Seven Days for Evil's Sake

"But... wouldn't it be more mean to just finish you? I mean, I can go harder and stuff."

Since he was asking for it, and to escape the imaginary pin, Cassie heaved with her legs across Mamouru's face and chest to try to throw him down on his back and get him off. He was bigger, sure, but she had the advantage in that his elbow was leaving him with fewer options. She grabbed his thumb with both hands to roll his arm into the proper position and cranked down on it, pulling with her hands close to her body, pushing down with her legs to leverage her hips up and further hyper-extend his elbow.

Why on earth would she need to escape? Unless he didn't want her to finish with an armbar... But that was sort of what she did. She'd have to use the skills that made her someone he saw potential in, right?

She realized after a moment that she had spaced out for a second and was pulling way harder than she meant to. She immediately let go.

"Sorry! I wasn't paying attention. There's so much to think about! Sorrysorrysorry!"

Mamouru DID want her to be someone who finished people quickly but there was also somethings she could work with. it was his fault that he hadn't countered her properly and set up another move for her to escape from. That in and of itself was frustrating and before he knew it, he was on his back.

Cassie wrenched the hold tighter and Mamouru cried out.
"Gaah, Shit!" He cursed and began tapping on Cassie's thigh with his free When she finally let go, Mamouru rolled onto his knes and clutched his elbow. His teeth clenched and he stood up and walked a few paces away from Cassie. He tried to calm himself down and then turn around. He nodded his head.

"Good.. That was good, Cassie-san. Yes, if you have the opportunity to win, then you should always go for it. I was just hoping to teach you a few more moves since we're here."

Mamouru inhaled deeply and looked at Cassie with a serious face. he still clutched his arm but bent his knees. "Let's go again." He said and began to circle Cassie without waiting for an answer.

"O-okay. You're really okay? Sorry." She needed to stop being nice, and needed to stop apologizing for it. It was hard, though, because she felt really bad. She was always so careful not to hurt people too much.

She took a little walk around the ring and took a breath to work herself back into character. She ran her hands down her suit to feel the material. It was smooth, slick, shiny, totally unlike anything she'd ever worn. Her finger tips dragged across the exposed skin inside the V, it was strangely exciting, and her hands ended at the red sash at her waist. She straightened it, took another breath, and when she looked back up at Mamouru, her eyes were different.

She beckoned with both hands for Mamouru to come at her and got into a fighting stance, more upright and sideways, her hands lower. It was cockier. She looked at Mamouru and he seemed a little upset. In that moment it didn't bother her, because she was going to win. Let him get serious.

She put up both hands and advanced toward him for a tie up, waiting for him to step in to either grab her hands or not, and as soon as he moved toward her she fired a quick straight kick at his stomach, a little harder than she meant to.

Mamouru wasn't trying to win. He had no intention of 'beating' Cassie. Not that he was certain he could for sure even if he was trying. At least not in Cassie's current state. Before he could. She was easy to throw off her game even if she was being serious and he could exploit that. But his heart raced. She was slowly being crafted in to a sleek, efficient killing machine. This was working out good. Too good maybe?

As he watched Cassie slide her hands down her body, Mamouru's eyes widened. His face blushed. It was too good. Even as she changed her look, Mamouru took a step back, his features changed for a second before he lowered his head. He pulled his arm up quickly and winced and shrugged it off.

Mamouru went for the tie up. No more thinking about it, just do it. He was baited, of course, and grunted and doubled over slightly. She was going to leave him sore today but he couldn't back off. He shot forward to try and grab her leg and pull her onto her back, looking to go for a standing ankle lock on her.

Cassie was moving forward when Mamouru shot in on her, and was a little slow to sprawl. She threw her legs back and braced her elbows against Mamouru's shoulders, but he still got a hold of her legs. With her balance and her flexibility she kept from being put on her back, even when Mamouru wrestled her leg up in front of her so that her foot was almost on her chest and began to twist her ankle.

She hopped on one foot while both of her hands worked to stop Mamouru from being able to wrench her foot around. She inhaled sharply, it hurt, and her mind raced to come up with something to do to him that would make sense with her new persona...

She brought a hand up to his face, she'd seen people eye gouge and rake their nails across people's faces to stun them. She put her fingers on his face, but she couldn't bring herself to actually do it to him. It'd just be too mean, and she didn't want to hurt his face or anything. She lost her nerve

"Ow!" She cried out. Mamouru's leverage on her ankle forced her to turn her body so that she was facing away from him, bent over and hopping to keep her balance. "I can't do it, it's too mean! All I know how to do is grapple, I just can't be like that!" She wailed, her ankle still hurting.

Mamouru's eyes widened as she pushed at his face. Then she faltered and Mamouru sighed. He let her go and turned his head a little bit. "Cassie-san." He said. "Look.." He turned back and looked at her. His head turned down and looked at her body then up at her face. He reached up and grabbed her cheeks and pushed his face forward. His heart began to race but he only wanted to look into her eyes. "What was that look... that you just had." He said focusing on her eyes. "That look and that attitude was perfect!"

He let go of her cheeks and his hands came down and grabbed her hips and twisted her body to mimic the pose she had just made not so long ago. That stance. It was what you need! How did you manage to make it happen just now? And... why did you falter?! It's fine!" He said. He stepped away from her and threw his hands up. "It's fine to do whatever you need to to me for the sake of your career!" He exclaimed with his back facing her. He then looked back at her.

"I just hope that it's because you and I are familiar. Int he ring against girls who really do want nothing more than to hurt and beat you up, I hope that you will not falter! Don't you understand the things I am saying to you!?" His voice was raised but he wasn't mad, he was anxious, eager, almost frantic. His gestures were wild. He came over her to her and seized her shoulders, gripping them tightly. "Cassie-san, I'd do anything to see you happy!"

Mamouru froze suddenly and then cleared his throat rather quickly. "In the ring!" He blurted out, hopefully quick enough. "I want you to be successful. I know you want to be as well. That success is inside you, begging to be pulled out! You won't have to be mean forever, but it's the only way to get the killer in you out so that when the time comes you can be Cassie Elliot with smiles and cheer and grace and yet in the ring, people will not wish to draw you as an opponent."

"Okay." Cassie said quietly. Now she just felt stupid, but if she was doing something well she could do it again. Hopefully in a match she wouldn't fail the way she did in practice, that would be humiliating and painful and she didn't want to do that to Mamouru.

Mamouru was so sweet. She sheepishly looked up at him and fiddled with her sash. By the time he faltered, she was wearing a funny little smile, though the pressures of practicing and her failings were still first in her mind. This was hard, but she was so glad to have such a patient, dedicated manager.

"Thanks, Mamouru." She said. She looked down at her boot and pointed her toe. "Can we... take a little break? I know we haven't been going that long, I just kind of want to sit and drink water and maybe put on some warmups to cover up. You're doing really well, by the way. You're good at this." She said, and gave him a bigger smile.

Mamouru smiled at Cassie and nodded his head. "Yes, let's take a break for now." He said. "Even though we haven't been practicing long, it's like cramming for university. We packed a lot into a little bit." He looked her over. "How are you feeling, Cassie-san? Tell me what your thoughts are about the training, the experience, everything. Your body is nearly perfect, skill wise there's hardly anything I could teach you. It's about a mental state of mind so you should allow your thoughts to flow freely so that we may help make the best progress. Do you understand?"

Mamouru took a moment to rub his stomach before walking out of the ring and grabbing some water. He tossed a bottle to Cassie and took a deep drink himself. "I think for now, we can watch some film. You can study some of the true heels and see what they do. Then, we can come back and practice some more. What do you think about that?"

Cassie kept quiet. How did she feel? Mamouru was giving her more to think about than she expected. She lowered her eyes and slowly made her way out of the ring while she mulled things over, tried to separate out exactly how she felt about the whole ordeal.

Was it even right for her to try to be something she wasn't, a bad something, just to be more competitive? She was plenty competitive in Jiu Jitsu tournaments, it was just that wrestling was a rougher business. But maybe this was part of her coming of age, learning to assert herself and be confident and willing to work for her own career, even if it was at the expense of someone else. In every match there was a winner and a loser, and Cassie couldn't just be the loser because she was too nice to take the win away from the other person.

Of course there were draws too. That would be okay.

She caught the bottle of water and took a drink. She nodded. She knew the value of time and repetition in training, and they had a lot of work to do.

"I think... I think I'm really... frustrated." Cassie said slowly, her voice a little unsteady. "I really want to do well with this, I really do, and I'm frustrated that it's so hard, but I'm also kind of mad that I have to do this in the first place. I mean, martial arts is my thing, and I came here because pro wrestling is awesome, and I feel like I have all this stuff going for me and none of it means anything because I'm such a... a... I dunno." She paused, and looked at Mamouru. Her face had reddened, and her eyes felt like there were tears almost ready to spill. She blinked them away.

"Sorry, I'm probably just tired. I haven't slept well, and I barely slept at all last night, so... Let's just go take a break and stuff. Lead the way, manager."

Mamouru listened carefully to Cassie's words and while she spoke, Mamouru smiled at her. She had a lot of worries but she was working through them in quite an amazing way. As she was finished, Mamouru bowed to her.

"Thank you for sharing your feelings with me, Cassie-san!"

He then looked up and smiled at her. He put his hands on her shoulders and looked into her eyes for a moment. He then inhaled deeply and turned and marched out of the room with Cassie in tow.

"Oh." He said. "I suppose it is good for you to get used to wearing that backstage." He said and then turned his head sharply forward so she wouldn't see his big grin as she lead Cassie towards one of AFW's fancy film rooms.