Talia Wilson vs Satoru Kido - Stakes match at the Cassino

Talia felt Kido flip her over and put her left leg in a painful hold. It had been his target once more, and it was really starting to hurt with the repeated assaults. She grinded her teeth together and pounded on the table with her fist. "Mmm..." she muffled her own cries of pain, not wanting to show any weakness. "I'd do anything for it...I...I can take pain if it means I get to fulfill my dream..." Even so, her left leg was hurting, and as much as she wanted to say she wouldn't give in to a little pain, it was hard to say when actually feeling the pain.

"D-Do...do you really have nothing you want? Nothing you dream of accomplishing?" she asked through the pain. He had said there wasn't anything to smile about, that he only fought to feel connected to people. Talia felt bad for him if that was really the case. "Is...is money your only motivation here?" Even though it was sort of a ploy to distract Kido from the match and the pain he was causing her, Talia did want to know what was going on in his head. He seemed so distant at times, stoic at other times, but always that same persistent down to earth mentality. "How far are you willing to go to do whatever it is you want to do?"

As Talia finished her series of questions, Kido would let go of her leg before he'd jump off the table. The boy walked towards another table and pushed himself up before sitting casually on it.

"Hah," he would let out with a very subtle hint of amusement, as if she just said something funny to him.

"What made you think I care for money?" he'd say with a rather cold smirk on his face. "I don't know... fighting for me is just like a way to proof my existence, I guess," he'd added before giving a short pause and let out a sigh.

"When I'm fighting, I feel like I can be myself. Winning, losing, they don't mater shit as long as I'm alive... as long as I can fight again another day. Maybe that's my goal. To stay alive as long as I could, so I can get into more exciting fights and have some fun."

After he said that, Kido would hop off from the table again and start to do some stretching before he'd get into a loose stance.

"As for how far I'm willing to go... that's for me to know and for you to find out."

Talia breathed a sigh of relief when Kido released her leg. She rolled to her back and grasped her left knee, trying to stretch her leg out. She turned to look at Kido as he spoke. It seemed odd to her. His answer of living to fighting, though similar to Talia's reason, somewhat saddened her. She didn't mind fighting, but it was more about the achievements than the actual wrestling. Fighting for the sake of fighting seemed so...unsatisfying in her own mind.

She rolled off the table and to her feet, lightly panting from the building pain and exhaustion. "Do you really have nothing to fight for other than survival?" she asked him as she took a step forward, a slight limp in her left foot. She hadn't realized it laying down but something must have twisted when Kido threw her into the table. "Don't you have friends to worry about; who worry about you?" she asked again as she took another step forward. She was trying to calmly close the distance between the two. She still kept her arms raised in case she needed to block or repel one of Kido's attacks.

Kido remained still as Talia slowly get into her feet again and began to step forward. It seemed like she already took quite a damage on her body. The boy wasn't sure how much longer she would being stubborn like that. Hearing more of her questions, he'd silently stare at the girl for a while, almost glaring.

"Nope," he'd say plainly. "I don't need something like that. Friends are just people who will pretend to be nice to you until they don't need you anymore. I already learned that a long time ago."

The boy tried to calmly observe Talia's movement carefully, but he seemed to be a bit distracted with her questions. He never really liked people with curious attitude like her that much. Most of the time they only pretend as if they care about others, while in reality they were just playing nice so they could feel better about themselves. Of course, not everyone was like that, and even Kido was aware of that fact.

He used to have two people whom he considered as friends, and one of them might be even more than just a friend. However, it's been a while since he saw any of those two. For some reasons, it seemed like when he finally found someone he could get along with, they ended up being separated through some events. It was why he decided to gain strength from loneliness, to be able to survive on his own without having to rely on anyone by himself.

Talia took another step towards Kido, continuing to close the distance between them even further. Hearing Kido reason why he didn't have friends made her stop and frown. It was such a saddening thing to hear. Talia didn't have many friends when she first came to Japan. It had been such a lonely experience but eventually she had met people she could honestly call friends. Some were more earnest than others, sure, but in the end she always felt they were very important to her nevertheless. To hear Kido say they were no such things as good friends almost made her angry. If it was true, then even she would be betrayed or worse by her friends.

"Do...do you really feel that way?" she asked to him. Obviously he had just said it so he probably felt that way. "Not everyone is bad you know..." she tried to reason now with another step closer. She was only about three feet away from him at this point. Her arms had slid down a little bit from their guarding stance as she was more interested in the conversation as well.

Looking at Talia's expression and listening to her questions, Kido now understand why he was irked by the girl. Whether it was out of genuine concern or not, it seemed as if she's pitying him. Glaring at his opponent, Kido suddenly decided to charge at Talia, despite how close their distances were, before he would try to do a jumping spin kick to her left sides.

"Tell me..." he'd say as he spun mid air. "...something I don't know!" the boy inadvertently yelled as he swung his right foot with all his might at his opponent.

Talia's eyes opened wide when Kido suddenly flew around and threw a kick at her. It really annoyed him to be questioned as Talia was, and it made her feel all the more worse. As he spun in the air, Talia counter-instinctively took a step forward so the kick would aim too far forward. Despite the power behind the kick, Talia managed to catch Kido's leg at the thigh so it was neither focused or moving that fast. For a split second, she looked up at him in thought, unsure of what to do.

Then she pulled his leg toward her similar to how she had done earlier when she tried to clothesline him in the same situation. She threw her body forward but instead of using one arm she used two. Though they collided a little roughly, Talia's arms were on the outside and wrapped around Kido's body as they hit. She tightly held onto him in a hug as she rested her head on the man's chest.

"But I consider you a friend..." she muttered to him. "Do you think I'm going to take advantage of you...or move on and stop being friendly when I don't need you..." Talia squeezed him a little tighter. Maybe their friendship was a little vague due to the nature of things. But still, she was a little hurt by his opinion. She felt bad for him, and it showed. "Because I think of you as a friend."

Kido was surprised that he missed the kick. Perhaps his irritation caused him to lose his focus. As he took Talia's clothesline and fell to the floor on his back, his eyes widened a bit when he saw the girl wrapped her arms on his body and squeezed him. The pain in his body started to stack, and that last hit started to make his head feel a bit light.

Despite all of that, Kido blushed a little as he felt Talia's breasts were pushing against his chest. However, hearing her words, the boy's glare become more apparent as he would try to buck off Talia's petite figure, shoving her aside if he could.

"Think whatever you want," he'd say in the middle of his panting as he got up into a sitting position. "But don't expect me to think the same of you."

As rude as he sounded, Kido didn't really mean his words. He just didn't know if he had what it took to trust people once again. Mixed with feelings he became unfamiliar with after years of solitude, the boy's head starting to throb.

Talia let go of Kido when it became apparent he was uncomfortable with her hugging him. She rolled to the side and frowned, clearly upset by his actions. But his words hurt much more. She looked as if she was about to cry but just not quite. He had helped train her, been respectful in victory in their last match. Even though he always had that blank stare, his actions made him out to be her friend. Or so she thought. Talia stared back at Kido's now very clear glare for a few more seconds. "Why..." she began to ask. She took another step toward him. "Why are you such a jerk?" Her friend Akashi was right, all Tension guys were the same. "What did I ever do to you?"

With another step forward, Talia lifted up her arms back into a combat stance. "You're just like the rest of them...just some selfish punk who doesn't care about anyone else...I thought you were different from the rest...I hoped you were different..." but at the same time Talia couldn't understand why he helped her the few times she did. Maybe he was telling the truth about his own reason for being nice then. "What did you want from me when you were nice?"

Kido stared silently at Talia as he slowly got up to his feet. Listening to her outbursts, he maintained his blank expression. Her reactions was totally expectable. Anyone else would react the same way she did after hearing his words. Kido would let out a sigh before a faint smile appeared on his face. It wasn't a smile of happiness or anything, his eyes had a subtle hint of loneliness, although Talia might not noticed it in her current state.

"You're right. I'm a jerk," he'd say dryly as he looked away. "I am selfish to the core. I couldn't care less about everyone else but myself. You can't satisfy everyone anyways, so I wouldn't even try to do that. This is who I am. You don't like it? Tough luck."

"Why would you expect anything from someone like me anyways?" he'd added after a short pause. "I just helped you out of boredom. Nothing more."

Kido thought that he was a fool for saying what he said, but it might be better this way. Rather than forming a bond with someone and ended up getting hurt again in the future, he'd prefer to be alone. Being alone is the proof of his strength, no matter how stupid that might sound. He didn't expect things to turn out this way, but he couldn't say that he didn't completely saw it coming. With her attitude, Talia was bound to irritate his asocial self sooner or later.