Serious Training (For Bluemouse)

To get back into shape after their lengthy world tour, the girls of Eclipse spent a large amount of time conditioning in the gym. It wasn't as if they got completely out of shape during the tour, but the fact was they couldn't get any proper training in, not with all the moving around and the exhausting travel. Now that they were back, they were trying to get back into shape in the shortest amount of time possible.

The sun had barely rose when Chigusa began her morning jog from her apartment to the gym. It was her usual schedule, to wake up extremely early and work out. She got dressed in her usual jogging clothes, putting on the green t-shirt, tight red jogging shorts, and a headband. She walked out of her room slowly, trying to stay quiet so that she didn't wake Megumi up. She looked around when she got outside, seeing the sun slowly rise over the sea, enjoying the view a little bit before beginning her jog.

Chigusa jogged along the road, looking down at times at the beach and the sea. The sea breeze kept her cool as she ran. There was nobody out here yet, it was too early. And she didn't expect anyone to be at the gym either. Of course, by the time she reached the gym, morning rush hour had started. She had to cross several packed streets before reaching the AFW complex. Once she arrived, she stood outside the door to catch her breath first before going inside.

Taylor had only just awakened and was already in a foul mood. She'd spent the night before trying to drown herself in self pity in a bar as far from the AFW building as she could be bothered to walk, only to run into every AFW girl and her mother. She remembered drinking, too, and normally she didn't drink too much but by the pain in her head she gathered that last night was an exception.

With a low grumble she lifted her head and opened one eye to look around. Where the hell was she, exactly? Sharp pain ran down her back. She'd been sleeping on something hard, and she was surrounded by these... little doors. Little metal doors. She rubbed her eyes and laid her head back down. There was something that she just wasn't getting about this. This wasn't her apartment.

Last night she'd spent a good deal of time having it out with Akashi Tanikaze, the sumo and Friction champ, and Lia Cross, the loopy bunny girl. It went better than she would've thought, but at the same time much, much worse. She was still knotted up inside. She didn't know how to feel about either of them, or about herself. Last night had put in her a lot of self-doubt, at least about her... behavior. How she treated people, and why, and... stuff.

Then there was the sound of opening doors and footsteps and voices and soon random people began to clamor into Taylor's room. She blinked and wiped her eyes and looked at them all as they entered. Many of them were carrying little bags... little gym bags, and were opening and closing lockers and... oh, okay. She was in the locker room. At the gym. After the bar, after Taylor was already drunk they all went to the gym. She didn't remember anything after that, but she'd apparently just fallen asleep on a bench in the locker room. She could think of a few better places to fall asleep.

With great pain and effort Taylor hauled herself up to a sitting position and was paralyzed by an enormous yawn. She was thirsty. She ignored the looks other girls gave her and shuffled off to find water. There was a drinking fountain in the corner and she slumped against it, using it to hold herself up as she bent her head down and buried her face in the stream of water. She drank continuously for several minutes and splashed her face with the cool water. And that, of course, would make her eye makeup run. She shuffled off to find a mirror.

With a damp paper towel she dabbed at the skin under her eyes until she looked mostly like she hadn't just spent the night in the gym locker room. She fussed with her hair to untangle it and eventually just soaked it in the sink. It was still up in her pigtails, so it at least wasn't a complete mess. She checked the mirror. She looked... grumpy. She felt worse. She was in no mood to put up with anyone. And to make matters worse, she knew what she had to do, and that was train. She was oh and two in the AFW so far, and that fact alone ate at her like nothing else. She was not a loser. She didn't lose. She just didn't. She couldn't. Putting in a hard workout in her present condition would make her body feel like the rest of her felt. Miserable. She looked forward to putting all that misery to use... when she could pass it on to whatever poor little girl the AFW put in front of her next.

She needed some air. And to get away from these... chatty little girls. She found her way out a side door that overlooked the exterior entrance to the gym. There was still the morning chill in the air, and she shivered, raising goosebumps on her bare arms and legs. She looked down at herself and for the first time noticed that she was only wearing her bright blue sports bra, that matched her hair, black spandex workout shorts, and white socks. Great. Where the hell were her shoes? Or her shirt?

She scowled and looked around, having to squint in the sunlight. She thought about all these cutesy little glamor-model girls and stupid fetish-slut ditzy-bitch little... those girls that filled the AFW. It was overflowing with them. They weren't fighters. Screw them. They just modeled fighting. They were squishy little nerf-wrestlers. Taylor hated them so much, and largely because in spite of all of that they won matches and she hadn't. She hated them so damn much.

Taylor's ears pricked up like a dog when she saw one coming that she recognized. She'd seen her on TV. She hadn't been around the AFW, though she'd heard plenty about how she was some AFW superstar in addition to being some pop diva princess wannabe... jerk. She probably had her hair and makeup crew on standby in her little private locker room. Taylor growled. She couldn't take it anymore. As soon as the girl came close enough she let fly.

"Heeeeey there!" She said with a big wave to Chigusa. "And what are you supposed to be little girl? Why, did you make this costume all by yourself? Wait, lemme guess... Hillary Duff? No? Hannah Montana? Oh, sorry, I mean Miley Circus-whatever. I can't tell, are you trick-or-treating or hooking?" She sneered maliciously at Chigusa. "Sorry, girlie, this club is members only. Why don't you run along and find some creepy business man to tickle."

As Chigusa jogged up to the door, she noticed a girl she didn't know waving at her. It confused her for a moment, especially since she had her headphones in and couldn't hear anything Taylor was saying. She paused her music, taking the headphones out, just in time to catch the last little bit of what Taylor said.

"Sorry girlie, this club is members only. Why don't you run along and find some creepy businessman to tickle."

Chigusa frowned a little, not quite sure what to make of this girl. She looked like a mess, with obvious signs of a hangover, hair all mussed up like she just woke up. And oddly enough she didn't have any shoes on. Still, judging by her attire, she was working out here before, so she had to be on the AFW roster. It wasn't like Chigusa to escalate things into a fight, so she decided to just go an ignore Taylor.

"What the hell was that?" Chigusa thought as she moved to open the door. She wasn't in the mood to pay attention to someone who just wanted to start something.

Taylor snorted as Chigusa breezed past her. Typical. Anyway, forget her, Taylor needed more water. And aspirin. And the rest of her clothes.

She shambled back into the locker room and found her clothes, the jeans, sweatshirt, tank top, and sneakers that she'd worn the night before. She pulled on her sneakers and tank top and went back to the drinking fountain for another extended drink. She found aspirin from a dispenser somewhere nearby and swallowed the pills like they were going to save her life. She sighed. She stopped by a mirror again to fuss over her appearance some more. She was mostly in place... aside from her eyes. With her hair wet down she looked like she'd just come from the showers. Anyway, time to get back in there.

The gym floor was starting to fill up with the morning crew. Taylor kept her head down, trying to ignore everyone else and the horrible noise they were making. She needed to warm up and stretch... a long, slow warm up. She found her way to a clear area on the mats and started in with her morning yoga routine.

In one pose, she wearily surveyed the room. She was surrounded by her competition, and it put her a bit on edge. In the next pose she looked the other way and noticed that without knowing she'd managed to pick a spot immediately next to the girl from outside. "Ugh." Figures.

Still, she couldn't stop herself. "Hey again." She said. She noticed the girl's earphones. She reached over and popped one out of her ear. "Hey." She said again. "I was just wondering, how much stretching do you really need to do to lip sync and shake your ass on TV? I ask because, well, I've never done it before, and just for future reference. And I hear that as far as ass-shaking goes and being a fake, you're the girl to ask, is that right?"

After entering the gym, Chigusa first stopped and caught her breath while looking around to see if anyone she knew (or was trying to avoid) was already in the gym. There were a few people already there, but not anybody that Chigusa knew. More people were coming in by the second though, so Chigusa made her way over to the mats to get a good spot before they were all taken.

She began lightly stretching out, warming up her body and working out the crinkles. With her earphones in and music turned up, she couldn't really hear anything going on around her, nor was she paying any attention. She was halfway through her routine when one of her earphones fell out. Surprised, Chigusa turned around and found the same blue-haired girl from before holding it in her hand.

"W-what?" Chigusa said, surprised by this girl's audacity and a bit pissed at her attitude, "Look, if you want to start a fight, go find someone else. I'm not in the mood today." She reached over to grab her headphone out of Taylor's hand.

"I'm with you there, ladybug." Taylor said with thinly veiled disdain. "If I was looking for a fight I'd go find a fighter. Fifteen year old, eighty-pound circus clowns need not apply. But really, what mood do you have to be in to fight? A good one? That's messed up."

Taylor resumed her yoga and let her eyes wander over the other girls in the room. She knew she was probably out of line. This girl hadn't done anything to her, and she was sort of thinking about cutting back on... this. But she was just so freaking annoying it hurt. It physically hurt.

"Now, I know who you are, sassy-pants. Okay. But answer me an honest question... why in the world would some pop singer want to moonlight here. I understand that you do a lot of feeling up chicks, but you can do that anywhere. Is it the crowd? Does doing it in the privacy of whatever anonymous hotel room just not get you off like doing it in front of all kinds of brainless, drooling, eighty pound Japanese guys? I guess it'd make sense that you'd be an exhibitionist, but why would you want to take a second job getting your ass kicked? There are less painful ways to get off, you skeezy ho-bag. And for the love of god, why on earth would someone with a mobile army in charge of her hair and makeup ever be allowed to cut her own hair?"

Taylor moved on to her next yoga pose with her back to Chigusa. She didn't even know how good the girl's english was. In a way it'd be better if she didn't understand a word. Then it'd be therapeutic for Taylor and with no risk of having to fight or something. She wasn't really feeling her best, anyway. There were very good reasons why she generally didn't drink.

Chigusa blinked a few times, trying to not let the insults get to her too much. She didn't really understand Taylor's English too well either, though she knew enough to tell that Taylor was trying to insult her. "Just my luck," Chigusa thought. She looked around to see if there was any other free space on the mats, but by this time all usable area had been filled. She had to stay by this girl.

"No, I have to be in a bad mood to fight," Chigusa said, obviously trying to threaten Taylor a bit. It didn't work so well. Some people knew that Chigusa wasn't an easy opponent, but either this girl had no idea or she just didn't care. No, Chigusa had to revise that thought a little. She just completely looked down on Chigusa!

Taylor's next rant really grated on Chigusa's nerves. The girl asked a pretty sensitive question, why was Chigusa doing this? She had gotten into it because of her friends, and because it was going to boost her budding career. Now that she was successful, why did she stay? Chigusa never really questioned it or anything, it was just something she wanted to and had to do. One thing she did know, though, was that she didn't fight for the reason Taylor gave. She wasn't that type of person.

"You won't understand," Chigusa responded, "Even if I did tell you. A failure like you would never understand the responsibilities of being successful." Chigusa honestly didn't know who this girl was or whether or not she was a failure. But still, she had a suspicion that this girl was. That attitude had to come from somewhere.

Taylor grinned tightly. Chigusa's matter-of-fact insult had stung her more than she would know. Her own jabs at Chigusa might have been succeeding in riling her up, but if Taylor was completely honest with herself Chigusa's actually... hurt. She took a moment to soothe over the urge to flip out right then and there. She had to stay at least somewhat calm, there was no way in hell she was letting this girl get the upper hand on her.

"Wowzers, cream puff, strong words considering you have no clue who I am. Or is it part of your 'responsibilities of being successful' that you need to look down on everyone? Well don't mind us poor peasant girls too much, you know we just don't know any better."

Taylor could feel something angry welling up in her stomach. She didn't really try to control it. "But as long as I've got your ear, princess, lemme explain something to you." She said and turned to face Chigusa, forgetting all about her warmups. "You've got a few things going for you, I'll admit. Money, exposure... hell, fame, a whole truck load of ditzy little model-girl wrestler-wannabes to play with. Ya know, like Hitomi Fujishishimimiwhatever. I imagine your management is very careful to pick your opponents so you can just keep knocking down those tomato cans. AND to top it off you've managed to look like a stripper without really smelling like one! Congratulations.

"And you're right, I'm not successful. I'm just some punk kid with daddy issues a long, long way from home." An undercurrent of anger began to creep into her tone. "But even if I SOMEHOW lost every match I ever had, it wouldn't change anything. Ya know what the difference is between me and you? What I have that you don't? Ready for it?

"Talent. Plain and simple. You've got to silver spoon your way through your whole damn life so you've never even needed it, even if you did have any. But I'm good at what I do. But there's more to it than that, there's something else I have that you never will, and you might want to get out your little Japanese-English dictionary for this. Know what it is? Grit. Guts. Call it whatever you want, YOU don't have it." Taylor said through curled lips and jabbed her finger at Chigusa

Taylor stopped and took a deep breath. She was tensing up the way she always did and her hands had started shaking just a little bit. She hoped no one noticed... that was the last thing she needed. Okay, maybe this girl did cut her straight through her defenses the moment she opened her mouth, good for her, but Taylor had nothing to lose in going off on her. It's not like they would've been friends.

Despite Taylor's best efforts to conceal her anger, Chigusa kne she had struck a nerve. Her suspicions were right then, this girl was a failure. Or at least she saw herself as one. That attitude she had seemed quite stereotypical of someone who knew too much loss. For a second Chigusa almost felt sorry for her, but then Taylor opened her mouth again and all nice feelings were gone.

"You think I haven't fought against anyone tough?" Chigusa said, a bit riled up now. She hated it when people looked down on her, for anything! That seemed to be one of her character flaws, and it wasn't anything she felt like fixing. "Trust me, in all my time as a wrestler, I've beaten and been beaten by people far stronger than the likes of you. You say you have talent? Then why haven't you won a match? Someone with as much "grit" and "guts", whatever they are, surely can't have a 100% losing rate!" Chigusa decided enough was enough. It seemed this annoying girl wanted to start a fight, so Chigusa might as well let her. Maybe after beating her the girl would shut up.

"If you think you're that much better than me, why haven't you challenged me yet?" Chigusa said, gesturing over at the ring.

Taylor laughed obnoxiously. "Hah! Because I don't want to be molested, that's why. I know how you operate, short stack, and I just don't swing that way. Sorry to burst your bubble if you've been itching to take a crack at me." She really tried to resist the urge to address Chigusa's comments about her losing. She really did.

In the span of a couple empty seconds, Taylor's tight sneer transformed into a scowl. "And I only lost because I fought a giant pre-op tranny, and a freaking party of three. Look, I watch a lot of video, I keep up on the stats of people worth keeping up on, and I didn't happen to notice you with a win over Sarah Gatt and company."

Oh, what a day. Wake up in a strange place, surrounded by jerks, with a hangover. Taylor was at least glad that not everyone she didn't want to see was in her face. Though, to be fair, she could've just ignored Chigusa. She knew that. She had started this whole thing, but she was just so... well Chigusa was annoying and Taylor was in a really bad mood. She'd been on edge since her lost to Sarah Gatt. That cheating psycho. She lost a match against like twenty people and people were treating her like she'd lost fair and square to a better fighter. Screw them.

"And what makes you think I'd even want to waste my time fighting you? Are you just trying to pick on me because I'm all hung over and cranky? Powder puff, you may be sold on the idea that you're all that, but the rest of the world isn't." Taylor had an afterthought. "And another thing! I happen to know that you've got WAY more losses than me! I'd say the jury's still out on ol' Taylor." Didn't she know it. She tried with every ounce of her being to ignore that, but the fact was she didn't have any confidence at all. Not anymore, at least. That didn't mean she wasn't going to back down. She'd fall apart long before she'd turn tail and run.

Taylor didn't like the way that Chigusa had zeroed in so quickly on her insecurity. Was she that transparent? Ridiculous. "Alright, little girlie-girl, how 'bout I challenge you to go find me a bottle of water? Then you can run home to daddy and he can pay someone to kick my ass and you can roll around in your gal pals till you feel all better, 'kay?" Damn this girl. Taylor felt like she was boxing with a broken nose.