Promoting Tough Love

The lights dimmed ever so much and audience came and hushed for what was to come. [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZRSCzW5Gu4:yasgocq9]Music began to play[/url:yasgocq9] and after a short time, when the shamisen kicked in, out from the back came Akashi Tanikaze. She wasn't dressed in her usual ring attire. Instead, she was dressed in her street clothes which consisted of black hakama pants and a billowy Kimono. She clacked down the entrance ramp in her geta and smiled and waved at the crowed. Nodding her head to those in the closest rows. She looked bright and cheerful. Much better than she had recently.

She stepped into the ring and with a microphone in hand, she addressed the audience. "Hello, everyone!" She said with a cheerful tone. "I'm glad you all came today! I hope you're enjoying your matches so far! I'll try and make this quick so you can get right back to the show!"

Akashi took a deep breath. "As you may or may not have known, Taylor-chan and I haven't had the best relationship as of late. We're sisters who share a deep bond and that closeness can sometimes drive a wedge between one another. People who love each other dearly could cultivate animosity so quickly and so deeply because of the bond they have. But it takes time to repair things. I understand that much."

Akashi closed her eyes for a moment. "But as Onee-chan, it is my duty to take the first step." Akashi looked at the crowd. "And that is to show my Imouto-chan exactly how big sisters should be treated. I think that maybe she doesn't realize in our culture, exactly how this relationship is. Here we respect and honor our family. We listen to what they have to say because they are important and dear to us. Because we know they only have our best interests in mind." Akashi swallowed hard, pulling the microphone away for a second. She briefly realized the hypocrisy of her statement as someone who often flew int he face of the own family but at the same time, she knew she had to. It was the only way to get through to such a thick headed girl like Taylor.

"She has shown immeasurable amounts of disrespect, disobedience and disloyalty to me and our bond. I understand that children are brash and they do childish things, but I have heard that Taylor-chan wishes to be among the company of the most talented wrestlers in this league. She cannot ever hope to be more than a child if she does not act as anything but! Still, I love her, regardless of her many faults but there comes a time when mere love will not do. Our sisterly bond is eternal and while it is strained, I will not let it break! So, I am demanding that you come out and publicly apologize to me for everything you have done and said lately. As the Imouto, it is on you to dutifully mend these bonds that you have carelessly allowed to fray! I am faultless because of my status as your onee-chan and my stature in this league."

Akashi was starting to get into it now. She was feeling pretty good. "Do you understand, Taylor-chan? Apologize to your onee-chan and when you admit you were in the wrong, then you will be thankful that I have offered up such a kind resolution. You'll be grateful for your onee-chan's insightful discipline. Then we can go back to being a happy family, the way we were meant to be before you caused this disturbance."

Akashi nodded firmly and crossed her arms underneath her chest. Yes. That was what Taylor needed. She needed tough love. A girl like that definitely needed an authority figure in her life. Akashi was suddenly filled with even more overwhelming pride at the job she had just done. She had been treating Taylor too much like a sensitive 'Yanki' and Akashi herself had become oversensitive because of it. What the blue haired girl needed, what Akashi needed, was some good old fashioned Japanese austerity. A comforting staple of any decent Japanese family.

The AFW crew almost couldn't cue [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vkOZuWuWrk:j68gclzo]Taylor's music[/url:j68gclzo] in time as she catapulted herself onto the entrance ramp. The crowd greeted her with a wave of cheers that would have drowned out Akashi if she hadn't already finished. Her bright blue hair in pigtails, a big grin on her face, she wore just a black leather bracelet, a black tank top with a red fist over one breast and a pair of little cutoff denim shorts with her red Doc's laced halfway.

Without breaking her stride, she hit her usual one-handed cartwheel into a backflip with a half twist, just for the crowd, and kept up her march to the ring. In one hand she trailed a microphone.

She slid up into the ring and strode up to Akashi, standing inches away from her. With a devilish, dangerous grin, she kept Akashi's gaze, as if daring her to try something. Then she turned her back on Akashi to face the crowd and raised the mic to her lips.

"First of all, I am disrespectful. And disobedient. I've never been anything but me, and I'm really glad that you guys, a lot of you anyway, have been able to accept me, ya know, for who I am. Even if Akashi can't." She leaned her head to one side and pointed to the "IMOUTO" tattoo on the side of her neck. "And this... You're the reason I got this, Kashi, but it's not for you." She said, and let the words hang with a look at the crowd to let them know that she was proud to be their little sister. Maybe it was too much, but it felt right in the moment.

"I AM loyal, though. And I'm not ungrateful. So, Akashi, thanks, for being one of the people that showed me that I don't need to depend on anyone else to be myself." She felt a catch in her throat. Even with all her ruined and strained relationships, there was Johnny. He never deserved to be dragged into any of this.

She faced Akashi, swallowed, and continued. "Because you betrayed me, Akashi. Like, huge. You broke my heart. And, like... I could get over that... but you don't respect me. You don't accept me. You think less of me than probably Brittany Luvve does, or Heather Sutherland, or... ya know, those people. People that never claimed to like me. Maybe you don't realize it, since you all think us Americans have no respect, but in MY culture, people who act like you tend to get smacked." She paused, and gave her a look.

"So you want to think that you can treat me like shit and tell me what to do, because you're older and because I wanted you to be my sister. Guess what! I changed my mind. I'd rather have Tai Fucking Kamiya for a brother than YOU for a sister. If you want a big happy family, why don't you go talk to yours." She said coldly, knowing perfectly well how sensitive a subject it was for Akashi. It was low. She meant it to be. "Because you can't tell me what to do, you waddling control freak. You can roid rage all you want and try to rhino charge me to death, but it doesn't change the fact that people like you..."

She threw her whole body into a sharp backhand slap across Akashi's face that resounded through the arena. She heard gasps coming from the crowd, and gave Akashi a hard, intense look and a hateful, vicious sneer.

Akashi watched with a stoic look on her face as Taylor's entrance music came and she flew down the ramp. Akashi knew she had to remain calm and stoic. Taylor began to rant and rave and say everything she wanted to say. All the things she had already said. They had done this dance before. A thousand times. Akashi was growing weary of it as she gazed into Taylor's fiery eyes.

Akashi knew that Taylor was on a short fuse fuse but when the slap came, she wasn't expecting it at all. Her eyes widened as the audible crack silenced the crowd. Akashi remained still with her eyes widened and her free hand slowly rubbing her cheek. Akashi slowly lifted up her head, not looking at Taylor as she let soft breaths into the microphone for a long moment.

"You brat..." Akashi growled, still not turning her head. "You've been running around playing the victim since you've been here. It's always you against everyone else. I took the high road to give you a chance to see the error of your ways and once again all you do is throw my love and generosity back in my face. What you need, Taylor-chan, is to be bent over someone's knee and spanked until you admit how wrong you are!" Akashi clenched the microphone tightly and swung it forward from her position, looking to smash it into Taylor's head.

Taylor quivered with anticipation while she stood face to face with Akashi. She could already feel the rush of adrenaline tighten her chest and unsteady her hands, make her more twitchy than she was already. She knew that Akashi was too proud to just turn the other cheek, and that her response would be violent. She stared back at her, not giving up an inch for the split second that passed like an eternity, and then Akashi moved.

Taylor ducked under the microphone so fast it was hardly halfway to her, and she nearly caught her head on it when she stood again to leap on Akashi. She grabbed hold of her hair and planted her feet on Akashi's hips, climbing her like a tree, raised her elbow up high and sent it crashing down into Akashi's face.

Akashi should have known that Taylor was expecting retaliation. Akashi didn't want to but she had to. Still, Taylor was ready and Akashi knew it and things played out the way she had figured they might. At least with Taylor attacking. She didn't expected to be mounted in such a way.

Akashi let out a yelp as the elbow slammed into her face. She felt her knees quiver as she had to carry her own weight and Taylor's. The hold on her long hair wasn't helping too much either as she stumbled backwards and tried to give Taylor a shove with one hand as her other arm wedged itself upward to try and get it between her head and Taylor's attacks.

Taylor held onto Akashi's hair as the sumo shoved her off, and ended up landing on her feet to Akashi's left. She quickly darted behind the bigger girl and kicked her in the back of the knee and yanked back on her hair to try to chop her down. It was only fair. Akashi was twice her size to start, she could stand to be taken down a peg.

Akashi never thought Taylor had anything to offer, but even in their past scuffles Taylor had never gone all out on her and fought her like an enemy. She still felt like she was holding back, but at the very least, Akashi might start to realize she was in trouble when she couldn't focus on Taylor long enough to stop her from doing whatever she wanted. People often underestimated Taylor before they actually had to deal with her in the ring. The same went for Akashi.

Akashi's shove did not have the effect that she wanted to. Instead of getting her off, now she was just holding onto her hair and standing. Akashi snarled as her hair was tugged on like reigns when Taylor moved around behind her. Akashi had long, glorious hair and rarely people used it against her the way Taylor was right now. But Akashi knew that was why it was there. To taunt and tease people and make them want to tug on it.

Taylor was nothing if not fast though. And even if Akashi had disrespected and brushed off Taylor, she always knew that much. But knowing and doing something about it were quite different and when Talyor kicked out Akashi's knee, she fell to the ground, letting out a loud cry as she was suspended by the tight grip on her long locks.

Akashi had taken Taylor's punishment thus far, and the speedy girl was working over the bigger sumo much to the surprise of the crowd. But Akashi had never went all out in their tussles either and while she tried to regain her faculties from Taylor's blindside, she knew that Taylor had made one small mistake in her attack. Akashi reached up with both hands and tried to grab onto the wrist of Taylor's hand that clutched her hair and yank it forward to jostle Taylor's body and flip Taylor over her, onto the mat in front of the sumo.

Taylor felt a surge of panicky butterflies as she went head over heels over Akashi, but she got her feet down fast enough that the landing wasn't so bad. She'd spent her entire career worrying about what bigger, stronger opponents would be able to do to her and preparing obsessively for it, so she was well rehearsed for the situation but never quite prepared for Akashi's brute strength. She was stronger than half the guys at her pro wrestling gym back in New York.

Immediately, she sprung back to her feet with a fast kip up and spun her body under Akashi's arm to twist it around, and then fired a high side kick up at the sumo's face. Unloading on Akashi like this, fully intending to hurt her with no regard at all for her well being, was such a massive release it was almost intoxicating.

Akashi barely had time to react as Taylor was able to land and kip up without even breaking Akashi's grip. Akashi's eyes were wide as her arm naturally rotated from Taylor's movements, pulling herself forward and leaving her completely exposed for Taylor's kick. The foot snapped into her head and a little bit of saliva flew out of Akashi's mouth as her head was jerked to the side.

She was forced to release her already loose grip on Taylor's hand as her body fell like timber to the side. She landed on her hands and knees and threw one arm over her head while the other cradled her aching face. Her heart was racing. She couldn't believe she had to turtle like that against Taylor's assault. The crowd couldn't believe it either! Akashi wasn't going to go down just like that though. All she needed was a moment to regroup before she tried to reverse this terrible situation.

The feeling of Taylor's ruby-colored Doc Marten slamming into Akashi's face and dropping her was almost too much. She suppressed a grin, and while Akashi was still reeling she dusted off her hands and walked away.

Turning her back on Akashi might have been stupid, but she preferred to think of it as gutsy. Either way, it would be every bit as much a slap in the face as she intended. She slid easily out of the ring, trying her best not to look like she was rushing even though she really just wanted to get out of there as fast as possible. She grabbed her microphone off the corner of the ring where it'd landed after she started tussling with Akashi.

"Oh, don't get up." She said, without turning around. "You might as well get used to it down there.."