Post by zombie on Feb 1, 2017 2:32:59 GMT -5
I wake up with a start as fire flashes before my eyes and shut them to clear my head. When I open them again the world is spinning. I can’t focus my eyes or find where the light that woke me up is coming from. All I can do is focus on a single point and wait for my brain to stop sloshing around my head. The room finally stabilizes and I quickly run to close the blinds before the aches register. I flop back down on the bed and they hit at at the joints the muscles and my head. These aren’t the aches and pains of getting punched, kicked, or stretched. They’re not even from training. These are the stiff aches of inactivity and excess. The first few days after my first tag match as Ketsuekigata Z were spent recovering.. The days after that were spent relaxing and enjoying myself. I may have overdone it. It’s not all bad as the only thing I am enjoying right now is his smell on the sheets. I freeze and just breathe it in to ease the discomfort. It’s so rich. I remember vaguely that he has to leave early on some business and I have to try to stop the invading thoughts of him not wanting to slum it with me too much. No point in living like a drifter when you’re a private plane ride away from luxury.
But enough about that. I got mine. So it’s another day of waking up in an unfamiliar hotel room and getting out of bed wearing something entirely different than what you got into it with. I button up Gale’s shirt and- there’s the fucking hangover headache to remind me that I’m a piece of shit. There is always a price to pay for my fun. I get out of bed and try to shake my limbs into feeling normal and the itching to stop under my skin.. After a sluggish search for some pants in the disheveled room I wrap myself into a loose skirt and use some vodka for mouthwash. Maybe Aokigahara can do something for me. I put on my coat and peek out of my door before going out across the parking lot to his room. His door is slightly open and when I go in I find him in front of his makeshift altar in front of a figurine of a skeletal Santa Muerte. I sigh as he finishes offering the bitch a cigarillo and a shot of tequila by laying them on a plate in front of her. This religious stuff is new for him and sometimes I wonder if all those shots to the head have made him crazy. He stares back at me with disgust and lights the cigarillo for our lady of death.
“Kuso, you look horrible.” He sniffs the air and takes a puff of the cigarillo. “You kind of smell a bit too.”
I roll my eyes and flop down on his bed. “Don’t start with me right now, Uncle. I feel like crap.”
“Yeah it shows. Did you take a shower yet? You smell like you’re into some weird sex.”
It was one thing to be talked to about this from a paternal figure in your life. It was something entirely different for it to come from one that is a degenerate like Aokigahara Zombie. “Go screw yourself.”
“I’m serious. Was there food involved? Animals? I know those rich people can be into some weird stuff.”
“We didn’t do anything.” That I can remember right now. I just know it felt nice. I'm dying on the outside but my spirit is weirdly nice and calm. Or it was before I came in here. There is also something off about the room. I raise my head and look around. It seems like he is trying to compete with me for the messiest room but I notice the camera in the corner. “What the fuck are you filming for?”
He covered his nose and turned to me. “They want to catch up with us so they asked me to do a little ‘Road to Executive Action’ thing. They’ll probably edit out all this stuff about you coming in here like a hot toxic mess and soiling my bed.”
“Fuck!” I scream so loud that the sound of it throbs in my skull for a few seconds. Then it happens again. I see the world in a shade of red. Everything seems to move in slow motion and it feels like I was watching myself from outside my body. I throw off my coat, stomp into the bathroom, turn the shower on and jump in, clothes and all. Don’t feel anything at first. Just darkness and anger. Then the shock of the cold water definitely wakes me up and clears my head. I'm left there suffering the effects of my actions but I don’t move away. I deserve this.
After I have enough I collapse into the tub. Aoki comes in and shuts the water off . He grabs a towel and drapes it over me then leads me to the main room and sits me in front of the radiator.
“Alright, tell Ojisan what’s wrong.” He sits down next to me and crosses his legs. He wants to look like some wise sage but all I see is the demon about to try to make me sign away my soul.
“Oh you can tolerate me now? I just got a damn hangover so I don’t need any more shit.”
“Well you’ve been in this cycle. You train, you fight, you get wasted, you rally and repeat. I hoped that with this time out of the ring you could reset but you’ve been going at the bottle hard lately. You shut yourself away and drown then you become erratic. You snap at me for strangest things. Do you snap at that playboy too? Didn’t you say you didn’t want that guy over to see how we live?”
This is different. “I just needed to see him. Why are you so concerned?”
“I care, Little Yokai.”
“Well I’m just having fun. We’re not on the job so I can unwind right?”
He suddenly reaches over and clutches my back around my kidneys. It hurts like a- “Motherfucker!” He lets me go but the pain is still there. It was around there where I was still feeling the affects of the cage and where Darcy Solomon got a few shots in during the brawl. I look up at him through my anguish and he smiles.
“I know your pain, Kimitsu. You feel inadequate because you have taken on so much. I know this is why you drink. The booze is a good way to manage it but it is easy to abuse and you will feel it the next day. I was like you but I managed to control myself. Do you want to know my secret?”
“Huh?”
He leans in and whispers. “I’m always drunk. That’s why I carry this around with me.” He pulls a small device out of his pocket with a small screen and a tube at the corner. “It’s a breathalyzer. I can gauge how much I need to drink or when I can hold back with this little magical tool here. In most places the limit is 0.08 but that’s just to drive. So when I need to fight or if I just want to have fun I can go to .11 or .12. That’s the sweet spot where I can be aware of the fight and what I’m doing but also be able to enjoy the pain.” He breathes into the tube and the device beeps. He holds it out towards me. “Oh! .09 so it’s time for a little taste.” He picks up a bottle of tequila from under his bed like a magician and pours himself a glass on the nightstand.
I just stare and he drinks. Then he points at me. “There is something else too. I saw it while we were watching Massacre 6 backstage and when we were following the production. You got jitters from time to time. Like you were anxious. It’s like there’s this storm brewing in your head, right? Like your skin is crawling?”
I think back and fight through the haze that is my punishment for last night and I know why it looked like that to him. I am anxious and nervous. I was supposed to be relaxing but every night I pace back and forth looking at the news on twitter or texting. I know that if I’m put on the sidelines while some big decisions were being made in the AWE then we would be left behind. I look weak. I tried to smile and act like a fucking doll to everyone but he must have seen through my act. Austin must have seen it too. He asked about ten times if I was sure I wanted to see him after his loss and an awkward dinner. I just wanted an escape from feeling useless so I let him use me. Something was off and I wasn’t hiding it well.
I catch Uncle Aoki staring at me as I think and he nods with that devilish sage smile of his. “I know exactly what you need. You’ve been feeling down and thinking the worst lately. If I know you, right, then I think I know what will bring you up again. You need to hit something!”
“What?” I didn’t think I heard him right but he already moved to action. He takes out his bag and puts it on the bed and starts to fill it with some equipment.
“Let's go!”
Aokigahara Zombie looks on behind him as Kimitsu works on a heavy bag. He turns and reaches out to adjust something on the camera and the focus becomes on him. We see her dance around in the background punching and kicking the bag with lightning quick combinations. He points back.
“My partner, there. Just look at her go. We’ve had a bit of a rough patch lately because she tries to take on the world. It’s a bit to make anyone wary but she dives into any situation head first and deals. Sometimes she dishes out the damage and sometimes she takes it but she always bounces back. There is a danger with going to your limit during every match. You can easily break like a rubber band stretched too far. Kimitsu, though, just surpasses herself each time. She started 2017 out strong and I got to witness her try to take on the weight of a world of expectations. I almost saw the snap.”
He holds up his index finger and thumb with a somber smile to show how close she got.
“She’ll probably hate me a bit when she finds out, but it was me that asked for some time off. Someone who won’t be named asked for an explanation as to why we didn’t even attempt to have a proper match and just fought with the Solomons. Some people thought it was a poor way to start off the Dynamic Division but what did you really expect from us? I warned you that we would be a chaotic mess and the Solomons could only try to match us to try to beat us. You got your ‘proper’ tag team match on the next show anyway, right? So now it’s time to crown Dynamic Champions and I can tell you that the same damn thing might just happen but I’m going to try something different.”
He scratches his head and points back at Kimitsu. His voice now is rougher and deeper.
“What can I do to make sure that she gets what she wants this match? It is another real shot for her to win something she has been looking for since she has started fighting professionally. Validation. With those belts I would be giving her the reassurance and proving to her that she is as good as we think she is. I remember she would see Tokyo’s pictures with his prestigious world titles and my dusty old trinkets from the Japanese independents and she would ask questions for ages about how much extra money we got paid and how it felt. She did revere them so much. So what can I do, Kirigaya-san? You, who almost witnessed her winning something too in the PITT, tell me. What can I do to give her some titles of her own? Can you guess? I’m going to go against my nature.”
He points into the camera now.
“You guys know that a match with me is like being in a storm. You experienced this yourself, Kirigaya-san. You know that I will work together with you so that we can both benefit from the fight and the experience of the violence. I don’t usually care for results or even if there is one. This time, though, I will care. Imagine if you were a storm chaser in your little armored car. You’re racing toward a tornado that is having it’s fun just going in circles and having a grand old time destroying houses and chucking cows about. You are living your dream filming this and doing whatever it is those people do. Suddenly the tornado starts moving in a straight line. It starts coming towards you spitting out lightning and bovine. And there is no escape. Your only option is to continue forward and try to survive.
“That is how I will try to come at you guys, Kirigaya-san. I’m going to try to finish the match for once. I know that it is also your great shot at gold. You may be going through tough times and I don’t mean to kill your dreams. As much as you remind me of her, with your brawler background and newbie status, you are not my family. I am going to put her needs about my own so I will definitely put them up over yours. So there will be no benefit for you in this match and no spiritual healing. I just need to make sure that you stay out of her way. The only lesson I will be teaching is to the other Storm in the match.”
He faces us fully, obscuring Kimitsu, so that it is just him speaking directly.
“Hunter Storms, there is so little I care about in this world, but Blue Impulse will go up against two of them. One is the girl behind me and the other is the purity of the matches. And no I do not mean rules, I mean matches. You showed what it takes to buy you like a whore to do some dirty work. That is what you do, right? Dirty work. If a person is in a fight with someone else the only rule that should matter is that they be left alone to settle things. It is the only rule I care about. So tell me if Bobby Benson got his money’s worth for your services because I think that he is missing some parts of the receipt. He payed for your arms and legs and body to I give him what he payed for. Your broken soul will be mine, though. I’m going to keep that as a souvenir and a reminder to anyone that thinks they can run amok of the place and do what you did while I’m here.
“If you are leading by example then you are leading that guy down the wrong path. Shit, you are making me sound like Tokyo, but I gotta admit he does this thing right. So I hope that you are tough enough. I hope that you are tough and that you come out of your match with Stevens and Lawson with only some minor damage. Hell you might even win that match. Then I hope you can recover. When our match comes around I will show Kirigaya-san what happens to people like you that don’t even have a scrap of honor. Don’t forget either that your Benson has also crossed Kimitsu in the same manner he used you. I have a feeling she is going to hold that against you and she can be ravenous when filled with purpose. The walls are going to cave in on you, Storms. It’s a real shame that you’re going to have to drag Hanzo down with you."
He shrugs and then blows a whistle from his neck. Kimitsu stops and he walks towards her in the background and tosses her a bottle of what looks like water as the scene fades.
But enough about that. I got mine. So it’s another day of waking up in an unfamiliar hotel room and getting out of bed wearing something entirely different than what you got into it with. I button up Gale’s shirt and- there’s the fucking hangover headache to remind me that I’m a piece of shit. There is always a price to pay for my fun. I get out of bed and try to shake my limbs into feeling normal and the itching to stop under my skin.. After a sluggish search for some pants in the disheveled room I wrap myself into a loose skirt and use some vodka for mouthwash. Maybe Aokigahara can do something for me. I put on my coat and peek out of my door before going out across the parking lot to his room. His door is slightly open and when I go in I find him in front of his makeshift altar in front of a figurine of a skeletal Santa Muerte. I sigh as he finishes offering the bitch a cigarillo and a shot of tequila by laying them on a plate in front of her. This religious stuff is new for him and sometimes I wonder if all those shots to the head have made him crazy. He stares back at me with disgust and lights the cigarillo for our lady of death.
“Kuso, you look horrible.” He sniffs the air and takes a puff of the cigarillo. “You kind of smell a bit too.”
I roll my eyes and flop down on his bed. “Don’t start with me right now, Uncle. I feel like crap.”
“Yeah it shows. Did you take a shower yet? You smell like you’re into some weird sex.”
It was one thing to be talked to about this from a paternal figure in your life. It was something entirely different for it to come from one that is a degenerate like Aokigahara Zombie. “Go screw yourself.”
“I’m serious. Was there food involved? Animals? I know those rich people can be into some weird stuff.”
“We didn’t do anything.” That I can remember right now. I just know it felt nice. I'm dying on the outside but my spirit is weirdly nice and calm. Or it was before I came in here. There is also something off about the room. I raise my head and look around. It seems like he is trying to compete with me for the messiest room but I notice the camera in the corner. “What the fuck are you filming for?”
He covered his nose and turned to me. “They want to catch up with us so they asked me to do a little ‘Road to Executive Action’ thing. They’ll probably edit out all this stuff about you coming in here like a hot toxic mess and soiling my bed.”
“Fuck!” I scream so loud that the sound of it throbs in my skull for a few seconds. Then it happens again. I see the world in a shade of red. Everything seems to move in slow motion and it feels like I was watching myself from outside my body. I throw off my coat, stomp into the bathroom, turn the shower on and jump in, clothes and all. Don’t feel anything at first. Just darkness and anger. Then the shock of the cold water definitely wakes me up and clears my head. I'm left there suffering the effects of my actions but I don’t move away. I deserve this.
After I have enough I collapse into the tub. Aoki comes in and shuts the water off . He grabs a towel and drapes it over me then leads me to the main room and sits me in front of the radiator.
“Alright, tell Ojisan what’s wrong.” He sits down next to me and crosses his legs. He wants to look like some wise sage but all I see is the demon about to try to make me sign away my soul.
“Oh you can tolerate me now? I just got a damn hangover so I don’t need any more shit.”
“Well you’ve been in this cycle. You train, you fight, you get wasted, you rally and repeat. I hoped that with this time out of the ring you could reset but you’ve been going at the bottle hard lately. You shut yourself away and drown then you become erratic. You snap at me for strangest things. Do you snap at that playboy too? Didn’t you say you didn’t want that guy over to see how we live?”
This is different. “I just needed to see him. Why are you so concerned?”
“I care, Little Yokai.”
“Well I’m just having fun. We’re not on the job so I can unwind right?”
He suddenly reaches over and clutches my back around my kidneys. It hurts like a- “Motherfucker!” He lets me go but the pain is still there. It was around there where I was still feeling the affects of the cage and where Darcy Solomon got a few shots in during the brawl. I look up at him through my anguish and he smiles.
“I know your pain, Kimitsu. You feel inadequate because you have taken on so much. I know this is why you drink. The booze is a good way to manage it but it is easy to abuse and you will feel it the next day. I was like you but I managed to control myself. Do you want to know my secret?”
“Huh?”
He leans in and whispers. “I’m always drunk. That’s why I carry this around with me.” He pulls a small device out of his pocket with a small screen and a tube at the corner. “It’s a breathalyzer. I can gauge how much I need to drink or when I can hold back with this little magical tool here. In most places the limit is 0.08 but that’s just to drive. So when I need to fight or if I just want to have fun I can go to .11 or .12. That’s the sweet spot where I can be aware of the fight and what I’m doing but also be able to enjoy the pain.” He breathes into the tube and the device beeps. He holds it out towards me. “Oh! .09 so it’s time for a little taste.” He picks up a bottle of tequila from under his bed like a magician and pours himself a glass on the nightstand.
I just stare and he drinks. Then he points at me. “There is something else too. I saw it while we were watching Massacre 6 backstage and when we were following the production. You got jitters from time to time. Like you were anxious. It’s like there’s this storm brewing in your head, right? Like your skin is crawling?”
I think back and fight through the haze that is my punishment for last night and I know why it looked like that to him. I am anxious and nervous. I was supposed to be relaxing but every night I pace back and forth looking at the news on twitter or texting. I know that if I’m put on the sidelines while some big decisions were being made in the AWE then we would be left behind. I look weak. I tried to smile and act like a fucking doll to everyone but he must have seen through my act. Austin must have seen it too. He asked about ten times if I was sure I wanted to see him after his loss and an awkward dinner. I just wanted an escape from feeling useless so I let him use me. Something was off and I wasn’t hiding it well.
I catch Uncle Aoki staring at me as I think and he nods with that devilish sage smile of his. “I know exactly what you need. You’ve been feeling down and thinking the worst lately. If I know you, right, then I think I know what will bring you up again. You need to hit something!”
“What?” I didn’t think I heard him right but he already moved to action. He takes out his bag and puts it on the bed and starts to fill it with some equipment.
“Let's go!”
Aokigahara Zombie looks on behind him as Kimitsu works on a heavy bag. He turns and reaches out to adjust something on the camera and the focus becomes on him. We see her dance around in the background punching and kicking the bag with lightning quick combinations. He points back.
“My partner, there. Just look at her go. We’ve had a bit of a rough patch lately because she tries to take on the world. It’s a bit to make anyone wary but she dives into any situation head first and deals. Sometimes she dishes out the damage and sometimes she takes it but she always bounces back. There is a danger with going to your limit during every match. You can easily break like a rubber band stretched too far. Kimitsu, though, just surpasses herself each time. She started 2017 out strong and I got to witness her try to take on the weight of a world of expectations. I almost saw the snap.”
He holds up his index finger and thumb with a somber smile to show how close she got.
“She’ll probably hate me a bit when she finds out, but it was me that asked for some time off. Someone who won’t be named asked for an explanation as to why we didn’t even attempt to have a proper match and just fought with the Solomons. Some people thought it was a poor way to start off the Dynamic Division but what did you really expect from us? I warned you that we would be a chaotic mess and the Solomons could only try to match us to try to beat us. You got your ‘proper’ tag team match on the next show anyway, right? So now it’s time to crown Dynamic Champions and I can tell you that the same damn thing might just happen but I’m going to try something different.”
He scratches his head and points back at Kimitsu. His voice now is rougher and deeper.
“What can I do to make sure that she gets what she wants this match? It is another real shot for her to win something she has been looking for since she has started fighting professionally. Validation. With those belts I would be giving her the reassurance and proving to her that she is as good as we think she is. I remember she would see Tokyo’s pictures with his prestigious world titles and my dusty old trinkets from the Japanese independents and she would ask questions for ages about how much extra money we got paid and how it felt. She did revere them so much. So what can I do, Kirigaya-san? You, who almost witnessed her winning something too in the PITT, tell me. What can I do to give her some titles of her own? Can you guess? I’m going to go against my nature.”
He points into the camera now.
“You guys know that a match with me is like being in a storm. You experienced this yourself, Kirigaya-san. You know that I will work together with you so that we can both benefit from the fight and the experience of the violence. I don’t usually care for results or even if there is one. This time, though, I will care. Imagine if you were a storm chaser in your little armored car. You’re racing toward a tornado that is having it’s fun just going in circles and having a grand old time destroying houses and chucking cows about. You are living your dream filming this and doing whatever it is those people do. Suddenly the tornado starts moving in a straight line. It starts coming towards you spitting out lightning and bovine. And there is no escape. Your only option is to continue forward and try to survive.
“That is how I will try to come at you guys, Kirigaya-san. I’m going to try to finish the match for once. I know that it is also your great shot at gold. You may be going through tough times and I don’t mean to kill your dreams. As much as you remind me of her, with your brawler background and newbie status, you are not my family. I am going to put her needs about my own so I will definitely put them up over yours. So there will be no benefit for you in this match and no spiritual healing. I just need to make sure that you stay out of her way. The only lesson I will be teaching is to the other Storm in the match.”
He faces us fully, obscuring Kimitsu, so that it is just him speaking directly.
“Hunter Storms, there is so little I care about in this world, but Blue Impulse will go up against two of them. One is the girl behind me and the other is the purity of the matches. And no I do not mean rules, I mean matches. You showed what it takes to buy you like a whore to do some dirty work. That is what you do, right? Dirty work. If a person is in a fight with someone else the only rule that should matter is that they be left alone to settle things. It is the only rule I care about. So tell me if Bobby Benson got his money’s worth for your services because I think that he is missing some parts of the receipt. He payed for your arms and legs and body to I give him what he payed for. Your broken soul will be mine, though. I’m going to keep that as a souvenir and a reminder to anyone that thinks they can run amok of the place and do what you did while I’m here.
“If you are leading by example then you are leading that guy down the wrong path. Shit, you are making me sound like Tokyo, but I gotta admit he does this thing right. So I hope that you are tough enough. I hope that you are tough and that you come out of your match with Stevens and Lawson with only some minor damage. Hell you might even win that match. Then I hope you can recover. When our match comes around I will show Kirigaya-san what happens to people like you that don’t even have a scrap of honor. Don’t forget either that your Benson has also crossed Kimitsu in the same manner he used you. I have a feeling she is going to hold that against you and she can be ravenous when filled with purpose. The walls are going to cave in on you, Storms. It’s a real shame that you’re going to have to drag Hanzo down with you."
He shrugs and then blows a whistle from his neck. Kimitsu stops and he walks towards her in the background and tosses her a bottle of what looks like water as the scene fades.