L.A.W. - League of Anime Wrestling

Standard Match
Victory via Pinfall, Submission, or KO

After her admittedly much-needed sabbatical, Katsumi's found herself getting more ring-time. That suits her just fine. If she's going to finally take home a title, she needs to be out there, proving herself in the ring; especially with the audience starting to warm up to her. She always dared the crowd to have a little fun on the less-than-sweet side of the aisle, but she's actually gotten some cheers. It's still new. And elating.

Tonight, she's set to face an American. Yet another country girl type. She's alright-looking. No Cathy Jefferson. Katsumi did her research. She snooped social media. She found what buttons to push. The audience may be seeing her as more of a welcome presence, but she's not gonna try to be something she isn't. And what she isn't, is someone who avoids sassing a person. It's what the audience expects from her, in fact! ...Right?

"Ladies and gentlemen!," begins the announcer. "The following contest is scheduled for one fall!"

The audience hoots back a, "ONE FALL!"

Katsumi, safely tucked away backstage, smirks. She never got that, but it somehow made her feel like everyone was on the same page. She's dressed in her typical gear; black short-shorts looped with a feline head-buckled belt, black wrestling boots to shin height, black choker, and matching sportsbra-style top. The final addition is a pink long-sleeved shirt. She's been around long enough that most in the audience know that last piece won't be a part of the equation long.

A heavy techno bassline begins to throb through the arena, punctuated with flashes of deep purple laserlights along the entry ramp set in sync with the beat.

Dat Groove

"Introducing! From Osaka, Japan! At a height of 5'5", and a weight of 124 lbs.! She's the Punk Princess of wrestling! KATSUMI! OOOOOSHIROOOO!"

Timed perfectly to end just as the synth instrumentals begin, Katsumi enters the arena with arms outspread to either side. Her smirk has taken a theatrically confident slant, green eyes narrowed ahead to the ring first. There's a glance to the crowd at her left, then to the crowd at her right, before she pivots on heel and thrusts a fist into the air.

She's used to coming out second in a match. It gives her more to work with. But this is fine, too. The crowd's cheering, and it's no longer quite so jarring, but still so welcome a change of pace. She begins down the ramp at a confidently girlish sashay, her smirk turning to a predatory smile; like a tiger approaching familiar hunting ground. She takes hold of the bottom hem of her shirt and tugs it up and over her head, baring the sportsbra top and her smoothly-toned midsection in full.

Katsumi

The punkette trots up the steps at the corner of the ring and whirls to press her back against the ropes, standing at the edge of the ring. And this time, she pitches the pink top out into the crowd. That's a first. She's just... testing the waters.

Whirling again, Katsumi grabs the top rope and vaults into the ring, landing neatly upon her boots. She strolls a lap around the ring, one hand set to her narrow waist, before she finally settles into her corner and the music dies down.

LAW management had been nice enough to give Claire a ticket to a LAW event---not only that, but it was ringside seating! The excitement of it all was enough to blast away any remaining vestiges of jet lag that Claire had. It had only been two weeks since Claire had signed with LAW and only one week since she arrived in Japan.

In truth, Claire was not particularly familiar with LAW matches, having only watched a few. Moreover, she was new to the idea of professional wrestling. She knew how to wrestle but did not know how to wrestle... professionally? As such, LAW management thought it would be a good idea to give Claire ringside seats so she could learn.

"Introducing! From Osaka, Japan! At a height of 5'5", and a weight of 124 lbs.! She's the Punk Princess of wrestling! KATSUMI! OOOOOSHIROOOO!"

Claire looked up as Katsumi made her entrance.

"She has a nice figure," thought Claire. Claire observed Katsumi's demeanor: she did not seem like a face but at the same time, she did not seem like a full-on heel either. In that regard, Claire thought that Katsumi resembled a certain someone.

"No... Not exactly. She's not as dark as Ayame," thought Claire.

Suddenly, a pink top went flying into the crowd and Claire thrust her hand up to catch it. An image of Claire with her arm raised high and her fist clenched around the top was displayed on the titantrons. Claire's heart skipped a beat when she saw herself on the screen---how exciting! Claire would definitely keep that top as a souvenir, or at least, that is what she intended to do.

Claire

As Katsumi waits in her corner for the announcer to get the stats on her opponent, her gaze shifts to the titantron. It's settled on a pretty girl who snagged her top. She looks thrilled. Whether it's for being on the big screen or for catching memorabilia worn by a superstar was unclear, but the idea that she'd made someone happy - whether directly or indirectly - puts a natural smile on the punkette's face. That's a new one.

Catching herself, she ducks her head and quietly clears her throat. The pleasant smile is replaced with that cocky, self-assured variant, and she plants her focus squarely on the opposite entrance. She has to focus. If the audience is warming up to her, she can't let them think she's weak.

"And her opponent! From Waco, Texas - all the way from the United States! At a height of 5'9", and weighing in at 135 lbs.~!"

'The sun rises in the east, ducks quack, and opponents are always bigger than me. Sigh,' Katsumi thinks to herself.

"LACEY! STAAAARRRDUUUST!"

Honky-tonk music hits the arena, lights a-swirl.

No one comes out.

It's a conspicuous number of seconds before officials start to look a little uncertain. Katsumi, meanwhile, leans back into the turnbuckle padding. Her arms rest along the top ropes at either side, and one hand lifts in an exasperated shrug. "The Hell! People usually run scared after they look me in the eye!"

One official darts backstage, clearly hunting the absent starlet.

The arena was in disarray as officials scrambled to figure out where this "Lacey Stardust" was. It turns out that an intern had given Lacey the address of the LAW arena located in Osaka---only problem was, her match was in the Tokyo LAW arena. Kansai region, Kanto region, all the same, right? Japan is Japan, right?

That intern was fired.

About five minutes later, the announcer finally said, "Due to unforeseen circumstances, this match is canceled! We apolog---"

Without thinking, Claire leaped over the wall between the audience and the outside area of the ring. The announcer noticed this and stopped mid-sentence as the cameraman focused on Claire, her image being projected on the titantron screens.

"I volunteer! I volunteer as tribute!" yelled Claire. Being recently recruited to LAW, she had to step into the ring sooner or later, right? Might as well jump in and have some fun!

The announcer and referee stared at Claire, wondering what to do next. Suddenly, the announcer heard a voice through his earpiece tell him to just "go with it". Potential legal liabilities aside, this could prove interesting. And LAW certainly had the legal team and money to deal with any legal issues that could arise from this. Therefore, what's the harm in letting a cute girl from the audience play in the ring?

"What is your name?" asked the announcer.

"Lacey Stardust!" yelled Claire. Claire paused for a bit to let that line sink in and then said, "No, actually it's just Claire! Claire Thomas!"

"Alright, get in the ring!" said the announcer.

With that, Claire began walking towards the ring. As she was walking, Claire removed the tight, plain-black T-shirt she was wearing and threw it into the crowd, exposing the black bra she had on underneath. Then, she put on the pink shirt that Katsumi had thrown into the crowd earlier. The shirt fit nicely and the audience could see Claire's black bra straps. In addition to Katsumi's discarded top, Claire was wearing tight, blue jean shorts.

Claire would step into the ring at the corner opposite to where Katsumi was standing and turned to face Katsumi. She would put her hands on her hips and lean forward. Then, she would ask "You ready?" before giving Katsumi a wink and sticking out her tongue.

Claire's face

"No frickin' way!," shouts Katsumi as the official is about to cancel the match. She shoots out of the corner, outraged. Sure, she doesn't have an opponent, but she can haul a primadonna out of the backstage area and whip up on her for an audience! That'd be fine!

Yet the dreaded comment doesn't even finish. The announcer is cut off by someone hopping the barricade. Security rushes in to meet her, but they're.. letting her through? Wait, that's the girl who caught her shirt! Nonono, she can't beat up the person who she just made happy! That feels... just... wrong! For once, she's catching herself before she does something terrible and hurts someone!

"Y-you can't be serious," she asides to the referee. Said referee responds with a helpless shrug. The punkette nips onto her bottom lip before looking into the eager face of the girl now joining her in the ring. God, this is awful. It's a trainwreck! She can't ask her to leave now, her reputation will be shot. But she can't beat this girl up, either. Nor can she lose to some rando from the audience! This is a nightmare!

"Microphone," she says to the referee. The referee is distractedly staring at Claire as she removes her top. "Today, jackass!" This startles the referee into moving.

Meanwhile, Katsumi is agape at Claire's bold move, putting on her own shirt to fight her in. Was that supposed to be in appreciation? Was it insult? Katsumi honestly can't tell! She doesn't know how to feel about this! Her mind is sparking more than a Power Rangers fight scene. But when a microphone finds its way into her hand, it focuses her.

It's raised to her lips. And:

"Ohhh, Hell no," Katsumi says. "You are not gonna wear my clothes to fight me. What're you thinking!" Unlike her typical match-banter, this delivery lacks sting. There's a certain cadence to her voice; like play. In truth, Katsumi is attempting to gauge this girl and get a feel for her. And also hopefully make the situation less weird by not having to wrestle someone wearing her wardrobe.

"Besides!," continues Katsumi, now approaching her with free fist propped to her hip. "You wanna be a professional wrestler? Show a little skin!" An impish smirk tugs the corner of her lips, and she attempts to flick a finger at the front bottom hem of the shirt, daring her to remove it. "You made the move, so own it! It's not like I'm gonna try to take it back from you. You caught it, it's yours. Wouldn't want it torn up, right?"

"Ohhh, Hell no," Katsumi said. "You are not gonna wear my clothes to fight me. What're you thinking!"

Claire shrugged, giving Katsumi a smile. Claire was not trying to make any statement: she just thought it would be interesting to put on her opponent's shirt and see how her opponent reacted. As Katsumi approached, Claire looked her up and down.

"Not bad," thought Claire. Then, Katsumi dared Claire to show more skin while flicking the hem of Claire's shirt.

"You caught it, it's yours. Wouldn't want it torn up, right?" said Katsumi. That gave Claire an idea: she could tear off the bottom half of the shirt to expose her midriff. Claire guessed that Katsumi might be weirded-out by someone wearing her clothes---all the more unfortunate that Katsumi happened to mention showing more skin and clothing getting torn up so closely together.

Claire would attempt to tear off the bottom half of the shirt. The torn-off fabric of the shirt would be a little too wide to use as a scarf but Claire could find a use for it after the match. Then, if she was successful in tearing off the lower part of the shirt, Claire would begin unzipping her jean shorts while asking Katsumi "How much skin are you willing to expose?". Katsumi would get a glimpse of Claire's black panties.

Katsumi's shirt - the one she wore frequently to the ring - has just been torn in front of her. The stunned look on Katsumi's face is probably not the reaction Claire had in mind, but there it is. Stunned. And hurt. While it may seem innocuous to Claire, Katsumi sees this as the destruction of something that she - or what she'd assume most - would view as precious memorabilia. And the punkette was so happy to make someone happy with that gesture.

Her heart breaks simultaneous to her microphone-supporting arm dropping to her side.

"Ah-.. wha-.." If she felt confused before, now she's in a whole other level of bewildered. But with hurt feelings on top of it.

"Why would you-.. but that-.."

The challenge isn't even registered at first. She's just staring at the strip of cloth that was once a part of the pretty shirt she'd wear to the ring. She is never tossing a shirt to the audience again.

"Oh... sorry..." said Claire sheepishly as she zipped up her jean shorts. "I'll make it into a scarf, okay?"

Claire thought the two of them were just having fun and having a nice back-and-forth---Katsumi seemed like the kind of person who could take that sort of stuff. Claire reached her hand out to comfort Katsumi but then abruptly stopped: she had already overstepped enough boundaries today. No need to potentially overstep another.

"Can you get me a microphone?" asked Claire to the referee. While the referee was grabbing Claire another microphone, Claire took off Katsumi's pink shirt, grabbed the torn fabric (it was in one piece), and tenderly placed the remains of the shirt in the corner of the ring. Then, Claire began scanning the crowd for who had picked up her black T-shirt. It turns out that a woman in her early twenties had caught the shirt.

The referee handed Claire a microphone. Speaking into the microphone, Claire pointed to the woman in the audience and said, "Hey, umm... I really hurt Katsumi-chan here. Could I have that shirt back so I could give it to her?"

Thankfully, the woman nodded and threw the shirt back to Claire. Claire was both regretful that she took the shirt away from the woman and impressed with the woman's throwing arm.

"Here," said Claire as she held out her black T-shirt to Katsumi. "This is the shirt that I wore to my first LAW match. It's also the shirt that the first ever audience-member-substitute-wrestler in LAW history wore to her first substitute match. At least I think I'm the first..."

Hopefully that would smooth things over, at least a little bit. Claire would let her guard down: if Katsumi wanted to punch her, then so be it. At least that would be an interesting start to the match.

Tonight has been a rollercoaster. Coolly confident Katsumi made her way out to the ring, ready to throw down against some American jerk who thought she could take the Punk Princess. And her heart swelled when she saw an audience member, happy to've caught her discarded garment. And then her opponent didn't show. And then that audience member got into the ring. And then ripped the shirt. And is now apologizing.

Her. Head. Is. Spinning.

She wants to go off, but she knows she shouldn't. It'd be bad to do to a normie, and the federation would jump down her throat for it. But the more she watches the girl apologize, and have that look on her face, the more it seems like she's being so sincere about it. Was it really a goof? Is she being overly sensitive?

The referee hands her a microphone. Why did she need a microphone. 'I really hurt Katsumi-chan'. Katsumi blanches. "D-Don't tell'em that!," she squeaks, seeing her tough-girl cred' rapidly deplete before her eyes. "I- I'm fine!" She's not. She's floundering. "It's-"

She's being offered a shirt. Her shirt. Her other shirt was handled with considerably more care. Katsumi, still holding another microphone, stares blankly at the black fabric in her hands. Good lord, how did it wind up like this?

Upon stealing a glance at Claire, her ability to be upset is immediately dried. She exhales a puffy sigh and turns to, quite similarly, gently set the black shirt beneath the turnbuckle in her starting corner. As she returns to Claire, it's with a small, but endearing smile. Her microphone is raised, and she attempts to very gently doink it against her "opponent's" head. With the microphone safely tilted away from her mouth, she says, "You might actually be too sweet for me to beat up." Despite the words, it's delivered with some level of affection.

The microphone lifts again. "What's your name, hon'? Say it so everyone can hear. And why the Hell are you in my ring?," she asks, voice taking an edge. Despite that, there remains that underlying gentility. "You know that means I have to kick your ass, right?"

Claire only asked for the microphone so that she could be heard by the crowd---she was not sure if she could yell loudly enough for the person who had her shirt to hear. Well, the woman in the crowd heard her, but it also had the side-effect of embarrassing Katsumi.

"Oops," thought Claire. She had not foreseen that. At the very least, it gave Claire some additional information on Katsumi: she wants to be seen as a tough girl.

"Alright, I can work with that," thought Claire. Claire found the disconnect between her tough girl persona and her apparent sensitivity to be amusing and kinda endearing, but Claire made sure not to let that amusement show on her face. In any case, Claire was not sure how genuine Katsumi's tough girl act was---it was probably neither completely real nor completely fake. Somewhere in the middle? Either way, Claire was sure that Katsumi acting hurt was genuine.

"You might actually be too sweet for me to beat up," said Katsumi. Claire was not sure if she agreed with those words. Sure, she was a better person now but she has done some terrible things in the past. Suddenly, Claire killed that train of thought---she was going to move on from that and look towards the future.

"What's your name, hon'? Say it so everyone can hear. And why the Hell are you in my ring?"

"Seems like she wants to look tough," observed Claire. "I can work with that."

While messing with Katsumi's "tough girl cred" would have been fun, Claire decided not to. Claire decided that she would help that image rather than tear it down. Problem is, how does one do that?

"You know that means I have to kick your ass, right?" continued Katsumi.

In response, Claire said, "Claire. Claire Thomas. I'm a new recruit for LAW and decided to get a head start! That's why I'm in your ring."

As soon as Claire said the words "your ring", her facial expression changed slightly, as if she had just thought of something interesting. Claire found it kind of funny that she literally just rephrased what Katsumi had said. There was no ill-intent behind her words, however---actually, it was probably the opposite.

Claire continued by casually saying, "Butt-kickings are just part of the game, right?"

In truth, Claire was not worried about getting hurt: she has freakish durability and the ring is a controlled environment. It's not like Katsumi would break her ribs by beating her with a cane. Nor would she suspend Claire upside down at the top of a fifty-foot flagpole, only for the ropes to slip, sending Claire crashing to the ground. Compared to those instances, both of which Claire had lived through, getting one's butt kicked in the ring is not so bad.

Hopefully, this confidence that she would survive the match with no serious injuries would not be conflated with dismissiveness.