A fire starts with a spark

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“Ten...” Astrid exhaled with an effort.

At the same time, she lifted the barbell up, and then gently lowered it down, placing it on her ample chest for a few seconds of rest. Yes, it was a bench press, and at the moment Astrid was working with her classic weight limit, namely ninety-five kilograms. Gritting her teeth, the blonde exhaled all the air from her lungs, and then pushed the barbell up.

“Eleven...” sounded through clenched teeth.

When she lowered the barbell down, her arms trembled treacherously. If she had taken five kilograms less, she would have completed this exercise without any problems. But right now, sweat was streaming down her body, and her face was red from tension. The reason for this was that the Norwegian woman started all this not just to keep fit, but to become stronger than she was. Therefore, she had no way back. She clearly saw her goal in front of her and therefore she intended to go only forward.

“Twelve!” She growled, pushing the barbell up with trembling arms.

Astrid Arvidsson

Shifting her arms slightly back, she placed the barbell on the locking platform, after which she allowed herself a few deep breaths. At some point, it seemed to her that she would not be able to finish this set because her arms hurt more than ever. However, when she took a sitting position, a wide smile appeared on her lips. The pain in her muscles means that she did everything right.

“A break...” she muttered to herself.

Getting to her feet, she took her towel and wiped the sweat first from her face, then from her neck and arms. Despite the fact that she spent a lot of time at the gym, it wasn't every day that her workouts were so intense. Astrid went to the nearest window and picked up a bottle of water from the windowsill. After taking a few sips, she breathed a sigh of relief, and then looked around the gym.

It was the main gym located on the second floor in the LAW headquarters. Here and there she saw fighters who had free access to this place. She even knew some of them by sight, but most of them were strangers to her. Perhaps she should visit this place more often, because she usually preferred to train at Charlotte's school, on days when this was not possible, she preferred the small gym on the third floor because there was almost never anyone there. Yes, she was no longer the lone wolf she was at the beginning of her career, but she usually preferred to train alone.

So why was she here today instead of on the third floor? No specific reason. She was just in a good mood and therefore saw no reason to avoid other people today. After another sip of water, Astrid glanced at her watch, she still had thirty minutes before the end of her workout, and so the blonde wondered what exactly she should spend that time on. Maybe she should work with a punching bag to practice her quick maneuvers.

[Bare]

"Ngh! Hagh! Hi yah!"

These were the sounds of frustration, effort and drive echoing through the gym near the punching bags where presently Sheena Akan was the only user of and the source of afore mentioned sounds. Thus far she wasn't as far along in her LAW career as she'd like, a fact that her cousin reminded her of all too often, even if gentle or offhandedly. It wasn't as Sheena was consistently losing or considered a jobber, but she felt she had too many defeats to be considered a true top contender.

Granted these were the self defeated thoughts of someone with not the greatest confidence in herself, but they were there none the less and it's what was fueling her today as she punched, kicked and elbowed the bag. Letting out her frustration while also getting in an aerobic workout that would hopefully improve her striking game. As is she was definitely in the upper end of strikers at LAW, but mostly for her kicks and knees and she didn't want to be overly reliant.

So while she was certainly alternating to those to keep used to them she was still putting significant focus in her punches, trying to improve them as she battered the heavy bag so hard it began to sway before coming off the hook that held it and fell down to the floor at Sheena's feet. "Damn it... great. Just great." Sheena said to herself with a roll of her eyes and sigh of annoyance.

Bending down she would grab hold of the bag with both hand and start to prop it up, her sweat slicked skin shining in the lights while she did so as her thighs flexed and her rather infamous behind pushed hard against the strain of her purple workout shorts as she got the bag up vertical but now came the hard part of trying to get it back up on the hook. After all there was a reason these were also called heavy bags, and Sheena had been at this for over an hour so it wasn't as if she was fresh as a daisy doing this.

Spoiler

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Still feeling muscle pain from working out with a lot of weight, Astrid decided that she would spend the rest of her workout with a punching bag. Even the most experienced fighter should not forget to hone their basic skills, besides it will be a good cardio for her. The blonde threw the bottle of water and the towel into her small bag, and instead took out bandages for her hands. Slinging her bag over her shoulder, she slowly walked to the other end of the gym, wrapping her hands at the same time.

“Ice cream... preferably stracciatella... and some tv show...” Astrid muttered to herself as if no one was around.

Those were her plans for the evening. It was unlikely that she would be able to see her friends today, so she could afford to relax a little, especially after such a good workout. Victoria asked her to think about the possibility of participating in the interview, but since the Englishwoman still had not found an interviewer, Astrid saw no need to rush this decision.

The blonde was brought out of her thoughts by the loud sound of something that undoubtedly fell to the floor.

Shaking her head several times, she looked at the source of the sound, which was located exactly in the place she was heading towards. Oh, someone dropped a punching bag. A typical mistake of those who do not have too much experience in striking technique. After finishing with the bandages and putting on seven-ounce gloves, Astrid wondered who was responsible for what had happened, but when she took a few more steps forward and saw a woman on her haunches trying to lift the punching bag, the Norwegian woman could not believe her eyes.

“No way...” she gasped, barely audible.

Funny or not, their last meeting was also in the gym, but on the floor above. Recalling this, Astrid couldn't help but smile, along with a slight blush on her cheeks. Hell, it probably wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that meeting with Kyoko was the hottest moment since she joined LAW. The blonde got ready to greet her rival, but barely managed to stop herself.

When the purple-haired woman got to her feet in an attempt to put the bag back in place, which she had some difficulty with, Astrid realized that it wasn't Kyoko. She even had to blink a few times to make sure she wasn't mistaken. Yes, that's right, it's not Kyoko. But damn. These two women are like two drops of water. Why?

Right...

Moments later, Astrid remembered that Kyoko was far from the only member of the Akan family. And right now, it was Sheena Akan in front of Astrid, she saw her profile among those whom Victoria thought it would be worth paying attention to. Now the blonde was curious if Sheena and Kyoko were similar only in appearance, or if this woman's temperament also resembled that of the middleweight champion. And instead of being biased, she was going to figure it out on her own.

“Hey, need some help, huh?" She asked, approaching not from the back, but from the side, so that Sheena would not think that this was a backstage attack, which was not uncommon in their federation.

Without waiting for the purple-haired woman's response, she intended to grab the chains on top of the punching bag and pull it up to hang it on the hook. Once the job was done, she would lightly slap the leather bag.

“Even the strongest strike doesn't make sense if it's executed incorrectly,” she said. “Don't try to push the punching bag after your fist, elbow or foot hits it, instead imagine that you want to strike through it, always concentrating all the force of your strike at one specific point for just one moment, then return your fist, elbow or foot to its starting position.”

To demonstrate, she took a step and a half back from the punching bag and took a fighting stance. First taking a deep breath, and then exhaling sharply, she threw her left hand forward, sending a left jab into the punching bag, then her right hand with a right cross, after that finishing the combo with a right low kick. The loud sounds of her fists and foot hitting the leather went through the gym. And although it were certainly powerful strikes, after that the punching bag only swayed slightly instead of starting to sway back and forth.

“Like this...” she said, after which she smiled slightly and extended her right hand to the purple-haired woman. “Astrid Arvidsson, pleasure to meet you!” She introduced herself, eager to see how Sheena would react to their meeting.