The Road to Beyond Total Victory

[Teenwrestler]

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ryu 'the Dragon' Hiroshi arrived at the LAW gym with some doubt lingering in his mind. As he parked his car and made his way inside, his expression was stoic and emotionless as he passed by the receptionist who gave him a friendly hello but he bypassed her without any acknowledgement. She found it strange but figured he was just having a bad day. He went straight to the locker rooms, there was a lot on his mind. Having just suffered a loss against a nineteen year old wrestler, a person who wasn't even born when he had been wrestling- a doubt lingered in his mind. He was not upset at Valley, in fact he was proud and happy for her. He meant it when he said she was a future superstar and that she wrestled like someone well beyond her years. It was not jealously that bothered him, it was self-doubt.

locker room

He took off his clothes and headed into the shower, figured he could wash away all that doubt. However, he came out and changed into his wrestling attire and nothing changed. He put on his gym sneakers and fingerless gloves, his blue wrestling briefs and looked himself in the mirror. He noticed something, he rubbed his jaw and turned his head to the side as he saw a couple of grey hairs in his stubble beard. He clicked his tongue in frustration before noticing some more grey hairs on his hair as well. He was now 41, there was no denying that age was catching up. He took out his phone, checked social media on the after-match of his match against Valerie. Many of the comments praising the young female wrestler but many were calling Ryu slow, sluggish and that his time was up and he should retire. He gritted his teeth, throwing his phone against the locker while getting back up to his feet.

Ryu Hiroshi

"I...tch" he said to himself while looking in the mirror before suddenly walking out. He would enter the main gym hall, noticing many young wrestlers and some in their prime getting in a good work-out. He was still in good shape but even he could tell that he was getting slower, his stamina was fading away and there was not much left in the tank. However, he still had it- he pushed Valley as much as he could and the match could have gone his way too. He took a deep breath and walked towards one of the work-out benches but instead of working out, he simply stood next to it looking at it blankly and simply wondering "Is my time in the ring truly up?".

[BlackAkuma]

Valerie couldn't believe she was about to do this.

Much more, she couldn't believe she was about to do this in the gym of all places.

But there wasn’t any way around it. She’d been ignoring this problem ever since she came to LAW, it was getting worse by the day, and if she let it go on any longer, it was going to reach a critical mass of annoyance. Best to nip it in the bud now, once and for all, and hopefully never have to do anything like this again.

In a corner of the gym, Valerie set her phone against the wall, took a step back, and looked down at it, glaring towards the screen. The image of her anger might’ve been somewhat lost with the pink gym shorts and workout bra she was wearing today, but she was confident that she could get feelings through regardless.

Valley Doll III

She took a deep breath, settled her nerves and began her TikTok.

”I am going to say this once and only once.” She narrowed her eyes. ”To all the annoying people who keep DMing me on Twitter: Stop. I am not going to be your ‘Mami’. I am not going to crush your head between my thighs. I am not going to give you ‘snu-snu’, whatever that is. Just. Stop.” She held her hands and retched. ”Keep your dirty thoughts to yourself. I don’t want to hear them. Nobody does. There are plenty of women in LAW who do stuff like that, and I will never be one of them. Understand?”

Valerie had the feeling that this wouldn’t make a dent in all the weird, crazy, and disturbing fan mail she’d gotten since her debut, but she held out hope that it would. Her parents had warned her about this sort of thing - wrestling fans were enthusiastic, which could be a good thing, but there were always those who took it too far. She just hadn't expected it to be so soon and in such a high volume.

She huffed, shrugged, picked up the phone, and sent her missive out into the internet, casting it off the social media platforms that she almost never bothered using. She had a good number of followers despite her lack of activity, so maybe they would spread the word…or make it worse. Not a coin flip she was looking forward to.

With that out of the way, she turned around, eager to begin her workout and get some sweat to distract her, when she caught sight of a familiar face.

”Ryu?”

Sure enough, it was him, the man she’d first taken on in LAW. It had been a good, solid bout, a great proving ground for her abilities in LAW, and she’d made a good showing of herself coming out on top against such a storied veteran. A great milestone to kick off her career.

But the man she saw now didn’t seem like the same one she’d fought. He seemed hollow now, as if something was weighing heavily on him, like he was barely aware of his surroundings. Curious, cautious, she approached him from the side and gave him a light touch on the shoulder. ”Ryu-san? Are you all right?”

[Teenwrestler]

Normally, given how she was just around the corner, he would have noticed Valerie making her little announcement that she was ready to send out to the world. It was hard to avoid that aspect of the wrestling business, especially in an organization such as LAW where there was a whole dedicated fan based and wrestlers that were strictly involved in the art of lewd wrestling. That made it hard for those who wanted to be strictly "wrestling" focused because fans would expect those that were even serious about professional wrestling to dip their toes into the dark side at one point or not. Valerie wanted to make it clear that she was not going to be that type of wrestler.

However, today was not a normal and average day. A string of less-than acceptable performances had led the famous veteran to doubt himself which was spearheaded by the fans. It didn't matter if he thought he still had what it takes because what matter what his colleagues or fans thought of his performances. Valerie noticed it right away, the blank expression on his face- like a lost soul. She approached him from behind, tapping his shoulder to ask if he was alright. At first, there was no response as he barely noticed her touch or her voice. It took a second for him to shake his head to clear his mind and turn around to face her.

"Valerie-san" he said, bowing in respect. "Gomen nasai, yeah everything is fine" he would say, apologizing for ignoring her for a brief second as he did in the start. It was clear that everything was not alright, but he had to look strong to someone younger than him, thinking her had to set a good example. "How have you been? I've noticed you had a great match against Kyo-san and that you are going to wrestle Alizeh" he said with a smile, sounding as if he was extremely proud of her. Wait- why would he feel proud? She was not related to him, she beat him if anything he should feel upset but he didn't. Perhaps because he saw himself in her, a young wrestler, big and strong, hungry for success and wrestling those with much more experience while hanging with them in the ring.

"Keep it up, I think you're on your way to becoming one of the best here" he said, giving her some words of encouragement. He tried everything he could to try and deflect the situation off him. However, he simply could not do it anymore. Valerie seemed like a good person and it was the loss she gave him that was the catalyst to everything.

He took a deep breath and then sat down on the bench of the bench press machine. "Actually...everything is not alright" he admitted, rubbing his forehead while sighing.

[BlackAkuma]

Valerie bowed back, showing her respect, glad that the two of them were on good terms. While she wasn’t going out of her way to make friends in LAW, she wasn’t trying to make enemies, either, and she’d worried that she might have rubbed him the wrong way after their match. It had been a vigorous match, but she struck him as a proud man, the one who might take a loss to a young upstart too personally.

”Thank you.” It was nice to hear him give her some credit for her progress in LAW so far, though she couldn't quite explain why. There weren’t terribly many people who’s opinions she cared much for, but it seemed his name was added to the list before she realized it. ”It’s been an…interesting start.” That seemed about the most diplomatic word for it. ‘Wild’, ‘unexpected’, ‘overwhelming’ might have fit, too. ”I’m still trying to adjust. Feel like I’ve jumped into the deep end, sometimes. But it’s good. I’m good.”

And he wasn’t. Definitely not.

It seemed like there was a dam bursting up in Ryu, and sure enough, it came bursting out all at once. As much as she wanted to help, her first instinct was to step away, knowing how bad she was with moments like these. She’d bombed one with Rail not too long, and he was her brother. But she was here, Ryu clearly needed an ear, and this wasn’t something she could just dodge. So…

She took a seat on the opposite end of the bench, not wanting to overcrowd him. ”Is it something you want to talk about?”

[Teenwrestler]

The man was not sure what type of personality Valerie had. One thing he was sure that it wasn't overly cheerful. He didn't think that she was the type of person to get all worked up and deeply caring for a stranger who would share some of their problems with her. She seemed reserved, not unfriendly but not too eager to make friends. That was pretty much what he was like, a big guy, looking to make a name for himself and letting his wrestling do the talking rather than himself. He was not a people's person and clearly neither was she which made the situation slightly awkward. However, years of experience in life in and out of the ring, he didn't want to make this more uncomfortable that it needed to be.

She sat on the opposite end of the bench, trying her best to be supportive and wanting to hear. That meant alot for him, clearly she was making an effort to help him. He would not look at her, instead he looked down on the floor and took a deep breath. "Is it something I would want to talk about? Huh, not really but...I suppose I should talk about it" he said with a nervous chuckle but still did not look at her direction.

"The truth is that I am not the same man-the same wrestler I used to be" he said running his hand through his light stubble beard. "It took our match for me to realize that. Not that I am discounting your efforts, you truly deserve that victory and take nothing from you but after that match, I've seen people question my ability. That I should retire, hang my boots....call it quits" he continued.

He clenched his fists and gritted his teeth. "I told you that our match would be just a stepping stone for greater things to come for you and I mean that, you're going to get better and better- move on to become the best while I...." he said stopping mid-sentence. "I did everything I could to try and beat you but I feel you didn't get out of first gear. Our last match was about you, whether you could burst out onto the scene but now I want....I want the same thing for me, to tell everyone that I can still hang in the ring with the best, the upcoming...that I can still wrestle at the highest level" he said as he stood up and finally faced her.

"I need to know I can go the distance if it comes to it and if I can't...then maybe I need to re-consider a few things. Valerie-san, I challenge you again to a match. Not just any match, I challenge you to a Beyond Total Victory match" he would finally say. Ryu would take a deep breath, looking her straight in the eye. "There's one more thing...I want you to promise me something" he added.

[BlackAkuma]

Valerie had to admit, she was expecting that he might unload a few things on her, but she wasn’t quite ready for that much. If she wasn’t sure before, she knew she was the wrong person for this sort of thing, now. It wasn’t that she didn’t care or didn’t want to help him, but that she had always been terrible with giving people the right kinds of words in situations like these, and she invariably said the wrong thing or came off cold when she was trying to help.

Well, too late. She was here. Work with it.

She sat, quiet and alert, absorbing what she could and nodding along. When he finished his heartfelt speech, she held up a hand and blinked a few times, taking a moment to digest it all before she spoke. ”Okay, that’s…give me a second. There’s a lot to process there.”

She folded her arms and lifted her leg up on the seat, turning in full to face him. ”I know this is kind of weird for me to say, but age happens, Ryu-san. Everyone has to put their boots up sooner or later. There’s only one kind of wrestler who never retires, and I think you know what kind that is.” She hoped the grave tone in her voice meant she didn’t have to elaborate. ”But you shouldn’t let a few loses get you down - you can absolutely still go, I can say that from experience. You were an extremely game opponent.”

She rubbed her chin and pondered the next part for a second, before shrugging. She had wanted to save bigger matches like that for later in her career, but she also didn't want to get in the habit of turning down challenges. ”But if this is what you want, I’ll accept your challenge. What’s the promise, though?”

[Teenwrestler]

Perhaps it was not a good idea to open up to her. After all, she was just 19, too young to understand the type of problem he was going through. However, it was too late to back track on it now that he had spilled the beans. Plus, he needed to let her know regardless if he was going to challenge her to such a match- context in this case was important. To be fair to Valerie, she handled the situation well. She showed wisdom beyond her years in the ring and in this conversation and perhaps her reserved nature helped in this case.

What he appreciated most about her response was the honesty, some would perhaps would let him know that it was okay, that he was still as good as he was and ignore the haters. But the truth was far from that, the truth was as she said- everyone gets older, everyone has to think about retirement at one stage or the other. She would have known someone obviously very close to her who would have went through that same process. In order for there to a VDIII, the former must have hung their boots for the young talent to thrive.

She accepted the match and he was relieved, this was going to be his personal test for himself and no one else. If Valerie had to win the last match to put herself on the map, now Ryu had to do win this match to keep himself on the map. "Arigatou, Valerie-san. The promise is that you must give it your all. Also, no matter what happens in that match, you must continue it till the end of the timer and must not end it early...no matter what the score is...I have to finish that match, to see it through the end" he said.

[BlackAkuma]

Oh. Oh, that wasn’t quite as bad as Valerie was expecting. She wasn’t 100% sure what she thought he would say, but given the serious tone he was taking, she thought he would ask for something a little more grave than ‘finish the match’, a thing that she had every intention of doing regardless. On first thought, it seemed like a trivial thing to agree to, and her first inclination was to accept without offer.

On second thought, her feelings were more complicated. Ryu had done well enough in their last match, but that had been a truncated affair, not the drawn out Iron Man style match that he was suggesting, here. He was setting himself up for a true challenge here, but what if he couldn't live up to it? What if he couldn't come close. What if his body gave up halfway through and she wound up fighting a living punching bag? The idea of thrashing some poor old man around for the better part of an hour didn’t appeal, even if there was certainlY a market for that kind of thing.

She didn’t like the possible implications, but she liked the idea of letting Ryu down more, and the idea of refusing a match least of all. Besides, the referee would be there to stop things if it grew into a serious health issue. ”I accept, Ryu-san.”