Swimming with a Shark... or Koi, Actually (For Leviathan)

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Fuuka was admittedly looking forwards to some nice grilled beef and rice, the sound of which seemed to pull something to the forefront of Mizuki's mind. Fuuka had thought that the Koi Fish had simply thought of a yakiniku restaurant that she frequented, so the bluenette was a bit confused when Mizuko brought her to a fast-food seafood place. For the life of her, she didn't see how those two things connected in Mizuko's mind.

Octodogs was advertised as a seafood restaurant, but since it was also fast-food, the also had to have all of the usual things that even the pickiest of kids would eat so that their parents would actually take them there. As it were, their namesake dish, the Octodog, was not seafood. It was a hot dog cut up to look like an octopus. A common staple of a child's bento box.

Somewhat predictably, this child's dish was what Mizuko gravitated towards, as she ordered them in such high quantity that they gave them to her in a big bowl rather than on a plate. The Octodog did have a counterpart that was actual seafood; Octopups, which were hushpuppies molded into an octopus shape before being prepared. Fuuka got an order of these, as something savory to eat in place of yakiniku. Though she did lament that deep-fried cornmeal was far less nutritious than the grilled beef she'd been expecting.

Mizuko also ordered Octopups, again in high quantity, along with fries, and plenty of other food as well. Fuuka honestly thought the heel was just punking her by massively over-ordering since this meal was on the bluenette, but to the credit of the Koi Fish, she at least ate what she ordered. Though Fuuka had to wonder what in the world her diet plan had to be. The more Fuuka thought about it though, the more she realized that if Mizuko's management team had tried to put her on one, she most likely just ignored it.

Fuuka had also ordered a plate of sushi with her Octopups. She was a bit apprehensive about getting a dish like that from a fast-food place, but she figured that it would at least have to be edible considering that they were at a seafood restaurant. She was rewarded for her faith, as her sushi was actually very good, as well as the hushpuppies. Fuuka certainly didn't get the meal she had been thinking of, but the bluenette would still walk away satisfied. As for the price, most of which Mizuko was responsible for, was certainly steep by fast food standards, is wasn't a very noticeable dent in Fuuka's wallet. Her day job paid very well, and as long as she was able to seal the deal in the ring with Mizuko later and secure her as a wrestling teacher, the price of this meal would become an outright bargain.

"Not regularly, but a few times,"Fuuka said when Mizuko asked if she'd been to Octodogs before. "It's the first time I've tried their sushi, though. It's okay." Fuuka dulled the praise for her meal, not wanting to entice the Koi Fish into snatching some of what was left off of her plate, considering how much she already had. "I mainly eat food from here when one of my co-workers goes here for lunch. Sometimes he'll order a jumbo order of Octopups to go and bring them back for the rest of us."

Fuuka, realizing that she may have stumbled onto a conversation topic that could help her and Mizuko get to know each other a bit better, she decided to push it, "Now that I mention it, I should probably say that wrestling isn't my only, or even my main job. My college degree, my career, all that's in computers. Right now I run cybersecurity for the Kirijo Group, I imagine you've at least seen their logo printed on something somewhere." Fuuka then leaned forward with a smirk, trying to pull Mizuko's interest. "Any chance you're interested in hearing how a barely 100lbs. girl with a cushy tech job who had never fought before in her life ends up moonlighting as a LAW wrestler in her spare time?" It was a simple plan, if not requiring a bit of delving into some bad memories for Fuuka. Each woman at the table had a story of how they became a wrestler. Even if they were probably totally different, there was almost certain to be some points that they could end up relating to each other over. Fuuka just needed the fish to bite.

[Leviathan-Inc]

As the two gals continued to dig into their dishes while equally getting to know each other, Fuuka attempted to bring up her own career and mentioned her college degree and her current job working for a tech company. This was-uh enterally triggering for Mizuko, because those who truly knew Mizuko would know…she never even finished high school. When the young Mizuko got into wrestling she might’ve traded her education for learning the secrets about the squared circle. This fact was a really guarded secret for Mizuko and something she didn’t necessarily like talking about even to those who went the extra mile and got their educational success. Hearing Fuuka talk about working at a tech company and mentioning her college degree, Mizuko couldn’t help but grit her teeth as one of her eyes began to twitch as she began to eat her fries.

“Yeaaaah some could you say you’re an overachiever…you little Fuuck-a” Mizuko would say before growling that little insult at the end. Realizing she might’ve said that a little too loud, Mizuko quickly tried saying something else so Fuuka wouldn’t try and ask what she had just recently said. “Uh um… I too went to college…yeah so that’s cool.” Mizuko would say in a very awkward way as if she was lying. Mizuko eternally screamed to herself. “Please don’t ask where, please don’t ask where, please don’t ask wherrrrrre!”

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Fuuka hoped that the look on her face when Mizuko said that she went to college didn't give away that the bluenette caught how obviously false that statement was. She didn't want to call out the Koi Fish to avoid potentially setting her off, so she didn't press the issue. Instead, she used the opportunity she noticed as a hook to get into what she had been planning to say in the first place.

"Heh, ha ha! 'Overachiever,' huh?" Fuuka laughed. "Tell that to my parents, and they'll tell you I'm a failure. You know how with most kids, their parents will show them a bunch of choices on what they can do for a career? Well with me, it was, 'you're going to be a doctor. Which kind do you want to be? Also by the way, while we say you have a choice, we are going to judge you if you don't become a heart surgeon specifically."

"All four of my grandparents were doctors, but my parents couldn't cut it in med school. So they became the family failures," explained Fuuka. "So even before I was conceived, from the moment my parents decided that they would have a child together, it was already decided that I would become a doctor to make up for it." Fuuka looked down at the scraps that were left of her meal, a scornful smile on her face. "I could've done it too," she said. "I could've been a heart surgeon just like they wanted. I had the academics to become a doctor, and the steady hands and calm heart to be a surgeon. I just didn't want it in the slightest. I didn't like medicine, but I loved electronics and tech."

"So once I graduated and became the head of an important department in a prestigious field for one of the biggest companies in the country and world, making a personal connection and friendship with the CEO in the process, do you think my parents were happy?" A rhetorical question, Fuuka didn't even pause for Mizuko to answer. "I don't remember exactly what they said, but 'Who cares? You're not a doctor. A shame to our name,' would be an accurate summary."

The smile Fuuka had been plastering to her face shifted to become a lot more genuine, as well as smug as she looked back up at Mizuko. "So I said, 'Shameful? If you want to see me shame the Yamagishi name, then watch this.' Hehe, then off to LAW I went. Honestly the plan was to intentionally job. Getting my sweaty body bent and my legs spread apart in a skimpy outfit for the world to see. For my parents to see." Fuuka leaned back, the cockiness melting from her face to leave naught but the bluenette's sweet smile behind. "But somewhere along the way, I came to enjoy this too. Became a lot more invested then I ever thought I would be when I started. After all, if I stayed satisfied with walking into the ring each time just so I could lose and embarrass my parents, we wouldn't be here now, would we."