Training Doubles and a Deal

[deezcastforms]

Fuuka Yamagishi's head turned toward her hip as she felt her phone buzz in her pocket. It was a text from Chiaki Nanami, her partner in wrestling, and today, one of her two partners in training. At gym, u here? read the text from the gamer girl.

Oh, she's here, thought Fuuka as she texted back her reply. Y. In first locker room on left side. Once Fuuka hit send, she didn't find herself waiting long before Chiaki walked through the door. "Chiaki! Over here," called the bluenette to her friend.

Fuuka

Chiaki

"Hey hey. How are you doing Fuuka?" Chiaki said once she saw Fuuka. "You're already geared up. Sorry if I kept you waiting.

"Not at all Chiaki," assured Fuuka. "Plus, it isn't like you're late or anything. Take all the time you need to get changed."

"Actually, I'm good as is," said Chiaki. "I didn't really want to wear my ring outfit or my bikini for this. And when we start practicing holds with Shiori and I need my chest, I can just unbutton the top of my blouse. All I need to do is dump these," said Chiaki as she removed her jacket and backpack before putting them into her locker.

"Well alright then," said Fuuka. "Speaking of Shiori, I haven't seen or heard from her yet, so we're still waiting on her. Of course she still has plenty of time to get here, but I guess I'll text Shiori since we're both here now." Fuuka pulled her phone back out and shot Shiori a message that read, Are you almost at the gym? Chiaki and I are in the first locker room on the left side of the building. We'll be there when you arrive.

[FreestylePoet]

Shiori's Entrance Music: Progressive -Zan Shin- by Tomohiro Nakatsuchi

A wrestler's entrance music was meant to pump them up, to get them ready to face the crowd and their opponent in a thrilling battle of wills. It was supposed to be the world's first taste of who they were and what they had to offer. For a split second before they stepped out onto the crowd, a theme song was the wrestler, in a way.

That was why Shiori's entrance music was currently blaring through her earbuds. More than ever, she needed a reminder that she was actually a wrestler -- she needed to be pumped up. Because not only did she recently find out that she'd been indirectly responsible for the formation of a new tag team, but said tag team actually asked her to train them! Her! Shiori Takeda! A nerd! A geek! An otaku!

Shiori Takeda, the Fangirl

She couldn't let them down. So with her J-pop rock blasting dangerous decibels into her poor ears, Shiori sprinted across LAW's campus. Thankfully, LAW was the kind of place where seeing a recent high school graduate running around in her swimsuit wasn't very odd at all. Eventually, she slammed open the door to their meeting place, almost tripping over herself when she saw that this was finally the right room. Fuuka Yamagishi and Chiaki Nanami were there, just as expected. Before she'd even gotten face-to-face with them, she'd already sucked in a massive breath, ready to go on one of her signature ramblings.

"Hi hi hi!" she exclaimed, a wavy and nervous smile adorning her face as she struggled to catch her breath. "Sorry I'm late! First I couldn't find my gym clothes, and then I had to throw my swimsuit in the oven, and then I needed to take it out so I could heat up some hash browns, and then I missed my train, and then..." She just kept going! She couldn't stop talking about all the things that led her to this moment! "...And then I accidentally went to the Young Lioness gym instead -- I don't even know how I got in there -- and then I went to my other left, and, uh, now I'm here!"

"...Phew." Shiori wiped her brow. There was nothing like a good rant. But wait! She was here to train Fuuka and Chiaki! Not yell at them! She flashed the pair another sheepish smile. "So, uh... What do you wanna do?"

[deezcastforms]

Chiaki checked her phone. Neither of them had heard from Shiori, and she now had been late for a few minutes. Fuuka awkwardly played with her hands and picked at her outfit to occupy herself, before turning to speak to Chiaki, "Umm, do you think we need to be worried about Shiori?"

"No, I think," Chiaki answered. "I'm probably a bit more acquainted with than you, and from what I know of her, she probably lost time getting lost or mixed up somewhere. But she should get here eventually." Fuuka nodded and hummed in understanding, and before long the gamer girl was proven right. As Shiori stumbled through the door, already short on breath, but still motor mouthing regardless.

Fuuka got caught up when Shiori mentioned putting her swimsuit in the oven. Now it would've made sense if she then said she but her hash browns in the dryer, since it would be easy to figure that she'd simply gotten mixed up. But by the sound of it, Shiori had put both her swimsuit and hash browns in the oven. "Y-you put your swimsuit in an oven, Shiori?" Fuuka finally asked.

"Do you not have a drying machine, Shiori?" asked Chiaki. "I'd have figured for sure that the Young Lioness dorms would have them, right?" Now thinking of swimsuits, Chiaki got a good look at the one Shiori was wearing. "Anyway, you look good Shiori. Between you and Fuuka, I'm starting to think maybe I should've worn my own swimsuit too."

Pleasantries and lifestyle questions aside, the three women started getting to business. "Right!" Fuuka said excitedly, ready to start. "So me and Chiaki usually start with general fitness; exercises, lifting, stuff like that. Then we practice techniques and spar. But we never really have much plan, we just kind of do things. I'm actually really looking forward to working out with someone who has experience with managing and stuff like that. I bet you have a bunch of different plans or regimens we could learn from." Chiaki glanced over at Fuuka. She really did know Shiori better than the bluenette. Because the gamer girl knew there was about an even chance between Fuuka being right, and Shiori.exe crashing.

[FreestylePoet]

"I was already late!" Shiori pouted in objection. "If I had to wait for the drying machine to finish, I would've gotten here, like, an hour later! Not to mention it would've cost me money, but even if I came here to use the ones at the Lioness dorms, that would've just taken even longer! The oven was the only thing that could get hot enough, and I already had to preheat it anyway, so..."

Shiori clapped twice with a huff. "Anyway! You were saying, about your plans?" She looked expectantly at the newly-christened tag team. As Fuuka started explaining their typical routine, she nodded and hummed along. It all seemed pretty standard: Warmups, physical training, forms, sparring, Shiori designing a regimen for them.

Wait.

Shiori designing a regimen for them?

Shiori.exe has crashed.

"I-I-I don't know how to do that! Dr. Morgenstern handles all that for us!" Sweat beaded on her furrowed brow as she suddenly realized that she'd let her friends down before even walking into the room. How was she going to help them train if she didn't set up a routine? And what good was a manager who couldn't help wrestlers train? Shiori bowed up and down with fervor. "I'm sorry, I should've planned something out! Oh gosh, now you two must be so disappointed in me, I'm sorry! I got way too excited and didn't even do any prep! Please forgive me!"

[deezcastforms]

Yep, thought Chiaki once Shiori revealed that she did not, in fact, have anything preplanned for this as Fuuka had been expecting. The poor girl even froze for a few seconds beforehand as if her brain had actually crashed upon realizing that her expectations for this and those of her partners ended up being farther apart than Shiori had been prepared for.

"Oh don't worry about it at all, Shiori," said Fuuka before Chiaki could intervene herself. "I suppose that really this is our fault for not communicating to you what we had been expecting." The gamer girl certainly could've had a "who's we" moment if she wanted, but simply let it pass. It wasn't like it mattered to Chiaki.

"Yeah, you're fine," said Chiaki instead. "How about this? Even though we're a tag team, we can still only spar one on one. If we want to practice team moves, we have to use a dummy. Once we get to that point of the training, would you be willing to let us practice our moves on you so we can do it with a live opponent? It's okay if you don't want to though. I can't imagine it being very pleasant."

Fuuka also like the idea, but was apprehensive at using Shiori as a practice dummy. "A real practice opponent would be nice," she said. "Oh, but it sounds cruel to just ask you to take it for us." Then Fuuka came up with a compromise. "Um, assuming Chiaki's willing, maybe the two of us could do something for you in return?"

"Mmm, that's fair. I think," Chiaki said in assent to Fuuka's proposal.

[FreestylePoet]

"O-Oh, that sounds fun!" Shiori remembered helping Chiaki invent a whole new move during their match together. The Gamer Girl had come to her with a concept -- or, really, bent her into one -- and Shiori immediately confirmed that it was indeed a real move, even going so far as to describe its recent history. Granted, a lot of that was reflexive babbling, but at the end of the day, she helped Chiaki confirm that the move was useful and not totally ridiculous. If this was gonna be anything like that, then Shiori was gonna have a heck of a time!

...But even if she was gonna help her friends get set up with some super-awesome team moves, getting hit by wrestlers hurt. So at the end of the day, Fuuka was right to offer a bit of compensation. "A favor, huh?" Shiori rubbed her chin. What to ask for? Fuuka's autograph would make a nice addition to her growing collection, but she didn't want to lowball herself here.

Shiori snapped her fingers. "I got an idea! We're all friends here, right?" She hoped the answer was yes, but she still scurried right along to her next point. "Right. I honestly can't think of anything more fun than helping wrestlers get better at wrestling, but as you can tell..." She gestured widely at herself. "I don't exactly have a whole lot of experience with this manager stuff yet. I've been learning from Dr. Morgenstern, but she's such a mega-genius that I don't get much of a shot at doing stuff on my own."

"So, here's what I'm proposing: I'll gladly help you, but I wanna act as your guys' manager for just one match. I'll do the nitty-gritty stuff too, like scheduling and promotion and stuff like that, but I wanna also valet for you two and be there ringside if the match allows. No commitments past that unless you really like having me around! If you think about it, I'll be even more motivated today too because I'll wanna get you prepped to earn yourselves a really good tag match!"

She stuck out her hand to strike the deal.

"So, whaddaya say?"

[deezcastforms]

Chiaki and Fuuka both let out internal sighs as Shiori seemed to be on board with their plan. Now the only question was what would she ask for in return. You could never really know what was going to come out of Shiori's mouth at any given moment, but she was still a reasonable enough woman that negotiations would be possible if they were needed to reach something agreeable.

"Yeah," "Of course," Chiaki and Fuuka said overlappingly when Shiori asked if they were all friends. The fangirl then said that she wanted to be the Keyboard Warriors manager for a match. Running both the lead up and being there ringside for the event. "That actually sounds really fun," said Fuuka. "But that kind of sounds like you'd just be doing more work for us."

"Maybe, but I think I see what she's going for," said Chiaki. "Basically you want your shot to be the head honcho calling the shots instead of being an assistant to the person who is. Right Shiori?"

"Oh, well if that's the case then. I'd be glad to do that with you," said Fuuka. Both girls took and shook Shiori's outstretched hand, sealing their deal. "So with that out of the way, should we get started?" Fuuka asked. "After all, we came here to train. So we may as well get to it know that business is settled."

[FreestylePoet]

"Exactly!" Shiori was glad that Chiaki and Fuuka caught onto what she was asking -- and why she asked it. Even Dr. Morgenstern didn't go ringside very often. She preferred that the spotlight be on the wrestlers of Team Stanza. But few knew better than Shiori that much of wrestling's deep history happened at ringside. Visions of protecting Chiaki from a chairshot or helping Fuuka win with a last-second trip danced in Shiori's head.

"Oookay!" Shiori flashed a thumbs-up. "Operation: Best Workout Ever is ago! C'mon." She waved her two new charges along, bringing them to the main workout area. "I might not look it, but I actually know a fair amount about all that stuff! Life as a NEET is only really sustainable if you have fitness, you know. Plus, I knew that if I ever wanted to be a wrestler, I couldn't be huffing and puffing from just going up the stairs."

She continued to lead them to the large center chamber, which held a number of machines and weights and was surrounded by a running track. "Did you know that static stretching actually increases your risk of injury?" A twinging crick in her left thigh reminded her of a particularly bad strain she'd accidentally given herself once. "So! We're gonna start with an active warmup!" She stared to jog in place, hopping between one leg to the other. "Nothing serious, just two laps. Quarter-mile. I'll run with you!"

[deezcastforms]

After clearing some unexpected but minor hurdles, the three wrestlers were off to begin their training. "Wait," Chiaki said. "I thought the whole point of a NEET was that they never left their room. That sounds contradictory to being fit, I think." Fuuka, who would have never been allowed to be a NEET growing up even if she wanted to be, nor having gained experience with the culture after getting away from her parents, didn't understand enough about this conversation to add to it. Though Shiori certainly didn't fit what limited image of a NEET that the bluenette did have.

Instead, Fuuka began stretching, raising her arms up over her head and pulling one of them down behind herself by the elbow. That was until she heard Shiori say that static stretching was actually harmful to her body. "O-oh! Really? I had no idea!" Fuuka said as she hurriedly brought her arms back down to her sides, as if every second they stayed up increased her odds of pulling or tearing something.

"Hmm, quarter mile, huh?" said Chiaki. "We can do that, I think."

"Yeah," agreed Fuuka. "I mean, that should only be a few minutes. We can totally do that." The three girls started running, with Fuuka soon lagging behind on account of being naturally slower than Shiori and Chiaki, wo kept roughly even with each other. About halfway through the second lap, when light panting and sweating had begun, Fuuka started closing the gap. Her superior stamina allowing her to maintain smooth, even strides easier than the other two.

In the final stretch, Fuuka started to push herself beyond a jog as well. Her breasts starting to bounce back and forth with the increased effort. It wasn't a race, but competitors would compete. Shiori and Chiaki, noticing the bluenette coming up behind them, started pushing for the final stretch as well. Chiaki had the slightest edge over Shiori, with Fuuka two steps behind but still gaining. How would the warm up jog end?

[FreestylePoet]

And they were off! Shiori took off at a solid pace down the track. She was always slightly above average in PE, and Chiaki had basically been a professional athlete for a year and a half, even if she was a geek like her new manager. It made sense that the two of them were at the head of their three-person pack and that they were keeping up with one another. Fuuka, by comparison, was newer, so even if her physicals were better, they were probably less practiced.

As they neared the end of the second lap, however, Shiori noticed her two friends speeding up -- and Fuuka catching up slowly but surely! Shiori's eyes went wide. What good was a manager who couldn't even outdo her wrestlers? She wordlessly accepted their challenge, furrowing her brow as she pushed forward! "Haaaah!" Her muscles pushed harder and harder, her lungs heaved deeper and deeper, her feet fell faster and faster, and right before she crossed the finish line...!

She tripped.

One ankle hit the other, and the excitable fangirl started tumbling down. Once, twice, thrice her body rolled over itself -- putting Shiori right into her friends' path! "Ah-! Oof-! Yah-! Owww-!" Finally, she skidded to a stop, giving herself a serious case of road burn. "Aww, darn... Did either of you happen to notice who made it over the line first?"