What have I become? (for zxn)

Mai had not been seen since she had been carted off during her last match against Da Xia. She'd been responsive and not comatose and had explicitly told those attending to her medical needs to make sure and take her to a hospital in a discreet manner. She'd kept the news camera's and paparazzi at bay and had even severed all ties with those she was close with, even not responding to her manager, Thomas Drake. The match had been more than just humiliating. It had made her question who she was and what she was even doing. She couldn't take it. She'd seen her friend Chigusa suffer through much worse and here she was unable to handle something that seemed so insignificant. It was just a stupid pair of ears. Wasn't it? That's what she thought. After a being gone a while, she had to come back. In some way, some how. She didn't know if she was going to get vengeance on Da Xia or contemplate her future but she had to return.

Still, she didn't' want anyone noticing her. She strolled through the halls in a silver sweatsuit with the hoodie pulled over her face concealing it. Her hands were in her pockets and she stalked around the various parts of the back stage area. But what was she searching for? She didn't really know at this point.

Chigusa was sitting in Drake's office, watching a video on the large flat screen TV he recently installed. And it wasn't because Drake was trying to "educate" her about something either; this time she pressured him into doing it. It was the match between Mai and Da Xia, a fight that rumors said humiliated Mai enough that the girl went into hiding. Chigusa wanted to see exactly what had happened. Throughout the match, Chigusa was wincing, feeling every bit of Mai's pain, all the way until the very end when Mai submitted. She turned off the TV with a rather angry look on her face.

"They let those kinds of girls fight here now?" she asked, turning to Drake, who shrugged.

"They've always let those kind of girls here," he said, "People like seeing nice girls get beat up. Especially you idols."

Chigusa shook her head. She grabbed her jacket and prepared to leave. "Thanks Drake," she said, moving to just walk out.

"Wait," he said, "If you do see Mai somewhere, try and get her to come back. What she's doing isn't going to work." Chigusa nodded, thinking that he needn't have asked. She was going to do it anyways.

Chigusa shut the door behind her and entered the hall. She noticed out of the corner of her eye someone wearing a silver tracksuit, who obviously didn't want to be seen. Suspicious, Chigusa followed after her at a safe distance, wanting to see who this was.

Mai was an idol. Her job was to be as exposed as she possibly good. In fact, what she was doing now was the opposite of what she had been trained to do. Granted, there were a few times she had to take cover to prevent being trampled by a stampeding herd of otaku but that was different. She was good at quick dashes, not prolonged hiding. That being said, she wasn't very good at loosing Chigusa's trail. And perhaps, in her heart of hearts had wanted this. She tried to shake Chigusa off but just wasn't very good. Finally she stopped.

She slowly turned her head. "Y-Yuuki-san." She muttered in a low tone. Trying to make it sound like it wasn't her. But then she pulled her hood back. Her hair was a disheveled mess. She wasn't wearing make-up and her eyes looked like she hadn't slept in weeks. Tears formed as soon as she caught Chigusa's eyes. She was the only one she would let see her liek this. "Chi-chaaan!" She said as she cried and threw her arms around Chigusa, sobbing hard into her chest.

"It's over... I'm ruined. I couldn't take it. I'm so ashamed." She said through the muffled tears. "I'm sorry." She added. She felt she needed to apologize. "I'm so sorry!" She clutched Chigusa's shoulders and wearily looked up. "Please... forgive me Chi-chan..." She said hoping the idol would find it in her heart to do so.

As Chigusa followed the figure, she slowly realized who it was. Despite the loose clothing she could still tell that it was Mai by the way the girl moved. Thanks to dance training and stuff like that, Idols inevitably move a little more gracefully, and Mai more than most. She followed even closer, wanting Mai to realize who it was and confront her.

Finally the both of them stopped, and Mai turned to face her. Chigusa hid a grimace when Mai took off her hood. She looked terrible, like she hadn't properly slept or taken care of herself in days. She quickly hugged Mai tightly, letting the girl cry, patting her back and comforting her.

"Mai, what have you done with yourself?" Chigusa said softly. Her hand reached down and tipped her chin up, so that their eyes met. Chigusa's eyes seemed sad, she felt Mai's pain. "I'm sorry Mai, but I can't forgive you," Chigusa said, her voice pained, as if it hurt her just to say that. "Not because you lost, but because of the way you're dealing with this. What are you doing Mai? You can't just beat yourself into the ground! That's just letting that stupid whore win some more! You need to start standing strong like an Idol should. Sure it was traumatic, but if you let it get to you like this, then you'll never get over it. C'mon Mai, lets go get you fixed up."

Chigusa grabbed Mai's hands tightly, and began dragging her along even if she was unwilling. The first stop was the baths, since Mai obviously hadn't been taking care of herself for the past few days, Chigusa was gonna clean her up and get her presentable again!

Mai squeezed Chigusa with all her might, just trying to hold onto the girl as if letting go would mean some horrible fate. She couldn't answer Chigusa, barely able to hear through all the sobbing before she felt her chin grabbed. She tried to look away her face filled with shame but she couldn't. She had done something awful buy running away and not even telling Chigusa.

"H-hah!?" Mai cried out as Chigusa said she could not be forgiven. How could this be?! She wondered. "B-but!" Mai protested but she knew Chigusa was right. "C-chi-chan..." She whispered, smiling ever so faintly. "Y-you're right..." Her tone was weak and she looked away. "The worst thing was not telling you..." She said as she felt herself pulled away. Her eyes widened and she stumbled but was taken along with Chigusa.

As she was carried to the batches she jogged with Chigusa and stopped when they got there. "Is this ok?" She said. "Wondering truthfully. "Will... will they accept me again? " She asked, looking at Chigusa. "Even... even after seeing me without my ears?" Her eyes were wide as she touched Chigusa's shoulder. Strange enough, being stripped and humiliated seemed to pale in comparison to the otaku queen when contrasted against the thought of having her ears stolen from her. But Chigusa more than anyone knew how important image and persona were. She'd done plenty of risque things in her time. Photo shoots wearing nothing BUT the tail and ears, with herself conveniently covered by the latest action figures or otaku magazines. Or scanty cosplays. But she'd always had those items on. Even in her most passionate moments she'd still been wary about taking them off. Was she just crazy? She didn't know anymore if that mattered. She'd hoped Chigusa had the answers and even if she didn't. She knew her friend was doing her best to help and her heart warmed as she looked over her purple haired friend and wondered what she had in store for her.

Chigusa began by dragging Mai over to the baths, where she planned to personally clean Mai up. Mai wasn't taking care of herself at all, it seemed. And as Mai's sempai, Chigusa felt plenty responsible for her kohai's appearance.

"Of course they'll accept you again," Chigusa said, "Your fans love you for who you are! Besides, those ears aren't the most important thing. They're just ornaments." She turned around and put her finger on Mai's chest. "So long as you're still Mai Nagasawa in here, they'll love you." She grabbed Mai's wrist again and forcefully dragged her into the changing rooms.

Chigusa didn't hesitate at all hen she began to strip Mai. If anything, she was even more efficient at it that Da Xia. Grabbing Mai's sweater, she yanked upwards, pulling it over Mai's head with little grace but much hurry. It was the same with Mai's pants, pulled straight down so Mai stood only in her underwear. Chigusa stopped then, of course. "Ok, you take off the rest," she said, backing off. As Mai finished undressing, Chigusa would quickly take off all her clothes as well, until they both stood naked in the changing room.

Mai grimaced slightly at Chigusa's words about her ears. Even as she was being pulled, she felt the top of her head. She knew, however, that Chigusa was right. But before she coudl answer, she was again pulled intot he bath area. "Waaah!" She cried out.

When they were int he bathroom, she was being tugged in all sorts of directions. She struggled as Chigusa pulled her sweatsuit off, not trying to stop Chigusa but just in disarray at how quickly she was stripped down to her silver bra and silky silver panties. She saw Chigusa strip and then nodded and quickly stepped out of the rest of her clothes. She blushed and turned her head as she looked at Chigusa's body, it was always a sight to behold. "C-chi-chan!" She gasped and then looked down at herself. "I'm sorry." She said once more. "Look at how beautiful your body is. And you've been doing this longer than I have. I... wish I had that determination! How did you do it?" She swallowed hard. "I mean... I... I've seen some of the matches you've been in. How did you over come the first time it happened? Didn't you just want to go hide?" She lowered her head in shame. "I guess not. Chi-chan has always been very strong willed..."

Chigusa stood stark naked before Mai, allowing her friend to stare all she wanted, while she looked at Mai's body approvingly. It seemed that she hadn't been out long enough to ruin that perfect body shape of hers. Still, it was gonna take a lot to fix Mai back up. Chigusa knew that after she was done though, Mai would be as good as new!

She walked over and grabbed Mai's hand again, slowly leading her over to the hot baths. "Are you kidding me? The first time this happened I woke up in the hospital," she said, remembering her brutal introduction to wrestling. "I was in even worse shape than you. Of course I wanted to go hide and never see anyone again. But after a while, I realized how foolish that was. I wasn't about to squander all my opportunities because of what happened once! No, I came back and I got my revenge!" She turned to look at Mai. "And you should too!" she continued, "Don't let this hold you down. Go and get stronger, come back and beat her completely!"

Chigusa slowly walked into the large bath, pulling Mai along with her, before sitting down on the ledge that lined the large tub. All the while she kept her hand on Mai's, making sure she didn't try to leave.

Mai listened carefully as she was lead to the baths. really, even though she was hearing something bad happening to Chigusa, she was relieved. "I... I will!" She said with a sudden burst of confidence. "I wasn't going to run away forever. I.. I mean I did come back right? And secretly I guess I wanted to be foudn. Otherwise I wouldn't have hung around so close to Drake's office, right?" She stuck out her tongue a bit and blushed, giving Chigusa the indication that she knew she had acted stupidly.

Mai looked down at the Bath and inhaled deeply, letting out a sigh before slipping into the water. "Oooooohhhh." She moaned as she went all the way down to her chin and practically melted into it. "This is wonderful... This... I do miss thiss..." She said sinking a little deeper and blowing a few bubbles in the water with her mouth. She sat back up and stretched her legs, enjoying the hot water that seeped into her pores. "Chi-chan... thank you." She said. "I knew I could count on you." She sat up enough to lower her head in a deep bow of thanks before falling forward and wetting the rest of her head. As she sat back up and let out another sigh of contentment she grinned at Chigusa. "You know, Chi-chan. I'm always relieved when I find out you're not some super human robot." She chuckled at her words. "Not that I'm glad that you had to experience that!" She said wvign her hands. "But that we reacted the same way." She turned her head. "i know how close we've been for a logn time but... I guess even Idols need someone to idolize, right?" She said and looked back up. "But I don't feel that way..." She nodded. "I can look up to you. You help me set goals because you always seem to do the things I want to first but that's because you've been in the business longer." She gave Chigusa a wink. "You've shown me this is a set back and nothing more but maybe you should have thought twice about that! Once I'm finished with that little brat don't think I've forgotten about you! We've still tied up at one win a piece!"

Mai wasn't really as confident as her words suggested but Chiguusa was certainly making her feel better.

"Geez Mai, you're embarrassing me," Chigusa said as Mai got up and started gushing about everything. "You looking up to me like this isn't what I would really like from you. Mai, we're equals. You're just as good as I am at this idol business and wrestling. Heck, you might even be better than me now, considering how you managed to defeat me." Chigusa leaned in, putting an arm around Mai's shoulders to hug her in close. "What I'm trying to say is, don't go chasing after me. You've got to do what you want! Then you'll be even more than an Idol Mai. You'll be a star!"

After than little pep talk, Chigusa smiled at Mai, before getting up out of the tub, pulling Mai up as she went. She would lead Mai over to one of the stone benches on the outside, where people normally went to soap up and completely clean their bodies. She sat Mai down on the bench.

"Ok Mai, let me wash your back," Chigusa said. She took some of the liquid soap in her hand, and began rubbing it on Mai's back, soaping her up. Then Chigusa's hands began to wander, reaching around Mai's tummy to her front, soaping all that up as well, fondling Mai's breasts a bit, and tickling her sides. All the while Chigusa's body got pressed up against Mai's back, her perky breasts getting soaped up as well from Mai's body.