Training Doubles and a Deal

[deezcastforms]

"No, no, I'm fine," said Chiaki. "My sleep schedule has been hypothetical at best for as long as I can remember. At this point, I'm just used to functioning in a state of minor tiredness. But I can still fall asleep on a dime if I'm laying down on something even a little comfortable if nothing else is keeping me up. Long story short: I'm plenty good to keep going Shiori." And Chiaki meant that. She wasn't hiding fatigue or anything of that nature. That was just Chiaki.

Fuuka fiddled with her hands and looked at the ground when Shiori mentioned her. "I'm sorry for barking at you Shiori," she said. "It's just that, I really, really wanted to prove to myself that I was capable of getting through that." Fuuka let out a sigh. "And for what? I went off over 55 pounds. I'm sure that over half of LAW could do that with one arm."

"Maybe," said Chiaki. "But you still have your strengths. After all, how much of LAW do you think could shrug off that same 55 pounds getting dropped directly on their chest and keep lifting? Especially in the Lightweight division."

Once Shiori almost inevitably asked if that had actually happened, Fuuka would answer, "I got startled by a super heavy bar getting dropped near me once and lost my grip on the bar. It distracted Chiaki too, so she couldn't catch it either."

[FreestylePoet]

Shiori looked over at Fuuka, eyes wide. "Did that…" Before she could finish, Fuuka answered her question. The Fangirl let out a low whistle. "Wow." No kidding, fifty-five pounds falling from half a foot onto her upper chest? That had to be, like, at least 70% of the way to tanking a lariat from Astrid Arvidsson. "Chiaki's right. That's some craaaaazy durability. I bet you went right back to your sets after, huh?"

She appraised her blue-haired student, stroking an imaginary beard. "You're right, though. Most of LAW can put out more than they can take. But don't you think it's way harder to learn how to fix a glass jaw than to break one? Like, this isn't an RPG where you can just equip some High-Cut Armor and get a boost to your Defense. You, on the other hand? You're like a Toxapex! We just need to pump up those attacking stats."

Then she looked over at Chiaki. If she hadn't wrestled the gamer girl herself, Shiori might've thought she was lying for her trainer's sake, but she was right that her narcolepsy wasn't a sign of anything much in terms of motivation. Satisfied that they could keep going, Shiori nodded. "Okay! Now that that's settled…" She kicked over one of their yoga mats from earlier, slipping the strap off with her sole and unrolling it.

"Have either of you ever seen Rocky?"

[deezcastforms]

"Hmm," hummed Chiaki in thought after Shiori dropped multiple video game references. "I like your logic and idea, but I think you missed on your first video game reference. After all, almost every wrestler wears defense boosting armor already. At least I think that's what all the skimpy wrestling outfits are for." Chiaki flashed a small smile as she waited to see if her joke would land.

"Toxapex..." said Fuuka. "Maybe if wrestling had some kind of status conditions to beat opponent's with. A Toxapex without Toxic, Scald, or Knock Off maybe."

"Yikes. That would be a one way ticket to generic mediocre bulky water if GameFreak did that to Pex in Scarlet and Violet," said Chiaki (A couple months later, when the SV moveset leaks came out, all three women would momentarily pause as they remembered this conversation).

Next, when Shiori pulled out the mats and tested the duo's movie knowledge, Fuuka was quick to pipe up, "I shared a dorm with the captain of the boxing team in high school," she said. "Most movie nights where he got to pick were one Rocky movie or another."

"There were a couple Rocky video games from the early 2000's that I've played," said Chiaki. "Can't say I've watched the originals though."

[FreestylePoet]

Shiori bit her lip. This was actually perfect, wasn't it? She'd stumbled onto a pretty good workout idea, completely by accident. Whether it was going to work or not was another story entirely.

"That's alright, Chiaki. That just means you might not know what's coming -- and that means you get to go first!" She pointed cheerily to the gamer girl, then to a rolled-out yoga mat. "Go on, git!"

As Chiaki was getting set up, Shiori started to ramble out your plan. "A-Anyway... this workout is going to double the burn on your core. It's meant to really test your stability, and as an added bonus, it'll train the exact kind of play-through-the-pain resiliency that you'll need in LAW!" She turned towards Fuuka, hopeful that the techie wouldn't spoil the surprise. "We're probably not ready to do this on an exercise ball like Rocky does by the practice ring, but that's the next step." Then again, wasn't there another way people did this? On TikTok and YouTube and those other viral social media sites? "...And I don't think any of us can do a hanging sit-up, so this is the best we can do."

She knelt by her friend and student, positioning herself by Chiaki's midsection. "All I need you to do for now is just do some situps. At your own pace, but a steady and consistent one. Just like normal." She could barely keep the giddiness out of her voice! Shiori was really gonna get to do this for a real LAW wrestler! All she had to do now was not give away the plot too early. Once Chiaki got into her rhythm, she suddenly swung up her hand-

"Hiiiiiiyah!"

-And brought it down hard onto Chiaki's working core with a knife-edged chop!

[deezcastforms]

Chiaki was willing to trust Shiori, but she still knew that the fangirl had something turning the gears in her head. Shiori did a horrible job of hiding her excitement and anticipation for whatever it was the she had in store. Fuuka thought she knew what the brunette was about to do, but she wasn't confident enough to voice anything. Plus, it seemed like Shiori wanted her plan to be a secret anyways.

Chiaki started her sit-ups without too much trouble, and Shiori didn't do anything yet. It seemed as though she wanted the gamer girl to establish a rhythm before she actually did anything. After Chiaki had done about ten, Shiori swung her hand up, let out a cry, and drove her hand deep into the pinkette's stomach. "Ugh!" groaned Chiaki as the air was knocked out of her lungs and she rolled onto her side.

"U-uhh..." said a stunned Fuuka before composing her thoughts. "Um, Shiori, if I remember correctly, it's supposed to be two flat, open handed slaps in a rhythm. Not a knife-edge chop."

Chiaki got back to her knees with an annoyed glare once she heard Fuuka tell Shiori that she had performed the drill incorrectly. Rather than say anything, the gamer girl just paid Shiori back with a chop of her own before laying back down. "Well, let's try it again. Please get the execution right this time Shiori. I don't mind failing because I'm not at a level to succeed yet, but I can't stand a game that's stacked against me."

[FreestylePoet]

"Oops!" As soon as her chop had made contact, Shiori knew she'd effed up. Not only did she not know her own strength, she apparently didn't even know how this workout was supposed to go! She brought her hands up to her face as the workout came to an unexpected end. And, of course, Chiaki and Fuuka scolded her a bit, but thankfully it wasn't too harsh. Shiori nodded at her two trainees. "R-Right... Like DK Jungle Beat, not... Karate Kid Part II." And like any Jungle Beat player, she didn't want to break her controller... to continue the metaphor.

Then she rubbed her hands together. "Alright! Let's get back to it. I promise I'll do it right this time." Shiori breathed on both her hands as if to warm them up. "Really! Don't worry. Iiiii got it." She waited for Chiaki to get back into her situps. This time, she knew what was coming, so Shiori wouldn't need to wait very long at all. Once she felt her friend had gotten into an alright rhythm, she slowly brought her hands over Chiaki's abdomen.

"Heeee... cha-cha!" By her estimation, she only charged up her meter about an eighth of the way before letting out two rapid-fire slaps -- not exactly rounding strikes from a fellow boxer, but it would probably work. One on each side of Chiaki's core -- who needed a physiotherapist's degree when you drew fanart all day? Hopefully those were the right spots for maximum engagement... And if the feedback this time was positive, she'd keep it up. Not quite on every situp just yet, but she slowly ramped her and Chiaki up in rhythm until they got close.

"How's it feel?"

[deezcastforms]

Chiaki knew that Shiori was a bit of ditz. After all, she watched the rookie walk face first into the ring before her debut match. But Chiaki also knew that Shiori was earnest, eager to improve, and a quick learner, so she was willing to trust the brunette with a second shot at the exercise. "So long as you don't start trying to play Melee on the your DK Bongos," Chiaki said as she began her sit-ups again.

Chiaki's trust paid off, as Shiori was able to perform her part of the exercise correctly this time. The gamer girl was still grunting on impact, but that was to be expected, as opposed to getting the wind knocked out of her and curling onto her side. "Heh heh, this looks much more accurate to what I remember," Fuuka said with a chuckle.

When Shiori asked Chiaki how the exercise felt, she responded, "stings for sure, but it feels like an extra obstacle for me to overcome instead of some glitch that shouldn't be happening." Barring another slip up from Shiori, Chiaki would finish out her set, coming to struggle a bit at the end, but not so much that the gamer girl was unable to push through.

[FreestylePoet]

Shiori and Chiaki finished their set -- and without crumpling the poor Gamer Girl in half, too! Even better, Chiaki said that the workout felt... good! And helpful! She beamed as she helped Chiaki sit back up. "Oh wow, I can't believe that actually works! Ooh, ooh, maybe when we get fitter, we can do the version with hanging sit-ups and punches!"

Then she turned to Fuuka and deepened her voice, summoning her best gruff PE teacher. "Alright, Yamagishi. It's your turn next!" Shiori giggled halfway through, not being able to keep her composure all the way. She turned herself to the mat that Fuuka had rolled out, then waited for the other Keyboard Warrior to lay down. "Uh, you two probably know each other better than I do. Should I go faster or slower for you, Fuuka? Harder or softer?"

[deezcastforms]

"Shiori..." sighed Fuuka as she rested her head against her fists. "I'm pretty sure that those were still just slaps too, if we're thinking about the same thing." Then the bluenette would sport a look of confusion at the voice and manner of speech that the fangirl was using before chuckling herself as Shiori immediately corpsed the bit.

Upon hearing Shiori's question, Chiaki immediately chimed in, "Well Fuuka's whole thing is her durability, so she could probably manage you going as hard as you please. I'm not saying you do this, but it wouldn't shock me if she could keep doing sit-ups through one of your knife chops." The gamer girl didn't hold that against Shiori, but that didn't mean she wouldn't tease her for it.

"Haa... please just do it normally, Shiori," said Fuuka as she lied down. "Not to say I mind you going harder than you did with Chiaki, I just don't want you chopping me instead of slapping." With that, Fuuka would begin doing her sit-ups, stomach braced for the incoming blows that Shiori would bring down upon her belly.

[FreestylePoet]

"Right, right..." Shiori nodded. Durability and endurance were Fuuka's specialties. They would no doubt be key to any growth she'd have as a wrestler, so why not build that into this exercise? "I hear you! Don't worry about a thing." A classic thing to say when there was nothing to worry about, surely. "I've got just the thing!"

Once Fuuka got into her push-ups, Shiori would start firing away, almost like she did with Chiaki. Only, there were three differences. For one, the impact was a little harder, as Fuuka sorta-kinda-requested.

For two, Shiori was being more intentional about her aiming. Years of using body references for art gave the Fangirl a pretty solid understanding of where different muscles were (yaoi paid, after all, as did musclegirls). Some impacts were closer to the center of Fuuka's abs, to really test her core strength. Others were aimed towards the outside to exercise her obliques. Still others were at the top and bottom, just to vary things up.

And finally, the piece de resistance: She angled her hands ever so slightly, butting the heels of her palms into Fuuka's core! This change was also small, but going from the meaty belly-flops of a full hand on skin to the bonier parts of her hands would no doubt have an effect. Even a slim change in the angle of attack would change the impact point for the better. In the worst case scenario, Shiori would just give herself carpal tunnel. But she was an artist and a gamer. Her wrists weren't long for this world anyway.

Of course, Shiori was careful. No need to have a repeat of the incident with Chiaki. But combined, she hoped that these would all help Fuuka feel the burn! "Hatcha!" she squealed, with another one-two to Fuuka's torso. "How's this?"