Seven Days for Evil's Sake

Cassie tucked her chin down and looked up at Mamouru with smiling eyes while he held her shoulders. When he turned to walk away, she couldn't help but give him a big hug from behind.

"What? You think I... but..." Cassie didn't know what to think, should she wear her new suit backstage to stay in character and everything? She really felt like she'd just put things on to cover up and warm up, though the transparent panty hose that stretched almost imperceptibly over her thighs did provide a little protection against drafts. Maybe she should just trust Mamouru, but...

"You just want to see me in my suit, don't you?" She asked, as if she was wise to him and his game. She was embarrassed and shy and really glad that he liked it. She had what he said about the suit in mind when she made it the night before. While Mamouru was facing away from her, Cassie followed behind and Mamouru also could not see her nervously excited smile.

"I'm glad you like it. Ooh..." She said as they entered the film room. "Fancy."

She sat down and waited for Mamouru to take care of things. Once he joined her and they began to review footage, her attention quickly slipped off of the deplorable antics of the experienced heel wrestlers as she became drowsy. She was tired and ripe for an afternoon nap, and though she stayed awake, just barely, before long she had wrapped her arms around Mamouru's arm and pillowed her head on his shoulder. She made sure to look like she was paying attention whenever he looked down at her, but her eyes couldn't help but close a little.

Maybe she fell asleep a little. It was just so cozy.

Mamouru went through the film as much as he could, watching Cassie slowly drift off into unconsciousness. After a while, he stopped pretending to lecture Cassie on the fundamentals of being a heel and let the match he had on play out. He found himself regarding Cassie and looking over her cute form. He was smiling and let out a soft sigh.

His thoughts ran back to last evening's debacle with Hitomi. He frowned. He had barely gotten any rest last evening and still didn't have an answer. Was it Cecelia? Was he beginning to grow fond of her? He thought he had, but she had barely entered his thoughts. No.. he knew where those thoughts had drifted. He smiled at Cassie's form and stepped away. He grabbed a few towels form the nearby gym and came back. He slowly began to cover Cassie with towels like they were blankets.

He then looked back at the film and began writing on a piece of paper. He then taped a note to one of the towels that said: "Watch the following matches, quiz tomorrow!" He then watched her silently smiling for a few minutes before leaving.

He left the AFW facility after grabbing his things and went to a different gym and worked out until he could barely move. He slugged his way back to where he was staying. Even though his body was tired, he still barely slept. Early the next morning he got up and decided he needed to get a ticket back to Kyoto.He got a little bit of sleep on the train ride but mostly spent it leaving a detailed voice mail on Cassie's phone.

"I'm sorry, Cassie-san. I won't be able to train with you today. Something urgent's come up but that does not mean you're off the hook for today's lessons! What I would like you to do is to get in your costume and get into your persona and spend the day around the AFW living what you plan on being in the ring. Start some trouble, have some spars, butt into other people's spars if you have to. Heck, if you're feeling REALLY into it, then run out during a match and cause some havoc. If you have any questions, go ahead and call, I'll answer. I'll be calling in later today to give you that quiz! Good luck, Cassie-san. I know you'll do a good job. I hope you can forgive me for not being there in person. I promise I'll be there tomorrow and we'll work extra hard. Oh yeah! take lots of pictures if you can! Sayonara!"

Mamouru showed up at his house in Kyoto and barged in. He saw his brother half naked and looking at a cell phone. He caught a glance at the pic as Johnny struggled ot hid it. It looked like two naked girls hugging. One with blue hair and one with purple. Though, Mamouru's head wasn't int he game. This was Johnny he was talking about. Mamouru was just thinking dirty.

"WHAT. THE. FUCK!" Johnny cried out at him.

Mamouru stopped, he had his big duffle bag with him and looked rushed. "Eh... why are you shirtless wet and holding a phone with a pic of..."

Mamouru caught that Johnny was looking at a SOMETHING inappropriate. He saw a flash of purple and blue and a lot of "Skin color" but other than that, Johnny managed to hide the phone's view.

"SHOULDN'T YOU BE IN TOKYO!? Banging some Danish girl!?"" Johnny said more shocked than angry.

"Yes, it's a long story I'm only here for a-'

"Get the fuck out!" Johnny said and began to muscle his brother out of the apartment. Mamouru furrowed his brow and dropped his duffle bag as Johnny shoved him> He grabbed Johnny and forced him into an armbar and slammed him against the door sill.

"I'm not int he mood, Junichi. I'm not going to be here for very long so step off."

"What the-Owwww! Ok, I give! I give! Fuck!"

Mamouru sighed and let Johnny go and stepped into the apartment. He walked back to his sparse room and flopped on the bed. he let out a heavy sigh but Johnny was soon int he door.

"Dude I thought you were just gonna be like short and shit."

"I tried to sleep with Hitomi the other day." Mamouru said in a dull tone.

"So? You try and sleep with like every girl every night. What, was she wise to your douchery and slap the taste out of your face? Psh. My chick's hotter anyway." Johnny added without knowing. He didn't NEED to know! Johnny yawned and was about to go back to icing down his abs for Taylor when Mamouru spoke again.

"We were going all the way... and I couldn't finish."

Johnny stopped. He tilted his head. Then, suddenly he burst out laughing. "AHAHAH! OH Man! This... This is the greatest day of my life!" Johnny pointed and laughed at Mamouru. Mamouru just sighed. "Wait. ahaha.. Wait a sec. I'm gonna tell Taylor!" Johnny managed to type out: "Mamouru Coul-" Before Mamouru tackled him against the wall. The two wrestled a bit, ultimately accidentally sending Taylor a text that read:

Mamouru couljhfjbfjlfjluop

Once Mamouru had Johnny pinned down again he looked him int he eyes. "Don't fucking tell anyone about this, asshole." He growled. Johnny looked up and his smile faded. He turned his head. "Tch... geeze... fine.. I was just joking anyway... But dude... what's up with that? I thought you were like the master or something? You finally run out of juice? Break it after using it too much/" He said and chuckled softly.

Mamouru stood up and helped Johnny up. "I don't know. It's not physical though. It's... something else..."

Johnny looked confused at Mamouru for a moment before regarding him slyly. "It's that Cecelia-chick, right? Looks like someone finally found someone he really likes. That's cool though man. Havin a girl is sweet shit."

Mamouru clenched his teeth and fists. "It's not her!" He shouted as he raised his shoulders' defensively and glared at Johnny. "I mean..." Mamouru sighed. "Fuck.. I like Cecelia a lot.I... didn't mean that. She's got everything a guy like me could ever hope for."

Mamouru sighed. "I just needed to get away from Tokyo for a day. I've got to head back tomorrow to continue to help with Cassie-san. I think I've been so stressed out that it's effecting me in unforeseen ways." Mamouru looked sternly at Johnny. "You don't know... how much I want to prove to Cassie and Drake that my instincts are right and that my ambitions are not misplaced. I can make Cassie succeed int his league. I WILL!"

Johnny backed up a bit and raised his hands. "Dude... You don't have to try and convince me man. If there's one thing I admire about you it's how you don't give up on shit and junk. Even though it's usually asshole stuff... like doin chicks."

Mamouru let otu a sigh and smiled. "Heh... Thanks, bro." He said. "Wanna head out for a bit?"

"Man.. I don't even go to clubs anymore."

Mamouru shook his head. "No. Not a club. I just wanna be out but around people. I need to get my mind off ... everything."

Johnny smiled. "Dude. Why don't we just get some movies and shit. Like we used to. I'll order some food or something."

Mamouru smiled. "Sounds great, Junichi."

Mamouru ended up enjoying himself for the rest of the evening but also ended up staying up way later than he should have. He barely caught the early train back to Tokyo and was half asleep as he entered the gym, ready for Cassie.

Day 4- 10:37 AM

"Focus Hitomi," Hitomi Fujishima said to herself as she looked down the binoculars at Mamoru, who had just entered the gym. She had to pull them away for a second, blinking away tears, wiping them on her sleeve. Nothing had hurt her like what Mamoru did, or rather what he didn't do. She couldn't help but feel inadequate, like she wasn't good enough for him? Was he just a sweet-talking liar? She bit her lip, keeping herself from crying.

A hand tapped her shoulder. "Geez Hitomi, was it really that bad?" Megumi asked. Of course Hitomi hadn't been the sole spy Drake sent. Megumi came along as well, or rather she demanded to come along and was extremely persuasive. It was all part of a plan, of course. Hitomi made herself known on purpose, and also lead Mamoru on to try and have sex with him. It was a sort of failsafe, an insurance policy that would let Drake keep Mamoru in check through Hitomi manipulating his feelings. As she was an actress, it was easy to fake it all. But when Mamoru couldn't do it, that plan went out the window. And Hitomi's ego was completely shattered.

"You don't understand Megumi," Hitomi said, "He was going to do it! But h-he couldn't! A-and I t-think it's my fault, I-I..." She couldn't finish, bursting out in tears. Megumi leaned over and hugged her.

"Shhhh... stop that," Megumi said, "You'll attract attention..." She hugged Hitomi close, patting her back. "There there, it's not your fault! Mamoru's the one with issues, not you! Go take a break Hitomi, take the day off. I can handle things here." Hitomi pulled away, wiping her eyes and nodding, before getting up and leaving the cafe to the company car. Megumi meanwhile turned back to her spying. She hated Mamoru a little more now, for hurting Hitomi like that.

"It's all your fault Higurashi Mamoru," she said, "And I'll get you for it." She raised the binoculars to her eyes, keeping a close tab on Mamoru.

Cassie was an hour late to meet Mamouru. She overslept again, she'd gone to bed too late the night before again, but mostly she was late on purpose. She felt bad about it.

The lack of sleep was really starting to wear on her. She normally kept a very regular sleep schedule, and was always an early riser. All this staying up too late and sleeping late stuff was really messing with her body and with her head. She felt groggy, and a little grumpy, but she tried to think of it as being loose and laid back.

The day before, Mamouru didn't show up, and she didn't know why. At first, she told herself that it was okay, and she hoped he was doing alright, and she figured that he just had something to do in Kyoto. She couldn't presume to have him devote his entire week to her. But after thinking about it, she decided that she shouldn't just let herself take it so lightly. He blew her off, and she should be mad about it. She wasn't, but it seemed like something her bad girl persona would do.

She was still having plenty of trouble with this character. It was such a fine line to tread between being a heel, someone people loved to hate, someone to antagonize the good guy, and going too far. She was doing her best to change her attitude and dig into this character she was developing, but she couldn't actually do bad things. Maybe she could act... antagonistic, but she couldn't be mean for real. Or worse. It hurt her head to think about it. She just wanted to learn to use her skills and do her job and get out of her own way. But wasn't being a nice person a good thing? Was that more important than her career?

She wore a rare scowl as she pushed through the doors of the gym. She wore a simple black cotton tank dress and her black and red ring boots. Under the dress was only her black suit that showed out from under the dress around the neckline. She'd taken her time with makeup, and had covered up her freckles and applied some dark eyeliner. Most obvious, though, was that her short orange hair was freshly dyed black. She sort of liked it.

Her eyes scanned over the people in the gym until she found Mamouru. She walked up to him and tossed her gym back into him.

"Hi, Mamouru. Did you have a good trip?" She asked, sounding just as tired as she was. Her voice lacked much of it's usual joyfulness and spring.

Mamouru was stretching in the ring once he arrived and settled in. His preparation for their next meeting had allowed him to pass about a half hours worth of time before he even realized that Cassie was late. He spent the next hour trying to figure out where she was. He didn't call her yet. Maybe she was getting ready? It wasn't like Cassie to be late... though maybe it was? When he thought about it, she really hadn't seemed like a very punctual person. That didn't' FEEL like Cassie but it had been basically all he'd known about her so far.

He spent the next half hour trying to fight off his own tiredness. This had been one of the roughest weeks of his life as well. Mamouru, although certainly capable of staying up late, also liked to get a head start on the day and usually slept quite wonderfully at night. When he saw Cassie, he didn't recognize her right away. When she threw her gym bag at him, he practically fell over trying to catch it. He spoke without thinking. "It was necessary... I hope." He said before doing a double take.

"W-wait... Cassie-san? What the heck did you do!? She ... WAS a different person. That cute haired girl who was so full of life was gone. Cassie had adapted well to her role as a villainess, even dying her hair black. He fumbled for words and then stepped forward and bowed.

"Cassie-san, please forgive me for missing yesterday." He then lifted his head up and looked at her with a weary smile. "Ah... your make up looks good." Despite her change, she still looked quite stunning in a rather unique way. He stood up and laughed. "You even look like you haven't gotten much sleep. It's very intimidating. No wonder you were late. I think that it's good for you to get into character so thoroughly please." Mamouru clasped his hands together and looked down at Cassie and smiled. "Tell me about how yesterday went. I'm eager to hear about it." After that, we can begin to spar again!"

"Well..." She began, and stared off into space for a second. She smiled. "It wasn't a great day, I guess. I... well, it could've gone better. I..." She kept stopping. There were things she wanted to say, but didn't want to say.

She sighed. "I'm pretty tired, though. I haven't been sleeping like normal. But, um, I watched the matches that you told me to. I liked some of them... some of that is stuff I don't think I could do."

After an empty pause, she walked off to the practice ring. "Let's get started." She said. She didn't want to talk about yesterday. She climbed up into the ring and looked down at Mamouru. It was weird. She hadn't given him a genuine smile, or even been very friendly, and not because she was doing a good job of trying not to. She just didn't feel like it. She felt stressed out and worn out and knotted up. Something wasn't right, and she had yet to be able to straighten things out in her head enough that she felt like she knew what she was doing. Mamouru made everything so complicated.

After noticing her scowl, she made a conscious effort to get rid of it.

Mamouru wrinkled his brow in confusion at Cassie's words. She wasn't gettign any sleep/ What did SHE have to deal with? She hadn't emasculated herself in front of a pretty girl like Hitomi. Her ass wasn't on the line if things went bad. All she would have to do is go back to being her usual Cassie self. The wodnerful girl that she was..." Mamouru smiled softly at the thought. He then looked at Cassie and frowned a bit. "I understand, Cassie-san." He said bowing slightly. He would have liked to have added that if she wanted to take a day off she could, but he knew she'd say no and he knew he had to keep at it.

He climbed into the ring after her and looked her over. "Ahh... will you be wrestling in that or...?" He asked, noticing she still had her dress on. He paused and stepped up towards her. He lifted his hand and set it on her shoulder and smiled at her. "Cassie... san..." He said. "You... You're doing a really great job." He said in as gentle a tone as he could. "You won't... have to do this forever, I promise..." He said and lowered his head.

"Are you asking because you want to see me in my suit?" Cassie asked with no particular malice in her voice, although she did intend some. She reached up and pulled her dress over her head, revealing the suit underneath, except today the deep, daring V-cut was filled in with a fine red mesh that effectively hid her finer details.

She sighed. "I know I won't. I don't know what I'm doing or how long I'm going to do it, but... I'd rather do this for a living than walk dogs and watch other people's kids." Which is what she had done to pay bills during her dry spell with AFW. She loved both jobs, but at the moment the thought of having to do them because she couldn't cut it in the ring was maddening.

Cassie skipped her usual lengthy warmup and stretching routine and got straight to business. She took a step toward Mamouru and bent her knees, getting a little lower than her meager 5'3" frame already was just to make it more awkward for Mamouru to lock up with her and to take away some of his leverage. She put up her hands.

"I've picked up a few things, I think." She said.

Mamouru was taken aback by Cassie's words. "N-No!" He said defensively. As her manager he didn't care what she wrestled in as long as it was appropriate. But he would be lying if he said he didn't want to see her in it. When she took off her dress, his eyes went to her chest only to be laughed at by the red mes. He blushed and turned his head. "A nice touch..." He muttered.

"Yes, yes." Mamouru said encouragingly and smiled. "It's good to think like that!" But he saw her tone and frowned. Something was wrong with her today. Whoever this person was, wasn't Cassie.

Mamouru watched as Cassie crouched low. He crouched as well but not nearly as low as her. He looked her over and nodded. "Excellent. Feel free to show them to me." He then pushed forward to try and grab for Cassie's leg and bring her to the mat.

Cassie was all set to show Mamouru her new pro wrestling stuff, but when he shot in she mentally rolled her eyes. She didn't have to think about defending it, she'd done so so many times before, and she was so much lower that without setting it up with anything she sprawled back easily. She braced her forearms against his shoulders and kicked her legs back, away from his hands, and then gave him a whack on the back of the head and pushed away from him.

She quickly circled around and cracked a smile, but didn't make a very big deal about it. Her enormous size disadvantage would come into play against someone like Mamouru if she brawled with them, or if they got her down or against the ropes and could defend well enough against her submissions. She was confident enough in her abilities, though her skill set was still not complete as a pro wrestler.

The point, if there was one, was that if Mamouru wanted to test her, he'd better not play her game.

She raised an eyebrow at him with a look that told him that he should've known that she wouldn't be that easy to catch. The way she showed her confidence, the way she carried herself, was very much out of character. She remained silent, and plodded back toward him. She beckoned with both hands for a tie up.