L.A.W. - League of Anime Wrestling

The more Aroha spoke, the more it was made clear that English wasn’t her first language. She was doing a good job with it, she was fine to speak with, but if that was the case, she likely knew even less Japanese. That gave Divine a sliver of worry. She knew well how lonely a place like Tokyo could be if you weren’t fully integrated. It had taken her years to find her groove, and even then, it was mostly because she fell in with the Valkyries. Somehow, Aroha didn’t strike her as the sort to join a biker gang.

It was a note she filed away for later, not wanting to ruin the good mood they’d created, enjoying each other’s company. She inched close on her stool, dancing on the edge of Aroha’s personal space. Though she was fairly sure they were on the same page, she didn’t want to overplay her hand. ”I just might let you.” She was quick to hold up a finger. ”At your place, though. Not mine. I would hate the cleanup.”

Was she serious? Maybe, maybe not. Let that one hang out for a moment.

As fun as the flirting was, she didn’t mind talking shop with Aroha, either - quite enjoying it, frankly. She put time and effort into her craft, it wasn’t every day she had the chance to flaunt. ”It’s not water, so sticky is a given. But sticky is what you want. And it’s certainly no more than mud, nothing a shower won’t take care of.” She ran hands over her shoulders, miming demonstrations. ”It really depends on what you use. Never baby oil, that makes the eyes burn. Coconut oil is what you want. Cheap, good for the skin, doesn’t burn, and just fine in your mouth. And if you get it hot enough…”

Divine had to take a moment to settle, amping herself up just thinking about it. She and Aroha in a pool of smoldering oil, sliding along each other, vying for position, working over each other like eels.

She came back with a finger on her chin. ”Do not tell me you’ve never tried oil wrestling before? That would be a crime.”

Aroha couldn't have cared less whether Divine was serious or not - her eyes lit up like a kid at Christmas. "You give me a chance to get you into a mud match, and I'll let you mess up the carpet in the bedroom!" Someone turned around to glance at her as she said it, no doubt thinking Aroha was referring to a dog, but the Maori beauty didn't pay him any mind. She didn't know much about carpet, but it seemed very... bad for mud. Felt good against her toes, though. Best part of the apartment. Really, though, no one should be doing any mud wrestling in anyone's home, but she would find a nice, soft, wet spot for Divine in about three seconds if the woman gave her the chance.

She truly loved this oil business, though, and the Kiwi listened intently, like Divine held the secrets of the universe. Aroha just couldn't wrap her head around it, but then all the oils she knew had been made by hand, all natural, not meant for perfection and especially not for wrestling but for some oddly specific communal purpose. And certainly not coconut oil - they didn't have coconuts in New Zealand. She also hoped baby oil meant oil for babies and not... oil from babies? Did babies create oil?

Weird thought, and she left it there. She had tasted coconut before, though, and it honestly wasn't too bad. Divine had a point in favor of oil on that anyway.

The hot part, though? That sounded kind of scary. Her mind went to a burning hot pan, oil bubbling in it. That couldn't be what she meant, right? Nonetheless, a look of horror did cross her features for a second before she decided surely, that could not be the case, and Divine brought her out of the stressing thought with her own question. Aroha shook her head with genuineness. "Not once. It would have all just turned into... stickier mud with where I spent my time wrestlin'. We only had dirt rings. And... not the ring part. Just dirt!"

Only a couple minutes in, she’d already invited Divine into her bedroom. A new record? Maybe.

Granted, she was half-certain that Aroha was merely playing around, but even so, it was clear that they were on the same page, or at least in the same book. Private activities were certainly on the table, though she needed to take care and not press things too hard. There was a naive energy about this woman, a fish out of water, and the last thing she wanted was to push her into an experience she wasn’t ready for.

”Careful what you wish for, puppy.” They were far enough along for pet names, by her estimation. She could’ve easily said it mockingly, but hers had more affection than that, a playful tease. ”Another advantage of oil: It doesn’t stain the carpet. And as long as I have a good-sized tarp and a bottle, I can be set up and ready to go just about anywhere.” She leaned forward with a knowing grin. ”Anywhere.”

No need to elaborate. Let her imagination fill the void.

She tapped her chin as Aroha confessed to never knowing the joys of oil, and an idea was taking shape. There were still questions to ask, however. ”’We’, again. Who is ‘we’? If you don’t mind me asking.” She drew a leg in and leaned forward, intent on the answer.

Puppy?

Aroha went wide-eyed. Had she missed something? The temptation to look over her shoulder to find someone named "puppy" hit her, but she didn't because no doubt Divine continued to talk to her. Thinking about what that could mean almost distracted her from the rest of what Divine said, but she gathered enough of it to follow what the woman tried to implicate. The oil could go anywhere? A knowing grin stretched across her face. Yes, women had plenty of anywheres for oil to creep. It almost seemed a shame that men didn't. A girl could only do so much with that sausage of theirs.

Also in the mouth, though. And nostrils and ears. And under her nails. All things she had experienced and gotten used to from wrestling for years in mud that had caked everything from head to toe, though. Sometimes, she could still find a crust of dirt buried deep in her black mane three showers after a match, but that added to the allure, made for a good memory.

But, Divine wanted to know where she had come from! Aroha knew that not everyone was interested in her suddenly bursting into an explanation of her culture, but if the woman asked... "I'm from an indigenous tribe in New Zealand!", she exploded, knowing well enough that she got some dumb looks when she said "Maori." People understood indigenous much more readily, so she had come to start with that. "My mother is Maori as long ago as she can trace our ancestry. Our clan tried to live like our ancestors and grow our own crops, build or own houses, and craft our own goods, so we couldn't make a place for a ring. We just picked places where we wouldn't get hurt, which was always out in the dirt."

Remembering she owned a phone, she pulled it out of her pocket. "We watched LAW clips when we had reception... not often. And we only owned five phones for the whole clan..."

Divine hoped that Aroha hadn't taken the ‘puppy’ thing too poorly, because from how she reacted, it was just too appropriate to let go. She was a font of youthful exuberance, bursting with energy. So expressive, so alive. She could see a thousand thoughts buzzing behind those blue eyes.

Hm. She did have the prettiest eyes, too—twin pools.

Divine was broken out of her reverie when Aroha answered her question with an explosive burst, as if she’d been waiting for just the right opportunity to spit. Behind her excitement was some real pride, the kind that only came from someone with a genuine love of their own culture. She knew little of New Zealand—her experience with the place only came from her manager mentioning it as a possible tour stop back during her music days. That had fallen through, and she would be hard-pressed to even find it on a map. She might have to put it on her itinerary if they regularly produced women like this.

She painted the picture of a simple but fulfilling life that Divine could never really dream of, city girl that she was. She often fantasized about what rural life would be like and even thought about trying it, but she knew her city-slicker self wouldn’t last a day. She was too accustomed to the amenities, too pampered.

It made her question what would drive such a woman out to Tokyo, but she suspected that her answer came with Aroha’s last sentence. She tilted her head to the side, looking at the phone as it was presented like an alien artifact. ”That sounds…amazing, really. I’ve never lived anywhere like that. Brasilia is a sardine can of a city, packed with millions. She scratched her chin, curious.

”You mentioned LAW, though. Is that why you’re all the way out here? You joined up?”

Was this what small talk was? Aroha had never quite understood the concept. Or had this crept all the way to flirting after that comment about the oil getting anywhere? She supposed it didn't matter, because what she had heard of small talk sounded like flirting. A village didn't have small talk. Everyone already knew everything about each other for the most part, and they all had the same hobbies. She preferred large talk, and as long as this pretty woman kept talking with her, the closer it would come to large talk.

She somehow managed to light up even brighter when the woman complimented her description of home. "Thank you," she answered. And she wanted to be just as enthusiastic about Divine's brief mention of her home, but she didn't... quite recognize it. Brasilia. Brasilia, Brasilia. Aroha hoped all the shuffling of little feet in her head wasn't obvious on her face (it was), but one of the little people up there trying to figure out where Brasilia could be reminded her that it shared more than half it's name with-

"Brazil! Oh, no wonder." She patted herself on the head as if proud and annoyed at the same time at her memory. "No wonder you look so pretty! The people of Brazil that I've seen are-" She searched for the right word. "-not the same as you but hot too?" That sounded like a good way to put it!

She nodded rapidly at the question of LAW. "They found our videos and called me to ask if I wanted to represent my tribe." She gestured at the phone like she had to express that the phone was responsible for the call. "I couldn't miss the chance to champion my people here." The way many of them saw it (at least those who didn't see it as all foolishness of the outside world), it was like being chosen to fight in some great duel like their people once had when the Maori had been much less... peaceful.

Divine sat idly by and waited for Aroha to connect the dots and figure out where, exactly she was from, not being unused to this little game. It was her fault, really. A consequence of growing up in a single place was that you tended to overestimate how much the rest of the world cared about your corner, even if it was one of the most populated countries. She should’ve been used to it by now - how many times had she been mistaken for being Mexican since she’d come to Japan? She stopped counting at 67.

She opened her mouth to fill in the blank when Aroha searched for the right word, as many terms to describe her countrypeople came to mind, with not all of them being positive. She decided not to throw her personal feelings on the young woman, though, eager to keep this light conversation in the fun and flirty category. The last part was too funny not to chuckle at that, after a few quick sips. ”I am not entirely sure what you meant there, but I’ll take it as compliment. Thanks.”

It was her turn to light up when her suspicions were confirmed, telling her she was in the presence of a fellow LAWgiver. She could see what their scouts had seen in Aroha. Great body, athletic, a rare ethnicity in wrestling, someone fresh and new. Maybe a little too much of the latter, since she knew how much they liked to feed pretty young things like her to the wolves.

”I do not doubt you’ll make them proud. Not for a moment.” She reached over and gave her a quick, reassuring pat on the thigh. ”Still, this has to be a big change for you. The city, the lights, the rush.” She couldn't help letting a little worry slip into her voice, perhaps too much for a woman she’d only just met. Aroha had a sweetness to her that demanded protection. “How’s it been so far?”

"That's good! It was one. I do think it's good they call you Divine. Those are some goddess-level looks compared to normal people looks." Aroha winked like a woman with intention. It was something she did all the time back home, so she didn't think much of it. No, she didn't know of many people from Brazil, mostly pictures of models and volleyball players or the like. As much as she could remember, Divine was the first one she had spoken to in all her life. But she sure beat them all in looks to Aroha's eye. In fact, she beat most of the people she had seen in her life in looks, and people who were pretty deserved to know it.

And she was smart. Aroha did her best to look natural in these settings; her dad had taken her into the city enough times when she was younger that she could handle a crowd without doing anything crazy like taking a glass off of someone else's table or trying to climb on the outside of an elevator (it had been ONE time!). She was no total fish out of water. But this was definitely the longest conversation she had managed with anyone who didn't act like they wanted to slip away. She peered into the distance long enough to tip off an observant socialite to her need to weigh her optimism with her frustration.

"I like people, so it's good having a lot of them around!" There was the optimism that came through a beaming smile. But her shoulders fell. "But, I guess... I guess it is weird. There are all these people, but there are really less of them. For one person." Not quite socially savvy enough to properly explain it, she tried an analogy, wriggling her fingers in the air as if drawing the picture. "You have ten people playing music together, except they all play different songs and only look down at their own instruments. Or only two or three are playing the same song in little groups."

Even for a woman accustomed to flattery at every turn, Divine was happy to receive the pearls that Aroha cast at her feet. It helped that the woman had a genuine vibe to her, like she didn’t have a single dishonest bone in her body. Granted, they had only just met, but she believed she was good at reading people, and this one seemed like an open book. A cute, sweet, adorable little fish out of water. She probably wasn’t even contemplating their spending a night together, though that was undoubtedly on the table. She was just being polite and sincere.

A good quality. A dangerous quality, if the wrong person came her way, especially in LAW. She’d heard more than a few horror stories about young things like this getting suckered into some shadowy part of the locker room and ripped apart. The last thing someone this innocent deserved.

She kept those worries to herself for the time being, not wanting to heap them on her new acquaintance’s troubled mind. Instead, she sat back and let her describe her experience, nodding as she made a decent metaphor. The woman was no poet, but she had a way of breaking things down well enough

”I get you.” She wriggled her own fingers in the air to mimic the gesture and smirked. ”Japan is a nexus, the area around LAW more than anywhere else. People coming from around the world, here and there. It’s a melting pot, but it makes connection difficult. So many barriers to break down.”

Divine leaned forward, thinking momentarily, letting a few memories pass through her mind. ”You need a new tribe. Start from the ground up. Just find a group of people you gel with and grow from there.” She tapped her chest. ”That’s what helped me out a lot of when I first came here. I slid in with this…” Divine titled her head from side to side, trying to find the right word. ”I guess you’d call us a gang. But it was more than that. They were my sisters. We rode together, we fought together. We were close, and it really was what I needed at the time. My own little community. It was nice, it was…”

She grew distant for a moment, looking past Aroha as she fought past the tide of memories threatening to overwhelm her. The Valkyries were the best chapter of her life, really.

Too sappy. Bring it back. ”Sorry.” She waved it off and turned back to her drink. ”I ramble sometimes. Old habit.”

Aroha found herself on the back foot with Divine's explanation since she couldn't remember hearing the word "necks-us" in her entire life. Assuming it had to do with necks didn't make any of it clearer, either, and she ended up rubbing hers absent-mindedly. But the rest of her new friend's words enlightened her, and she vehemently nodded her head at the much-better-than-hers explanation of it being so many different people who cared about different things that no one could connect or even get into a conversation. "You're right! Can't see any walls, but they're all around people."

What she proposed, at first, brought worry to her face. A new tribe? Aroha loved hers so much that the thought of a new one sounded like one of the least appealing things in the world. And like she was betraying them somehow, especially when she had come here to represent them. But it also occurred to her - she wasn't talking to anyone back home outside of her parents and a couple of friends, and even then, only on occasion. The rest of the tribe was moving on with their lives and would only hear the positives from her parents. This didn't change them, but Aroha would need to change.

Soothed by that realization, she had settled back into her warm smile while Divine described these people she had made her tribe that she loved. She had always thought gangs were people who threatened other people, but they didn't sound like that. Or maybe they did sound like that. Maybe they threatened people by tossing them into oil. Sisters and community sounded really good, though. She had never had any sisters in either the figurative or literal sense - most of the girls in the tribe had thought her strange for having interest like the boys. But all the women on LAW's roster shared that major interest. Maybe not the mud...

Her dreamy intent became a frown when Divine stopped her own reminiscing. "No, no, please ramble! I like to hear when people talk about who they love."