Koganei Park. Despite the fact that the cherry blossom season was far behind, Charlotte still loved this place. She usually came here to meditate. However, today the Frenchwoman decided to just take a walk and get some fresh air. She found it necessary because she had been feeling a little weird lately.
Even now, just walking along the path with a measured step, she was immersed in heavy thoughts. On the one hand, she had no reason to worry about anything. Her Apex is over. And despite the fact that the opportunity to become the new middleweight champion was missed, she still had a chance to become the first openweight champion. In addition, several matches are waiting for her in the near future. Generally speaking, everything was fine. Charlotte Ravel'
But the pink-haired woman could not get rid of an unusual feeling that came from the very depths of her soul. It couldn't be called anything other than a premonition. And although she couldn't explain it, she felt that something bad was going to happen. The last time she felt like this was a few weeks before her family kicked her out.
She even started having dreams. Several times Charlotte woke up in a cold sweat with terrible pain in the area of her right collarbone and lower back. In part, these dreams were similar to reality. Despite the fact that everything was very vague every time, Charlotte clearly understood that in every dream she was in the ring. And considering the phantom pain with which she woke up, it was easy to guess that every dream ended for her not at all well.
However, the scariest thing was something else. Phantom pain is just an illusion. But in addition to this, Charlotte felt a taste of bitterness in her mouth. Every time she woke up from another nightmare, she felt an endless emptiness inside. It was as if she had completely lost the ability to experience joy. And although she had never experienced something like this in reality, she was sure that a person could experience such a thing only because of a huge disappointment. But no matter how much she tried to remember what exactly was the reason for this disappointment in her dreams, her mind seemed to refuse to give her an answer.
"A sad sight..." muttered Charlotte.
Stopping, she looked at the big sakura. She was here at the time of the flowering of this tree. At that moment, it looked beautiful, one of the most beautiful things that Charlotte had seen in her life. Not so long ago, this tree was the real embodiment of life. But now, when there was not a single petal on the sakura, this tree looked absolutely dead. Funny. A short moment of flowering, when everything is fine, and then an awfully long period of absolute greyness and nondescript. Funny and sad.
Apex was looming on it's end, for Aira... It was quite a journey. Though she herself have yet to have her Apex match. She already went through quite an eye opening journey through it's qualifiers. For the rising star, she found that there were more to figure out should she want to reach the top of the division. All her intense training and fighting have only showed that she had the potential, but lacking that certain it factor to get herself up to par with the top of the divisions. Granted, she have yet to dedicate herself full time to this sport. She still have her last year of college to worry about.
There's a lot to worry about the future of course, but Aira was glad that amidst the busy schedule of college, research, training, wrestling... There's some days where she can be free to do things on her own. And this is one of those days, and right now... She just wanted to take it easy. A walk in the park, enjoying the scenery as she opens up her sketchbook for designs of her hobby projects which showed her character in the ring. A street artist of sorts, sometimes misunderstood as a messy person, yet she shows how creative she was and it was as if the world is her canvas... At least, that was the extent she intent to show the world about her. Airani
The park itself is definitely far from the best scenery the park could have due to the cherry blossom blooming season being over months ago. But it is still a nice, calming, serene sight of greeneries even though it's rather dull with the lack of pink from the cherry blossom trees. Aira took up a bench and set her bag down, pulling out her pen case and sketchbook. She opened up a blank page and started drawing. With the thoughts on LAW Apex in her mind, she drawn up a graffiti design of the word "LAW Apex", letters stylized in a way to draw eyes to see it. Especially with a rather funky color palette Aira had for the design, each color represented herself, her opponents in Apex qualifiers... To which, she represent herself with deep blue. Her first opponent, Cecilia Lombard represented with gray. Her next opponent, Charlotte Ravel represented in pink. And her last opponent, Beauty Ichigaya in yellow.
Even though she had that color palette. It seemed that in her experience through Apex, she had this particular strong feeling that she have yet to express fully. Which was how the drawing seemed to have blue and pink more dominant in it. She felt a lot in that match with Charlotte, conflicting feelings... How she wasn't ready to face the ire of the crowd when she pulled a dishonorable trick... Pushing herself beyond her current limit... And then... This weird turmoil of feelings, Aira couldn't tell what it exactly was but, there's this feeling that mayhaps...
"Naaaah, ain't no way!" She let out to no one in particular as she shook her head. Laying the sketchbook on her lap as she sighed out while looking upwards. She then glanced around her surroundings and then... Her eyes came across a sight of the pink haired woman that she haven't met ever since they had their very intense match together... Aira's face blushed fairly bright as she realized what she let out earlier, she then quickly grabbed her sketchbook and clutches it on her chest. "Ah, h- hey there... Been a long while." She let out as she waved lightly towards her.
Despite the fact that this walk was supposed to help Charlotte clear her head, she still plunged into her thoughts too deeply. Without noticing it, she seemed to be inside an invisible barrier at the moment when her gaze fixed on the tree. Memories began to run like a kaleidoscope in the Frenchwoman's head. And the more she recalled her life, the more it seemed to her that she was very similar to this sakura without petals.
The pink-haired woman shuddered. The reason for this was the voice she heard. Very close. This voice seemed familiar to her, but the most important thing was that this voice seemed to bring her out of a trance. The Frenchwoman turned around and at the same moment both her eyebrows rose. Aira. It was Aira. The blue-haired woman was sitting on a bench literally a meter and a half away from Charlotte.
She could feel her cheeks starting to turn red. Charlotte couldn't understand how it happened that she didn't notice her at the moment when she stopped to look at sakura. But, what was even more embarrassing, it was their first meeting after their match. And although this meeting was definitely pleasant for her, the Frenchwoman definitely did not expect that they would meet in this way. What was the chance? In this park. Today. Could it be called... fate?
"Oh, hello, Aira!" Charlotte greeted, trying to pull herself together. "Been a while indeed."
Judging by the Indonesian woman's face, it was as sudden a meeting for her as it was for Charlotte. The martial arts master quickly ran her gaze over Aira from head to toe. She was relieved to find that there were no scars on the visible parts of the blue-haired woman's body, their match turned out to be extremely tough after all...
In the ring, every fighter strives to win and there is nothing wrong with that. In order to get to the top, you have to be ready to put aside doubts and do what is necessary. Even if it means being cruel to the opponent. However... looking at Aira, Charlotte immediately remembered the last moments of their match. Yes, in the end she put the blue-haired woman through the table, but at that moment Charlotte, perhaps for the first time in her life and contrary to her principles, felt that she did not want to hurt her rival.
"How are you doing?" It was the most banal and even somewhat idiotic question, but Charlotte still hadn't fully recovered from this unexpected meeting, so it was the first thing that came to her mind.
Aira couldn't help but to blush as she set her gaze to Charlotte. It was a pleasant yet sudden meeting. Her eyes gazed away for a short while before returning to Charlotte repeatedly. Though she then scoot her rear away slightly from Charlotte, taking her bag and put it away to the other side, giving a space on the bench. She then pats the bench as she looked at Charlotte. "Come on over, take a seat here." She let out invitingly, still clutching on her sketchbook. Hiding her sketch that showed how she felt on everything that happened so far in regards to Apex towards Charlotte. No, she couldn't show it yet...
"Eh? How am I doing?" She let out, repeating the question that Charlotte asked her. Of course, it was a very simple and stupid question. Though it did help her regain her composure slightly. Scratching the back of her head, she looked around. "Well..." She leaned her body back, leaning her back against the bench as she looked up to the sky. "Nothing much really... Apex is almost over, I haven't got my Apex match even though I've done my qualifiers... And then combine that with school, training, some more wrestling... Yeah." She let out. Telling Charlotte honestly in what she've been up to lately. "And well, today's a free day for me so I guess I could have a nice walk or something to take a break from all those business..." She added on, glancing over to Charlotte.
"Anyway, how about you? You're here to enjoy a free time in the middle of all of your business wrestling and all that too?" Aira questioned curiously. "Honestly, this park is just really nice as a place to relax and free your mind. Especially outside the Sakura bloom period. Just so calming really..." She added on, letting out her reason to relax at the park. To rest and let her mind wander creatively in this serene and calm surrounding. "Lots of fresh new ideas flowing into my head... Fleshing it out felt easier here than just in my room--- Oh no, sorry, I rambled on a bit too much." She noticed how she questioned Charlotte earlier and just rambled about the park right after. "So um... How are you doing Charlotte? I mean, been a while since last time we met after all..."
"Yes, with pleasure," Charlotte happily accepted the blue-haired woman's offer.
It didn't escape her gaze that Aira was holding a sketchbook in her hands. But she clearly did not want Charlotte to see what was inside, so the Frenchwoman did not focus on this, instead just sat on the bench next to her... who was Aira to her? It was too complicated a question that she wasn't ready to answer yet.
They really haven't seen each other for a long time. And although Charlotte was watching Aira's matches after their meeting, she had no idea what the blue-haired woman was doing outside the ring. She was interested to hear about it, especially considering that it was probably the smoothest way to start talking after such a long break since their last meeting.
Putting her left hand on the back of the bench, the pink-haired woman turned to Aira, listening attentively to her story about matches, training and college. Oh. She didn't even know that Aira was still studying. This was commendable, because now Charlotte knew that the Indonesian woman had to combine so many things together. There was nothing surprising in the fact that Aira decided to relax a little and get away from everything by coming to this park.
It sounded a little sad for Charlotte that the blue-haired woman still hadn't received her Apex match. Their match was more than enough for Charlotte to understand that despite the fact that Aira still has a lot of work to do, she definitely has a great future ahead of her. Charlotte was sure of it and maybe she could even...
Without having time to immerse herself in thought, Charlotte received the same question that she had asked Aira. The Frenchwoman put the index finger of her right hand to her chin, considering the answer, because quite a lot has happened lately. Perhaps she should have started from the beginning, so as not to miss anything.
"Well, you put me to bed for almost two weeks," Charlotte smiled, recalling the aftermath of their match. "As soon as I recovered, I immediately returned to training, and then to the qualifying matches." Charlotte looked away and the smile slowly left her face. "The second match was... unsuccessful..." it was not difficult to understand that she was talking about defeat, about a heavy defeat. "I gave everything I had, I had to fight at the limit of my pace from the very beginning of the match, but at the end... my strength had dried up, but Amy still had some reserves to do what I couldn't do..."
Charlotte closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying not to think that she had lost just because her endurance wasn't good enough. Of course, she knew that sooner or later any fighter faces defeat. However, she lost a match that she had no right to lose, considering that before the bell rang, Amy said that she would win this match.
"It hit me harder than I expected," she admitted. "But at the same time it pushed me forward, I began to train harder, trying to increase the time during which I can fight at the limit of my pace." She returned her gaze to Aira. "Amy was a heavyweight and my next match gave me the opportunity to check if I put enough effort into training, because my next opponent was also a heavyweight." The right corner of Charlotte's lips lifted slightly. "Yes, my training clearly bore fruit, which helped me finish qualifying with a victory."
It is important for a fighter to constantly develop and she was really glad that all her efforts were not in vain. Charlotte has always strived to become the best version of herself and martial arts has been her most powerful tool for this.
"And, of course, my Apex match in a steel cage..." she said, getting a little lost in memories. "Almost as tough a match as ours was..." Charlotte has indeed compared these two matches many times in her mind. "Grace is a very talented fighter, perhaps she has a lot of common with you." Charlotte's smile became a little wider. "I think that just like in our match, it would have been enough for just one moment for everything to turn out differently, but..." Charlotte was not going to belittle her merits and the path she went through. "I won."
The Frenchwoman leaned back and put her other hand on the back of the bench, too. Slightly tilting her head back, she looked at the clear sky. She caught herself thinking that even with Astrid and Nerissa, she is rarely so open. For some reason, next to Aira, she felt... an unusual lightness of heart.
"The middleweight title has eluded me, and the chance to become the first openweight champion looks very slim, since too many outstanding women took part in Apex," Charlotte sighed. "But anyway, I think I'm fine." Yes, she didn't tell Aira about the strange feeling that had been haunting her lately, but so far she didn't want to shift it to her. "Right now I'm focused on training, besides, several new matches are waiting for me in the near future..." the Frenchwoman looked around. "But you're absolutely right, this place is great for getting away from everything, that's why I'm here, sometimes I just want to... don't know... appeasement?" She turned her head to Aira. "But I'm glad I met you!" She said honestly, trying not to let the blush appear on her cheeks again. "I... khm... I won't insist, but I want to ask..." Charlotte was a little embarrassed, because she wasn't sure that Aira would want to share this with her. "Did you come here looking for inspiration to draw?" The Frenchwoman's gaze dropped a little lower, right at the sketchbook in Aira's hands.
Aira listened closely to Charlotte, gripping her sketchbook closely to her chest as she did so. Laughing a bit as she mentioned how she were put to bed for a good two weeks after their match. Which was almost the same as her. The two did bring their all into their match and not giving up even when things seemed lost for both of them. Of course, Aira looked a bit concerned when Charlotte lost her smile upon talking about her next qualifier which ended up in her defeat.
Aira could understand it, it was painful to have a defeat. For Aira, it was when she really wanted to prove that she had what it takes to be considered a contender for a title. And that the match was in her hometown against Cecilia Lombard. The match had her doubting if she could really do so without taking any despicable shortcuts as she suffered a harsh defeat and even harsh comments coming at her after that. One thing lead to her doing that to Charlotte in their match.
On one hand, she was glad to have that match with Charlotte... She shone the light for her that she should stay on her original path and never stray from it, even if it's so tempting to stray. More than that, she even had interest on Charlotte, keeping up with her in ring action while she also do her own thing. And to feel the same devastation that Charlotte had when she lost. She had hoped that Charlotte would bounce back positively from it, which thankfully she did. She was even more happy to see that Charlotte had won her Apex match. Deservedly so as she had brought her best to the very limit to every qualifier matches. With close matches and stipulations that put much risk to her body... Aira had to admit, her stake was much higher than Aira's at the moment.
Of course, to reach the title, it's what she would've hoped. But for someone like her, it's but a far reaching dream at the moment when there's lots of talented, strong women before her far more deserving of a run than her right now. Like Charlotte in front of her right now, she'd be more deserving of a run with the title, be it middleweight or openweight. All Aira wanted to prove was that she could be in consideration for a contendership, not just another talent lost in the shuffle after her initial hype.
Then... Charlotte questioned her about the sketchbook. Aira quickly turned her head away, blushing as she rolled her eyes away from Charlotte. "Ah, um... Well..." Aira then took a deep breath and gulped a bit before looking back at Charlotte. "So, you know that I usually wore a respirator on my entrances right?" She questioned while her hand motioned to cover her mouth slightly, mimicking grabbing a mask. "Well, it's not a gimmick of some sort. It's part of me, a big hobby of mine I should say." She said as she then laid her sketchbook down to the bench. "The world is such a huge canvas, there's lots of it to draw on as I wanted to." She opened up and showed some of her past graffiti sketches in the sketchbook to Charlotte. All the while taking her phone out and then showed Charlotte pictures of her standing beside a wall painted with the same graffiti sketches she saw on the sketchbook.
"Yeah, I'm a graffiti artist too... Kind of how I like to express what I feel deep down... And um..." She then flipped the page to the unfinished sketch of how she felt about LAW Apex so far. In the sketch, it was a text of LAW Apex being drawn and stylized in such expressive, funky, and 'street' vibes. Especially with the color palette. "Yeah, let's just say I wanted to express my experience in LAW Apex and perhaps draw that on a wall in LAW HQ as a celebration of this year long event." She said with a smile as she then focused on the colors.
"You know, the colors here represented me and everyone I faced in the qualifiers so far..." She pointed to the blue that takes the majority of the sketch. "This is yours truly." She said while pointing to herself, and then moved to the gray color in the sketch. "This is... Cecilia Lombard, my first qualifier opponent. I lost to her in my hometown, it really hurts..." She lost her smile a bit while reminiscing that, she then moved to the yellow. "This is... Beauty Ichigaya, a heavyweight that is way out of my league..." She sighed out as she looked up to the sky, remembering how the match went. "I got bodied a lot and the sheer difference in strength was there." She then smiled, turning her vision back to Charlotte. "But it was thanks to our fight, I learned to not give up until the very end, I managed to find a gap in her offense and... As much as I hated to admit it, snagged a lucky win..." She let out as she then looked over to the sketch and then pointed to the pink color that dominates the sketch together with blue. "As for this, you know who it is right? I'm looking at her right now." Aira let out with a sly grin as she teased Charlotte.
"It's you." Aira said as blush formed in her cheeks. "Our match, I figured it out, I was doubting myself coming in to our match." She scooted a bit closer, her hand advancing forward on the bench slowly. "I... That lost against Cecilia affected me a lot, I tried my best yet she won by doing despicable things..." She recalled. "Clawing my arm to escape my hold... Strangling me with the help of the ring ropes... Being put into holds that felt... Humiliating..." She recounted the things that Cecilia did to her in that match. "It had me doubting if just doing my best is enough to get to where I want, I... I know I did hit you right down there on our match. I regret that a whole lot, I also realized that stray path isn't for me..." Aira let out, mentioning that she pulled that same despicable move in their match. "I, I haven't said it properly didn't I? I'm really sorry for doing that to you, I didn't mean to, what I had in my mind was just to win back then..." She looked down regretfully, her fingers clutching onto the bench as she said it. Her body shivered a bit as she admitted her fault. Even if it was all over long ago, she still felt the guilt of doing that up until now.
Noticing how much Aira was embarrassed after her question, the Frenchwoman regretted for a moment that she had asked about it. She didn't want the blue-haired woman to feel uncomfortable about it at all. Charlotte even opened her mouth to say that Aira didn't have to tell her anything if the contents of the sketchbook were too personal for her. However, before she could even say a word, Aira gathered her courage and began to speak. Much to Charlotte's relief.
"Yes, I guessed," the corners of the Frenchwoman's lips lifted when Aira said that her respirator was not just part of the costume, but part of her nature.
She looked down with interest at the sketchbook that the Indonesian woman had placed on the bench. But before Aira opened it, she said words that made the pink-haired woman mentally repeat them. These words made a very big impression on her. It can be said that this made her even more convinced of how much Aira is a morally rich person. She remembered those words.
"The world is such a huge canvas..."
Charlotte's mouth involuntarily took the shape of the letter "o" and she exhaled delightedly when Aira first showed her a few pages in the sketchbook, and then took out her phone to show that her graffiti remains not only on paper. To say that Charlotte was amazed is to say nothing. Her hobby of collecting Star Warrior merchandise seemed like something completely insignificant compared to Aira's hobby.
"Amazing..." Charlotte said softly.
But the most interesting thing was yet to come. Turning the page, the Indonesian woman introduced Charlotte to what she was working on before their chance meeting. LAW Apex. For some, it was just letters on a piece of paper, but for Aira it was a way to express her emotions. And although Charlotte was attracted by the style of the drawing performed by Aira, she was much more interested in the unusual color palette.
"It would be really great," she shared in response to the idea that this graffiti could end up on the wall of LAW main building. "It deserves to be there."
The mystery of the color palette that Aira used was soon revealed. The Indonesian woman said that the colors in the drawing symbolize the matches she had to go through during her qualification. Charlotte's heart began to beat much faster, because she just couldn't help noticing a large amount of pink in the drawing. Nevertheless, she tried not to jump to conclusions, because despite the fact that pink is, of course, her color, she had no idea what kind of meaning Aira put into it and what kind of impressions she had from their match.
The blue-haired woman made it clear to her that the blue color in the drawing, as expected, symbolizes Aira herself. This made Charlotte smile again. However, Aira did not focus too much attention on this, almost immediately pointing to the gray color, which symbolized a certain Cecilia Lombard. When the Frenchwoman saw that the smile disappeared from Aira's face, she immediately realized that that match did not end well for her. However, when she heard that Aira had lost in her hometown, the pink-haired woman's heart was filled with pain. The truth was that Charlotte was sure that nothing would make her return to Paris, but she could imagine how painful it was for Aira to lose in front of the audience of her hometown.
Charlotte tilted her head slightly to the side when Aira pointed to the yellow color. Beauty Ichigaya. She had heard of this woman. And even without telling Aira, she knew that this woman was a heavyweight. She nodded understandingly several times when Aira said about the difference in strength and weight. Yes, Charlotte was really well acquainted with such a situation, because for the first time she faced a heavyweight in the ring, she was also defeated.
"Oh..." Aira's next words came as a surprise to her.
A slight blush appeared on Charlotte's cheeks after Aira mentioned that it was thanks to their fight that the Indonesian woman learned not to give up until the very end. The pink-haired woman was very pleased to hear this. However, even this was only a preface to what Aira was going to say next. The blush on Charlotte's cheeks became much more noticeable when Aira turned to pink. More than the pink color symbolizing Charlotte, there was only the blue color symbolizing Aira. On the one hand, the Frenchwoman really wanted to know exactly how Aira felt about their match. On the other hand, she was a little afraid of what she might hear...
But when Aira started talking, Charlotte was literally speechless. She could hear the pain in the blue-haired woman's words because of what she had to go through in the match with Cecilia. She didn't know about it. But now she understood why Aira had done that during their match. In the ring, a fighter should always strive to win. This is a fact. And although Charlotte did not share this point of view, she was well aware that many fighters believe that victory must be obtained at any cost, even if they act like real bastards for this.
She wanted to say something, but she couldn't get a single word out of herself. When Aira finished her story, Charlotte felt a lump in her throat because of the regret that was in the Indonesian woman's voice. Glancing down, Charlotte noticed how much Aira had planted her fingers on the edge of the bench. She wanted to put her palm on Aira's palm. She wanted to support her. She even moved her hand forward slightly, but then something seemed to stop her.
"You don't deserve this..." sounded in her head.
It wasn't her voice. It was the voice she had been trying to forget for six years. But even after all this time, she still remembered her sister's voice, which kept reminding her that she didn't deserve even the smallest bit of light in her life. Elizabeth's voice reminded her that she was too corrupted to touch Aira.
"Listen..." Charlotte finally said in a quieter voice than before. "I had another match during qualifying that I don't like to mention." Blinking slowly and taking a deep breath, Charlotte forced herself to remember all those unpleasant moments. "When I extended my hand to Gabriella for a handshake, she kicked me in the stomach, she didn't care that the bell hadn't sounded yet, she didn't care about honor and everything else, and for most of the match she mocked me after each of her successful attacks." She looked into Aira's eyes. "And I do not know how I would feel if I lost just because, unlike my opponent, I am not ready to use dirty methods." The Frenchwoman pointed to the blue color. "But I know I don't hold a grudge against you for what you did in our match." Charlotte smiled a little. "Although I can't forgive you because the only one who can forgive you is yourself." She turned her gaze to the pink color and to the line where this color came into contact with Aira's color. "Sooner or later, but we all have to face a choice between what is right and what is easy." She shared her thoughts. "You wanted to win and you chose the easy way, I don't approve of it, but I understand it." Charlotte, without touching the drawing, ran her finger through the air where their colors became one. "Aira, you wanted to avenge your defeat in the match against Cecilia, but remember." Charlotte's gaze was serious, but filled with understanding. "Revenge is not the noble fighter way."
