event, and...

And then he called her Risako-neechan, and suddenly her eyebrow tilted upward in surprise. Judging by the way that Kazuma hastily shut himself afterwards and turned a beet shade of red, he was conscious of what he had just said as well.

Even so, Risako composed herself enough to laugh it off. "Oh my, only some of the other Wrestle Angels ever call me that!" she chuckled "And even, it's only a select few! Aren't you a little presumptuous, calling me big sister?" As she spoke, she would teasingly pull at as stretch at Kazuma's cheeks in the manner that a big sis usually would. Admittedly, the fact that a rookie like Kazuma was calling her 'neechan" was presumptuous, but still more than a little adorable.

She finally released his cheeks and knelt in front of him. "In all seriousness, though, if you're a fan, then that means you watched all of my matches?" She found herself asking the question before she could stop herself, staring intently into Kazuma's eyes as she did so. "Including...my bouts against Fujiko and Chris Morgan?"

While it wasn't exactly unusual for one to get swept up in the hype of meeting a celebrity or their hero Kazuma couldn't help but mentally berate himself for calling Risako "Big Sister", a privilege that was only allowed to her other Wrestle Angel colleagues, even if he really wanted to be able to call her that. Thankfully Risako didn't seem offended by it, in fact she seemed to be more amused by it even pinching and pulling on his cheek, much like a big sister would tease their younger sibling. "I'm sowry, Risako-san." Kazuma managed to get out as she pulled on it a little more before finally releasing it.

Kazuma rubbed his cheek a bit before Risako, in a somewhat surprising move, knelt a little closer to him and asked him if he had seen the two matches that she, more than likely, wished had never happened. The first was a championship match against Dragon Fujiko, a renowned Ace Wrestler and, at the time, the defending champion. It was an intense match between the two ladies with Risako going all out like never before and eventually she won but what should've been a joyous occasion for the new champion quickly soured as paramedics rushed out to the ring after it was found out that Fujiko couldn't move. She had sustained a major back injury from one of Risako's moves during the match and unfortunately had to retire. Risako looked devastated after the match and started holding back in her matches from that point on, being very careful to not let herself get carried and end another career, which ultimately led to the end of her partnership with her long time friend Blade Uehara after a long losing streak. She eventually got over it but Kazuma could tell that even when she went all out against heavyweights like Migiri Oozora or Dark Star Chaos it was in a very controlled manner.

The second match, the one with Chris Morgan was a spur of the moment type match sparked when the Phenomenon called out Hibiki Izayoi, another infamous Wrestle Angel like her, right here in AFW, only to come face to face with Risako instead. The two of them had a rather heated exchange, each of them bringing up personal history before they had a brief skirmish in the ring which eventually led to their Summer Splash Pay-Per-View match. As expected, the match between two of the top Wrestle Angels was intense with each of them showing a mean streak unlike anything seen in any matches either of them had ever had. Risako even went so far as to nearly dislocate Chris's arm near the end of the match. Unfortunately, Risako would lose that match after a nasty chokeslam from Chris leaving her quite devastated afterwards.

Of course, Kazuma knew about those matches but why was Risako asking him if had seen them? Was she expecting him to suddenly turn around and condemn her for what had happened to Fujiko? Was she expecting him to rub one of her worst loses ever in her face? Kazuma didn't know but he needed to say something. "Y-Yeah, I saw those." Kazuma replied, a moment of silence hung between them before he decided to add on to it. "When we first decide to step into the ring as wrestlers we do it knowing that at any given moment it could also be our last. That doesn’t exactly make it any less of a tragedy when it actually happens though. What happened with Fujiko was truly one of those moments and I know that you genuinely felt horrible about it after that Losing streak you had and from the way you somewhat changed your wrestling style, so I would never condemn you about it.

As for your "revenge" match with Chris...uh.....hmmm. That's a bit difficult, I'm kind of a huge fan of her as well." Kazuma said as he struggled to come up with the right words to describe his feelings on the match. "I know this might sound like I'm siding with her but did you ever actually try to talk with her about why she did what she did? I remember in some of the interviews after WA collapsed that some of the other girls talked about the president hitting on them and abusing his power. I also remembered that the two of you were close because you were one of her early mentors, to what extent after that, I may have a "rough" idea." Kazuma said trying not to pry into Risako's personal affairs. "Maybe, to keep Chris in line he threatened her through you and with WA going down he decided to set her up?"

Risako listened to Kazuma's responses and slowly nodded. Admittedly, she knew she shouldn't have brought either of those two matches up-- they were two very dark chapters in her life and her career, and both were incidents that she wanted to put behind her. As much as she tried, though, she found she could never walk away from either incident: she couldn't forget how she had ruined Fujiko's career, or her violent and painful falling out with Chris. A part of her just really wanted to know what one of her fans had thought about either and...well, for better or worse, now she knew.

Straightening up, Risako gave a pleasant smile. "I wonder that all the time," she said, "but honestly I just wanted to know what one of my fans thought. But enough about me," she added, rapidly changing the topic as she brushed her violet hair back. "tell me a bit about you. What have your experiences here in the AFW been so far? I'm sure you have a lot of interesting stories to tell."

Kazuma was afraid that he may have overstepped his place as soon as he had said those words. After all, he was an unworthy peon giving a warrior Queen his farfetched theory based only on interviews from a while ago. He didn't have any actual, physical proof to support it. Not to mention his argument could easily be seen as a defense argument for the "Phenomenon From The Heavens", the very woman whom the Queen before him currently had a very complicated relationship. Thankfully though, Risako would smile as she straightened back up.

Apparently, she had just been curious as to what one of her fans thought about those two moments in her career. Kazuma was sure it still bothered her a bit, but at least he was able to give a small sigh of relief in avoiding offending Risako and hopefully giving her some peace of mind. It was then however, that she would blindside him by asking him about his experiences in AFW so far.

Kazuma began to mentally panic. Most of his matches up to this point often led to him and his opponent naked in the ring as they tried to pleasure each other into defeat. Kazuma could easily imagine Risako looking at him with this disgust before giving him a soul devastating kick in the nuts followed by an equally devastating slap to the face if he told her about those. With that thought in mind Kazuma decided to keep to the less sexual stories.

"Well I'm not sure they're all that interesting. I got lost on my first day on the Tension Arena grounds and had to be shown the way to the dorms by Edward Sealgair whom I would later have my debut match with. Cool dude overall in my opinion. My second match was with returning legend Justice Asuka and let me tell you, she's certainly still got it. I've been in a few other matches but they were pretty unremarkable to the point that I wouldn't want to bore you with the details. Like, not even worth looking up unremarkable. Hey, since it looks like you're on your way out, how about I walk you out?" Kazuma quickly tried to change the subject, hoping that Risako wouldn't question it any further.

Kazuma seemed bashful when he answered Risako. At first, she thought that maybe it was just because he still felt nervous being near one of his idols, and certainly, Risako couldn't blame him: when she had just started out in wrestling, she had been just as shy around her peers. The thought occurred to her that maybe he was also apprehensive about talking about his career so far because he didn't have a decent win/loss record yet, and while Risako wasn't judging him at all, she could understand if that was a source of shame right now for him..

The thought also, briefly occurred to her that he might have been involved in...well, some of the more unsavoury matches in AFW, which was why he didn't want to talk about them. Given how nervous he was right now, however, Risako couldn't imagine him participating in any kind of hentai match.

She perked up at the mention of Justice Asuka. "Ahhh, I've heard of Asuka," she nodded. "I've never had the pleasure of fighting her. In that one thing, at least, you actually have more experience than me!" She smiled. "I'm sure that no matter what, you gave her a good fight, and sometimes the best experience we can get can come from a loss to someone who's better than us."

It was at this point that Kazuma awkardly asked if she wanted an escort out. "Sure. In fact, I was going to stop at the cafeteria for a coffee on my way out, so...want one? I'm buying," she said with a sincere smile. Before even she was realizing it, she was slipping into "big sister" mode all over again....