Superhero Landing

[killcarrion]

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Career resurgences were a fickle thing, as it turns out. Some who don't deserve such opportunities get gifted them repeatedly, while those who have earned the right to be brought back into the spotlight may never get so much as a faint glint of that fleeting luminescence once more. Suffice to say that Akino knows exactly where she landed on this bullshit spectrum given it's been several months since her contracted recruitment within LAW and she's yet to even step through the ropes of her first official match. Akino understood that there were other wrestlers within the same languid boat as her who were relegated to untelevised dark matches and training spars for rookie talents, and this was all an established method of ensuring wrestlers were duly prepared for the wrestling spotlight. She just figured that she didn't need to be subjected to any of this due to the undisputed fact that she was the hands down the best fighter in the entire company. That's all. Whatever losses she may have suffered in her previous place of employment were all miraculous flukes which were absolutely impossible of being replicated. And to be quite frank, Akino thoroughly believed she needed a fresh start in a company that didn't remind her of abandoned relationships and thwarted championship title attempts. Nothing but bad memories were awaiting her if she looked over her shoulder, so looking forward was the main objective.

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Pleading her case to talent agents and raising justified complaints to the managerial staff only earned Akino petrified withdrawals and repeated excuses about bookers merely waiting for the opportune matchup for a fighter of her specific capabilities. Biding her time was never one of Akino' strongsuits. As a matter of fact, her waning patience was already being thoroughly tested right this very second by this accursed vending machine continuously spitting out the only money she had on hand at the moment. The crinkled up yen she'd earned as her daily wages at the maid cafe she labors within as a second job were the only thing keeping her from obtaining one freaking energy drink, for crying out loud. Akino opting to save time by continuing to wear her stereotypical maid outfit after having finished her shift earlier in the day, eager to once again speak with LAW staff about getting booked into a match against someone she deemed a worthwhile challenge. Someone she could contort into pretzled misery and wrap around her little pinky until...*Reject*...A spiteful swipe of her rejected yen having startled other wrestlers in the LAW training facility with Akino bitterly motioning as if she were about deck the vending machine. But instead, she attempted to feverishly straighten it out along the edge of the machine. A tactic which almost never worked but she had to believe was more fruitful than attempting to kick the plastic window in.

Akino...

[Letta]

Somewhere inside the LAW Arena...

Blonde Blazer

A blonde woman wandered through the halls of the LAW Arena, her wide, curious eyes drifting from one unfamiliar sight to the next. The bright smile on her face and the lively spring in her step made it painfully obvious that she was having considerable difficulty containing her excitement. Tucked beneath one arm was a crumpled bundle of ribbons and wrapping paper, while her other hand carried a plastic bag overflowing with empty bottles, paper cups, snack wrappers, and various other pieces of trash. The wrapping paper could at least be explained by the small welcome gift she had received earlier. As for why she had accumulated enough garbage to fill half a recycling bin... That was anyone’s guess. Whatever the reason, the precarious mound swayed dangerously with every enthusiastic step she took.

Eventually, her aimless exploration led her into one of LAW’s training facilities. Her gaze swept across the room before settling upon a maid standing beside a vending machine, rubbing something vigorously against its edge. The blonde’s eyes immediately lit up as though she had discovered buried treasure. “Oh, perfect..! Are you here to collect these..?” She hurried over with visible relief. “Phew...!” Without waiting for an answer, she bent down and attempted to place the bundle of wrapping paper and the bag of assorted trash neatly in front of the maid.

...*Rustle*... *crinkle*... *clatter*...

“Oops...!” The unstable pile immediately collapsed, scattering bottles and wrappers across the floor in every direction. The blonde froze, then offered an awkward smile that did very little to disguise her clumsiness. Extending one boot, she stopped a rolling bottle before trying to nudge the scattered rubbish back into something resembling an orderly pile. It did not work. If anything, she merely spread it around more evenly. Rising again, she brushed her hands together and turned toward the maid with another sheepish grin. “Haha... They weren’t all mine, promise..! A hero simply can’t walk past a mess when she has two perfectly good hands~~..” Before the maid could offer so much as a word in response, the blonde’s attention shifted toward the vending machine. “That’s an impressive polishing technique, by the way..! Fast, precise, and very... vigorous..” She nodded approvingly.“Every hero needs a good support team, right?” With a hearty laugh, she gave the maid’s upper arm two cheerfully overfamiliar pats.

“Oh! I’m Blonde Blazer, one of LAW’s newest heroes...! Er, wrestlers. A heroic wrestler...? Still working on the wording...” Blazer brought a hand to her chin and stared thoughtfully into the distance. Her gaze soon returned to the petite maid. Noticing that the woman did not appear to have a name tag, and perhaps mistaking the heavy atmosphere surrounding her for simple workplace exhaustion. Blazer rested one reassuring hand upon her shoulder. “People always cheer for the wrestlers, but the people who keep the arena running are heroes too!” She placed her free hand over her heart, delivering the next line with the solemn conviction of someone concluding an inspirational speech. “For what it’s worth, I appreciate everything you do.”

Blazer lingered for a moment, evidently rather pleased with her own words. Then she began to notice the peculiar way she was being looked at. Her confident smile faltered. “Ah... That look isn’t because you think I’m lost, is it...?” Her eyes immediately darted away. “I’m not lost...! I’m conducting a thorough….a patrol.” The statement might have sounded more convincing had she not followed it with a painfully awkward shrug. “Well then... I should probably continue that patrol..!” Blazer raised one hand in farewell and made a hasty retreat before the maid had been given even a single proper opportunity to speak. Her boots squeaked against the polished floor as she departed. She had barely made it a few steps when..

...Screech...

Blazer skidded to an abrupt halt and slowly glanced back over her shoulder.
“By the way... could you tell me where all the wrestlers are...?”

[killcarrion]

In the middle of her feverish attempts at straightening out her crinkled bill, Akino started lamenting her own shortsightedness (no pun intended) at not merely having more dollar bills on hand for inconvenient situations such as these. One of the noticeable downsides of not having amassed many friends around here being that the cantankerous maid has no one else except herself to blame for flagrant fuckups like these. Whatever earnest attempts she made with social interactions tended to end with her Napoleon complex perceiving unintentional slights as egregious mockery worth issuing contentious challenges over. Scaring others way before they could even get to know and understand the pugnacious submissonist...however, Akino's court mandated therapy sessions have enabled her to acknowledge these glaring character flaws and attempt to reign in her hostile demeanor and hair trigger temper these recent months with...mixed results. An agitated otaku maid beginning to contemplate asking other wrestlers in the training room for change, killing two birds with one stone via getting other dollar bills and practicing her hospitable nature at the same time-

"WHATTHA!!!" Akino balked in a defensive posture from the mounds of trash splattered beside her, a disgusting gob of garbage juice splotched upon her favorite pair of wrestling boots as the cherry on the shit sundae. Gawking in abject bewilderment as to what was even currently transpiring with pieces to the puzzle forming as the misunderstanding escalated, a buxom bombshell of empowering positivity now overshadowing the submission maid apparently being mistaken for an actual maid. A mere custodian, as a matter of fact. Congratulatory pats on her shoulder making Akino wobble from the substantial strength at this weirdo's carefree disposal, at times scanning around her immediate surroundings in search for a cameraman recording this heroic banter straight out of a Saturday Morning cartoon. Once confirming she wasn't in the middle of some tacky superhero television show or on the verge of being Punkt, Akino glowered as the superheroine started leaving the maid with nothing but a pile of trash at her booted feet, a stack of justified questions, and a temperament lit ablaze. Visible shudders to her shoulders and stewing smoke out of her earlobes all preceding...

"HEYHEYHEY!!! THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!!!???" Akino barked as she started frantically picking up the trashed remnants and jamming all of it into the same plastic bag plopped at her feet, marching back up to the blonde bimbo with the bag in hand and some commanding index finger pokes into the heroine’s heroic bosom for every other emphasized word. "I dunno who the hell you think you are Blue Blazer, Blonde Blue Blaze...whatever the shit your name is, but despite the frilly attire, I am not the freaking help around here-" All appearances to the contrary, a pair of wrestling trainees would now stride on by and place some emptied water bottles into Akino's plastic bag, thanking her as they went on about their day. "...That...That doesn't count. And furthermore, if you're looking for wrestlers than you ain't gotta look any further to find the best in this entire goddamn federation...Akino Sanada. And I don't take shit or overflowing trash bags from anyone, ya hear me Captain America?!!" Akino snarled with gnashed teeth and arms folded with an outraged harrumph before the towering azure powerhouse looking as if she just stepped straight out of the comic panels.

[Letta]

No sooner had Blazer finished asking her question than the maid before her erupted into an indignant shout. She marched straight toward Blazer, jabbing an accusatory index finger into the heroine’s bust with every other emphasized word, prompting the blonde to lean her upper body back in startled retreat. “Whoa… Hey…! It’s Blonde. B-L-O-” Her instinctive correction died on her lips when two passing trainees casually dropped their empty bottles into Akino’s bag, thanked her, and continued on their way, seemingly confirming the exact conclusion she was so furiously denying.

Blazer narrowed her eyes at the departing trainees. She pointed after them, looked back at Akino, glanced toward the direction they had disappeared, and then carefully surveyed the garbage bag in Akino’s hand and the frilly maid attire adorning her body. Caught between Akino’s vehement protests and the overwhelming circumstantial evidence sitting directly before her, Blazer’s face remained etched with unresolved suspicion. “...Right.” Resting a finger against her chin, Blazer pondered the situation for a moment before speaking as though she had remembered something that needed to be addressed delicately. “I mean… while I was wandering arou- Patrolling. While I was patrolling around here...” She had not been lost. Her patrol route had merely expanded a little farther than anticipated.

Having hastily transformed that embarrassing truth into an act of heroic vigilance, Blazer found herself pressing the tips of her index fingers together. Her proud posture from moments earlier had vanished, her gaze drifting sheepishly aside as her fingers fidgeted against one another. “I saw all those championship displays and pictures on the walls...” Her eyes rolled upward as she recalled the photographs and records of champions decorating the corridors. Then she cautiously returned her attention to Akino. “But, um…” Blazer gave a small, apologetic shrug, her gaze drifting briefly aside. “I don’t remember seeing you anywhere.” It was, by Blazer’s standards, the most careful and courteous way she could express her doubt. And she did have her reasons for remaining suspicious.

Blazer possessed an almost uncanny instinct for obvious malice and villainous schemes ripped straight from the pages of a comic book. Ordinary teasing and everyday lies, however, were another matter entirely. Her friends and acquaintances had frequently taken advantage of her excessive innocence and perpetually delayed social awareness, convincing her that striking a particular heroic pose in the cafeteria would unlock a secret menu, or that tapping a protein-shake container three times would somehow make its flavor richer. And now everything was falling into place far too easily. The greatest wrestler in all of LAW, the very opponent she had been searching for... had simply appeared right in front of her?

No. Surely it couldn’t be that easy...

Especially when the self-proclaimed greatest wrestler was wearing a maid outfit and carrying a garbage bag. Blazer inspected Akino from head to toe once again. The maid’s headpiece. The frilly attire. The trash bag clutched in one hand. Even the build that was only slightly smaller than her own. There was unquestionably genuine fury in the way Akino folded her arms and ground her teeth. The problem was that the frilly maid uniform and garbage bag did very little to lend that fury any real sense of intimidation.

Akino’s grand declaration continued to echo in Blazer’s mind. The greatest wrestler in the entire federation? Blazer silently blinked several times, still not entirely convinced. But then an excessively radiant smile spread across her face. “The best wrestler in the entire federation...?” This time, there was no mockery behind the words. Blazer had devised an exceedingly simple, and utterly flawless method of verifying Akino’s claim. “Then... would you mind helping me find an opponent worthy of me..?” Blazer tilted her head slightly, her eyes sparkling as she awaited Akino’s response. “Or...” She paused, her smile growing brighter still.

“Would the best wrestler in the entire federation rather face me herself...?”

If Akino refused the challenge, then surely that meant she was not actually a wrestler after all. But if she accepted, Blazer would have the incredible fortune of facing LAW’s greatest wrestler immediately upon arriving at the federation. Either way, the truth would reveal itself. Either way, Blazer won. It was the perfect plan, At least inside Blazer’s head. Satisfied with her truly airtight feat of heroic deduction, Blazer planted both hands proudly upon her hips and puffed out her chest. Wearing a supremely confident smile, she gazed down at Akino and awaited her answer.