A Matter Of Opinion

[TheSuitedOwl]

somewhere in a Toyoko Park

Feeling the wind cutting at her sides Anya, better known as Rabbit by her friends and fans. Was out trying to enjoy another one of her morning skating sessions through the park. Unfortunately she wasn’t having much luck. As her mind would once again find itself going over the recent fallout between some of her fans and her. Something which she didn’t even want to think about at the moment. Though try as she might, she just couldn’t help it.

From the serene peace of the park to the harsh tones of Billy Talents Red Flag playing on her portable speaker. Rabbit just couldn’t get her mind off of it. She knew those fans were wrong, there was no doubt about it in her head but when so many wrestlers had come forward with the same bullshit. It left her with a sour taste in her mouth.

Maybe derby just played differently than wrestling but the idea that there were essentially no rules, no code of arms dictating their violence. Just seemed so utterly ridiculous to her, written or unwritten there was always a code. Regardless though Rabbit had no intentions of dropping this and if that meant lighting a fire under the industry's ass so be it.

“On your left!” She suddenly called out. After noticing a particularly slow pedestrian on the park trail and would move accordingly to make sure she didn’t hit the black haired stranger.

Rabbit

[CaptainL]

It had been some time since Yuki Kazikura had last set foot in a wrestling ring. And that was of no surprise to anyone, considering the circumstances. Her last match had been a barbed wire deathmatch against Amano Jaku, one that had tested the limits of how much Yuki could endure both physically and mentally. It had been a grueling battle that left her bloody, bruised, and with puncture wounds to the soles of her feet; Amano had stripped her of her boots in an attempt to limit Yuki's high-flying offense and keep her off the ropes, but in desperation and defiance, she had climbed to the top rope anyway, performing a moonsault off the barbed wire. It had been a turning point of the match, but it still wasn't enough to end things in Yuki's favor - and, in fact, the injuries she'd incurred had taken her out of action for a few weeks, recovering at her home in Yokohama.

But now, time had passed. Yuki's doctors felt that she had recovered enough to walk around. And on this day, she had taken a train ride over to Tokyo to present herself before the LAW offices so that they could clear her to compete. It was a bit of a walk from the station to the office building, but Yuki had elected to take it - her physiotherapists wanted her walking more anyway, since she hadn't used her legs in a week and needed to build up her strength. Besides, it was a nice day out, and after staying inside, she could appreciate the sun and the fresh air, as her path took her through a park.

As she rounded the corner, walking with a slight limp, Yuki turned to the sound of music growing closer from the distance. A girl was coming down the path on roller skates, and as she grew nearer Yuki hopped out of the way just in time to avoid a collision. Her hair blew past in the breeze, carried by the speed at which the skater passed by. "Whoah-!" she called out, bracing herself as she turned back in the girl's direction. "Careful-!" Yui wasn't usually an argumentative person, but she had been taken by surprise; the white-haired girl seemed to come out of nowhere!

Spoiler

[TheSuitedOwl]

Even as Anya made her adjustments to avoid the stranger. They didn't seem to be enough to avoid her as the girl either hadn't heard her or wasn't moving fast enough to move out the way. "Damnit!" Anya cursed. As she was suddenly forced to swerve around the girl while she jumped out of the way!

"I said -" Anya started but lost the words to the wind. As she turned her head back and recognized none other than Yuki Kazikura, one of the girls that she had publicly berated for having a deathmatch, standing behind her. A fact, that she had apparently missed when she had flown by but, now that she could tell. Her eyes couldn't break contact as she slowed down and made a quick u-turn.

Now, facing Yuki she would turn off her music and casually return to the injured wrestler only to stop a few feet ahead. As her eyes slowly looked her from head to toe. Then after placing a hand against her hip she frowned. "Well If it isn't the wonder girl... How you feeling?" Anya asked. Feeling a bit awkward that for the first time she was confronting someone that didn't care who she was or hold any authority over them. In fact it was quite the opposite.

[CaptainL]

Without a moment to spare on either side, both Yuki and Anya had acted seconds before they would have collided - Rabbit going wide to swerve around the girl, while Yuki hopped to the side. The narrowness of their escape wasn't lost on either of them; even after Yuki had slipped away from the skater, she was still tense and wincing. It took her a moment before she found the will to look up, but when she did, she saw that Rabbit had safely gotten out of the way - and was now looking back at her with intent.

At first, Yuki didn't know what to make of it. She raised an eyebrow quizzically, tilting her head to the side. She hadn't had much contact with Rabbit other than a brief interaction online, but after a moment of looking her up and down, Yuki realized there was definitely something familiar about the white-haired girl. And, as she addressed her with familiarity, Yuki realized this had to be a fellow wrestler. She put two and two together soon after.

"Oh...Rabbit, right?" she said, looking back at the girl with a nod. Her words seemed friendly enough, but there was definitely something off in regards to her posture and how she held herself, almost as though she was judging her. She couldn't help but feel curious as to why, but she wouldn't push it. Yuki had barely interacted with her before, so she kept things neutral for now, not wanting to escalate any matters she didn't know the details of. In fact, to Anya's comments, she thought she would break the ice and try to calm things down.

"Well, Dynamite Schoolgirl, if you want to be exact about nicknames," Yuki said with a shrug. "But I need a new one now that I'm not in school any more. Wonder Girl isn't a bad one, though." She chuckled at her own joke, though with Rabbit staring her down, it was a stilted and awkward laugh. "But yeah, I'm doing better. On my way to get checked up at the LAW offices, actually. I can actually walk now, so there's that."

[TheSuitedOwl]

"Yeah that would be me." Anya answer with almost no enthusiasm. Now, that the name always seemed to bring two types of people to her, genuine fans and good for nothing pieces of shit. Though she definitely could appreciate Yuki's lack of hostility. The young upstart had a lot weighting on her mind at the moment and even though she wanted... Whatever this was, she certainly didn't want to start anything with her.

Unfortunately though all that would mean for Yuki would be a sympathetic smile at her joke. However, even that seemed to dissipate at the mention of the check up at the LAW office. As her frown only seemed to deepen. "Wait... Are you trying to get back in the ring? I mean it's great that you can walk and all but don't you think it's a bit early?"

[CaptainL]

Yuki took a pause as she lingered by Rabbit's side, noting the flat tone in her voice. Even though she was outside of the ring, in a situation one would normally expect her to be looking to unwind, she still responded to the girl's inquiries with a stoic outlook. It was one Yuki recognized herself - she was known for keeping a cool head in the ring and holding back her emotions from getting out of control. It helped her focus, making sure that when she landed her moves, they would serve her purposes well. But that was while she was in the ring - and at this point in time, they weren't. She had to raise an eyebrow, wondering what might warrant such serious behavior.

On being questioned about returning to the ring, Yuki shrugged her shoulders. "The doctors say it's okay. My wounds are pretty much healed now. Besides..." As if to illustrate her point, Yuki laced her fingers and pushed forward with her hands to crack her knuckles. "I don't want to get ring rust. I wanted to get back in the ring as soon as I could, so I could prove being injured wouldn't hold me back."

What Yuki hadn't mentioned in this instance was that she had gotten injured in the first place trying to prove her worth as a serious competitor. This was no different, to her. She was willing to do her best in the face of danger, and she was willing to jump back into things headfirst, too. She took her wrestling career seriously, and she didn't want anyone to doubt the importance it held to her.

[TheSuitedOwl]

At this point Rabbit just couldn't believe what she was hearing and for a moment she felt compelled to drag the girl back to her house. Or to a nearby clinic she regularly worked with. A common thing she was known for doing back in the day with her more stubborn teammates when they got injured. Except this time she wouldn't or more precisely couldn't. She wasn't Yuki's senior, teammate, friend, or family member. She was nothing to this girl yet all the same she couldn't leave her alone.

Slowly Rabbit would shake her head clearly irritated with... well everything and blow a stream of hot air before she would finally address Yuki. "You don't actually mean compete, right? You mean train, right? Like look I know I going fast but you clearly were limping back there. Like I can't imagine. And what..." She trailed off suddenly growing hesitant of bring up the argument but, fuck it. She had already made an ass of herself online might as well do it in the real world too.

"... What about your family? I can't imagine them being okay after what happened." She finished looking at Yuki rather sternly and a bit heated.

[CaptainL]

Yuki sighed, crossing her arms as she faced Rabbit. The corners of her mouth turned downward into a frown, and her eyes narrowed as she locked her gaze on the skater. Couldn't she see that this wasn't her business? Yuki and Rabbit had never spoken before, or even had a match together. They had only interacted a few times online; other than that, the only connection they had was that they both worked in LAW. Yet, Rabbit was trying to give her advice on how to live her life, and she couldn't help but be annoyed that she felt it necessary.

"Look, I'm not saying I'm going to leap into another barbed wire deathmatch on my first day back. But I want to have my foot in the door, at least. It'd show that I'm not letting my injury keep me down. Besides, I think I should be fine. Yeah, I'll do some training, but I still want them to know I should be ready to go whenever."

Then, though, Rabbit brought up what Yuki's family would think - and that was enough to give her pause. The dark-haired girl looked up, raising an eyebrow. It was true - though she'd been bedridden and hadn't been able to interact much with her family, she knew that the match was a contentious point with them. Her parents might have supported her career choices, but they had definitely made their concerns known. Yuki's father, in particular, had been worried that she wouldn't be able to recover from another injury, or that her next one would be worse. And while her mother had always told her that she should do what she was passionate about, even she had spoken of her concerns. Yuki had overheard many a conversation between them on the matter while she was in her bedroom, not all of which, she was sure, were made with the knowledge she could hear them.

Still, her parents hadn't done anything to stop her. In fact, they'd told her that as long as she was aware of the dangers, she could do whatever she wanted. At last, Yuki looked off, focusing on the skyline out in the distance.

"...They're concerned, yeah. But they know that it comes with the territory, and they understand the risks. Besides, I'm an adult, and I can make my own choices. I know what I'm doing."

[TheSuitedOwl]

Of course the complexity of the situation wasn't lost to Rabbit. In fact, she was probably more painfully aware of it than anyone else but she at least had to try. Even if Yuki in the end found her to be bothersome, which she certainly could tell was how she was starting to think of her now. "Of course you're an adult. I'm not saying you're not and your parents kind of sound like mine but, do you understand the direction your going? And wha-"

She suddenly paused and forced herself to high five two other skaters that were passing by. "... Maybe we should move this. There's a bench not too far from here. It'll give you a chance to rest while I figure out how not to sound like a fucking PSA." Rabbit finished. As she gave Yuki a weak smile and hoped she would be willing to accept her invitation. "Come on, please. I'll only need a few minutes to explain myself."

[CaptainL]

Yuki had turned aside from Rabbit, but she was soon diverted back over to the white-haired girl as the sound of wheels running down the path caught her attention. She watched as Rabbit gave a high-five to her fellow skaters, but she seemed less than enthusiastic about it, Yuki noted. Even if she wanted to give some recognition to her colleagues, it was clear that her focus was on Yuki, and she would rather be with her.

That much was apparent, as Rabbit turned back to Yuki to offer to move. The dark-haired girl nodded her head to this - if they were going to have a conversation, it was probably for the best if it wasn't somewhere with so much traffic or so many distractions. And, even if Rabbit was getting in her way, Yuki could at least tell she was coming from a position of honesty. She wasn't going to judge or look down on her, and Yuki could give her the time for that.

"All right," she said, returning a smile in Rabbit's direction to show how she agreed to the plan. "That sounds good. Lead the way, then."