Beachside Training (for deezcastforms)

[Bare]

Niko admittedly looked kinda worried when Tiki talked about manuals being standard in other places, but definitely not in Japan! Hell she had barely even gotten her license to begin with and only did so cause her parents basically forced her. Thankfully though Tiki soon put her fears to rest when she said she traded up when arriving in Japan. "Oh thank goodness." Niko said while letting out a small chuckle "Yeah that sounds great I gotcha teach!" Niko said brightly as they made their way over with the guys and sat waiting patiently for their well deserved meal.

Eyes brightening up as it was being served Niko went for a comparatively more tame plate than TIki, focusing more on a good serving of fish and a burger but plain and dry as opposed to full made up. Then a heaping helping of grilled veggies that they also grilled up to with everything. Munching down on everything Tiko would smile happily enjoying the fruits of their labor. "Mhmmm this is really good! Great call to do this right Tiki?" Niko asked with a proud grin on her face before her eyes widened seeing her get another big plate of food as well. Not that she could blame her but even Niko admitted it was a little... much.

[deezcastforms]

Tiki chuckled as Niko asked her how great doing this had been. "Heh, I think my second plate can answer that question for you," she said. Then the veteran gave her student a quizzical look when she saw how Niko responded to her going back for seconds. "What? It's free, tastes good, and I'm hungry! Hahaha!" Tiki then took her seat next to Niko and cracked open another beer with a big grin on her face.

Tiki's second plate wasn't quite as big as her first. "Only" a couple more cuts of fish meat and some fruit, but considering that this was in addition to her first plate, it was still quite substantial. But Tiki still downed it like nothing. "Oh that hit the spot," she said once she was finally done, stretching her arms up over her head. "Plus, all that food should hopefully blunt the hit of the booze a bit too. Though I do think I may be starting to feel it."

The two sat together for a bit longer, but the cookout appeared to be wrapping up before long. A couple of the guys asked for their numbers, Tiki swapped two of the digits in her number in order to placate them without actually giving out her number. If she somehow ever met these men again and got called on it, she'd blame being drunk. "Say Niko," Tiki said once the men were gone. "Let's say we just... head back down to the beach and just enjoy it for a bit before we head home?" We still got some sunlight left."

[Bare]

Niko was.. perplexed and she wasn't quite sure how to feel about it. Never before had she seen Tiki this loose and easy going. Normally she was pretty strict, nice and gentle at times but stern and solemn. So while it was fun to see her a lot more light hearted it also felt kinda off just for the sheer zaniness of it. Plus there was the fact that the reason behind this attitude was the fact that her teacher was steadily getting more and more drunk. For now at least Tiki would just go with it and be sure to keep an eye on her later.

'Man its bad if I have to be the responsible one.' Niko thought to herself while chuckling softly at the woman's response to her questioning. "Well you are right about it being free, guess I can't blame ya hehe." She said before also getting seconds herself. But really only a few more pieces of fish, vegetables and a bit of rice. Small portions of each, more akin to snacks than a full plate as she rejoined her teacher just as the woman popped open another beer. "here's hoping on that-" Niko said under her breath in response to Tiki saying the food may full the effects of the alcohol, low enough that the woman wouldn't be able to hear.

Soon enough though the cookout pretty much wrapped up and after giving the boys the phone numbers to yozakura and rebecca respectively, two girls that Niko had beef with in the past rather than herself, they were on their way and once again it was just Niko and Tiki alone on the beach. Seeing the sun start to dip down Niko was about to ask if they should head out themselves, only to be cut off by a request from her teacher instead. Raising an eyebrow Niko shrugged. "Sure. I love sunsets on the beach." Niko said with a smile as she moved to follow Tiki back to where they had been originally.

[deezcastforms]

Tiki and Niko made there way back down to the sands, walking side by side. "Well, looks like I'm still together enough to walk straight," said Tiki. "Oh, maybe I should have made you carry me. Call it more training, hehe. I won't though. You've already worked more than hard enough for today. You've made me very proud."

Before long, the two were relaxing quietly where they had originally been set up, resting with their arms up behind their head. It was a peaceful silence for a short moment before Tiki spoke, "Hey Niko, what's a shortstack? I heard one of those guys call you that earlier. Is it just a short woman with a stacked body? That's what I thought, but I don't really know."

"I ask that because back before you were born, and back before I could just Google it on the Internet, I was the one getting called that," explained Tiki. "It was just before I'd turned 18, so a little over 30 years ago. I was a little shorter than you are now, but flat as a washboard. I had to binge eat just to barely crack 100 lbs.. But then a week before my birthday, I hit my last growth spurt. Usually it's your body filling out your frame, but my body filled out first, so I ended up looking like this," Tiki pulled out her phone and showed an image to Niko.

Spoiler

"About a week after my birthday, the height started kicking in, and then I looked like how I do now," Tiki said. "But I looked like this just long enough to have this build for my- my professional debut." There was a slight hitch in Tiki's voice, and it became a tiny touch strained afterwards. "Actually this picture was to commemorate my first wrestling attire before my de- before my- hic," Suddenly, tears were streaming down Tiki's cheeks as she let out a sob. "Oh God. I'm so sorry," Tiki buried her head into her chest and threw an arm over her head. "I shouldn't have tried to talk about this while I was drunk. I wasn't thinking. I'm sorry Niko."

[Bare]

Walking alongside her mentor Niko would nod lightly as she listened to Tiki talk, chuckling a bit at her joke. "Hehe that is good." Niko said with a laugh before immediately blanching at the idea of carrying the woman. "Yeahhh won't lie you'd probably end up dropped in the sand if we did that, so probs for the best we don't." Niko said softly before blinking and pausing for a moment as she processed that Tiki had said she was proud of her.

Shaking her head with a blush Niko would jog a bit to catch up with Tiki, muttering a shy thanks, but on the inside it was clear Niko had melted a bit from the compliment. Making it back to their spot and lounging back Niko would take a breath and sigh before turning over to Tiki as she started to talk once more, asking what a shortstack was. "Uh kinda. I think it has to do more with like, well you know stacked in the chest region but more or less." Niko answered, curious as to why TIki asked.

Thankfully the woman would add some context soon after. But not what Niko was expecting, culminating in Tiki showing her phone to her and showing off a picture of the woman when she was her age.. yet looking the same as she does now! "Holy crap!" Niko yelled out unexpectedly at the picture before focusing back on Tiki again as she explained the rest of how her body filled out the way it was, only to choke back a sob and start crying.

Eyes widening in surprise Niko immediately reached out to put her arms around Tiki, hugging her tight against her her smaller frame, on hand resting on the side of the woman's head to comfort her. "No Tiki its ok! Drunk or not its clearly something that means a lot... I'm willing to listen if you're willing to talk... you can trust me, I promise." Niko said softly while rubbing the woman's back gently, trying to help the woman feel comfortable enough to continue.

[deezcastforms]

Tiki buried her head into Niko's shoulder as her student worked to comfort her. "Alright. Alright. Just give me a moment," the inebriated woman said as she began to calm her self. Tiki pulled away from Niko rolled back onto her back as she took some deep breaths. "Okay, here goes, this will get a bit long."

"This story starts with my parents; they did not raise me," Tiki began. "My father left before I was born. I don't know his name, I don't know what he looks like, I don't know if he's even still alive. But when I was conceived, my mother was living a lifestyle that would left her dependent on her partner to raise me. It was a high ranking government position, the kind of role where if she shirked it to go raise me, the logistics of a whole city could grind to a halt. For the record, I love my mother, I do not blame her, and we are on good terms. But she just wasn't able to really act as my mother."

"This left the job of raising me to my mother's family; two uncles, and... my grandfather, Bantu. He's the center of all this," said Tiki. "Between the three of them, Bantu was considered the primary caregiver, and I loved Ban-Ban. But the thing was, he was already ancient from the first time I had ever been put into his arms. Hunched, bald, wrinkly, frail, slow, I never knew him as anything else. As you may be able to guess, that made him the first loved one I had who died."

Tiki paused, taking another breath and swallowing before continuing on, "This is where my wrestling debut comes in. Ban-Ban came to everything I had for wrestling as I was still growing up. Uncle Gotoh and Uncle Xane would be there sometimes, especially once Ban-Ban's age caused him to need more and more assistance, but Ban-Ban never missed a single moment of a single match." Another pause. "But by the time I graduated high school and rose to the pros, Ban-Ban was in hospice care," said Tiki. "Days left to live, days left until my debut. Nobody had any idea if he'd last to see it."

"Thank God. Thank God in Heaven that he did," Tiki said, the most clearly she had been able to speak since she had began this tale. "He was hooked up to portable machines and boxed off in his own little section so the crowd didn't kill him, but he was there. But... you have to imagine how my emotions were. The closest thing you've seen is how I was before our second match, a lifetime ago when we were still enemies, but it still wasn't the same. Against you, I was fueled by anger. Back then, it was sheer terror. Absolutely horrified that the last thing the person I loved more than anything else on Earth would see was me getting dominated and humiliated in the biggest moment of my life."

"Furthermore, there was the matter of my opponent," Tiki went on. "Her next scheduled fight after me, was a title fight. I was the rookie jobber meant to tune her up before she stepped to the champion. This wasn't like now where I walk into every match expecting to win. Not only was I fearing being dominated, those fears were exacerbated by the fact that I was made to expect being dominated."

"However, I actually won the match," said Tiki. "It was far from pretty though. As my anger did against you, my fear turned me into a monster. I fought as if winning could save Ban-Ban, as if everybody else I loved would die along with him if I lost, as if the only way that anything would ever be okay again was if I beat the woman in front of me so savagely that she'd never be the same again." A look of shame came over Tiki's face before she continued. "I didn't actually finish her with a move. I won when she screamed out her surrender in terror as she desperately crawled across the canvas away from me. I didn't even wait for the announcer to raise my arm and declare me the winner. I broke down to tears in an instant and ran to Ban-Ban, only barely having enough clarity of mind not to crush him to death myself with a hug."

"Because the story did have an happy ending, when I'm sober, I'm able to look back on it with fondness. Sending Ban-Ban off to Heaven with a triumphant victory that he could brag about to all the other angels. Been when I'm drunk, my mind wanders to the what-ifs. What if I I couldn't do it? What if I wasn't good enough? What if the last memory Ban-Ban ever had of me was me crying in agony and begging for mercy as I was helplessly crushed in a submission? And that terror just floods my mind, and it just doesn't stop. And... I break down."

Tiki sat up and took a breath. "There's another aspect to it too," she said. "But it's a bit of a topic shift, and I've already been talking for awhile. So before I get to that, if you have something to say that you've been sitting on..." Tiki turned a waiting eye to Niko, honestly having no clue no she'd take this.

[Bare]

Niko wa real quick to wrap her arms around Tiki's form, comforting the near sobbing woman and assuring her that she was free to talk without fear of judgement from Niko. Granted Niko had no idea what could be weighing on the older woman, and admittedly the thought of what that could be kinda scared her given up till this point she knew Tiki as a titaness of a woman who let hardly anything get to her short of slights to her pride. So for her to be like this... It had to have been something particularly heavy.

Thankfully though her hug and comfort worked and got the woman to look up and despite being sniffly, open to talk to the pinkette. Listening and nodding to the woman as she spoke Niko would sit back, just trying to take it all in. From how she was raised mostly by her uncles and grandfather cause of her mother's job, to starting to wrestle when she did and eventually... the story of her debut match and what came after it. Of course hearing that Tiki dominated the way she did made sense. Hell Niko had gotten a taste of that before and that was with Tiki at arguably her best as opposed to when she was at Niko's levels. Though that may account more for her being even more intense and scary.

Regardless it did leave Niko a bit curious. Why was Tiki so upset by this? Aside from her grandfather passing it sounded like a sweet story, heck even with him passing he at least saw Tiki win. Why was that so bad? Then Tiki explained it. The what ifs, the possibility that something far worse could have happened that would made the whole thing for not. Honestly Niko had no idea that stuff like that affected Tiki to such an extent.

So when offered to get a word in edgewise Niko would nod gently and clear her throat before Tiki continued. "I see. I had.. no idea that you went through something like that. Gosh no wonder you didn't like me at first hehe." Niko said with a small chuckle, trying to lighten the tension a little before continuing. "But.. this is just me... I don't think you should worry.. and I know that's easier said than done, and that part of it cause you're drunk right now.. but what matters is what was done, not what could have happened. You'r ban ban passed away happy seeing you win, and that's a good thing, whenever you doubt that, I think you should remember how he looked when you hugged him, because thats what did happen, nothing else. you know?" Niko said gently while squeezing Tiki hand before looking up at her. "But It's probably important to hear what else has been eating you, so please continue." Niko said with a gentle nod as she waited to hear what Tiki said.

[deezcastforms]

"Haaa, what I should do is just not drink," Tiki said as she was able to flash a smile. "Like I said, I can just be happy about it when I'm sober." The greenette wondered if it might be best to leave out the fact that she was so caught up crying that she couldn't even see what her grandfather looked like in the moment because her eyes were so teared up.

"Well the other thing has to do with my age, and my... unique relationship with it." Tiki said. "Like I said, Ban-Ban was old from the I met him, as was my Uncle Gotoh. He passed not to long after Ban Ban. My mother is getting up there now too these days, she retired and moved into an old folks home a few years ago now."

"All that death and aging of the people I love, well, it gets me thinking about my own," explained Tiki. "But look at me! I'm 50, two and a half times your age, yet if I dyed my hair pink then I could probably pass for your older sister. I get you're probably wondering what my problem with that could possibly be, I get that, but think about it like this; when I was in my late 20s - early 30s, I'd already been a pro for over a decade, a bonafide veteran. I'd see a wrestler your age coming into the pros as a rookie themselves. I'd see them have their entire career and retire, and I'm still wrestling. And then it happens again with the next generation when I was in my late 30s - early 40s! What- what if another 10/15/20 years from now, I'm still wrestling while sending you off at your retirement party."

"It's not that I don't want to wrestle anymore, I still love it," said Tiki. "But... the fact that I'm able to do this, look and fight like I'm half my age almost makes me feel... inhuman. Like I'm some ageless creature that just looks like a human." Tiki's voice grew a lot meeker, she raised her hand up in front of her face. "Niko, what... am i?"

"Did- did I just hit the magic genetic configuration?" Tiki asked. "Some 1 in billions combination of switches in my chromosomes and DNA that somehow grant me double the life of everybody else, the next phase in human evolution that stay in their prime through their 70s and 80s and live to 200. Maybe I just age that crazily well and I'll live out my life, passing on at 90 while I look like I'm 50 or 60. Or perhaps the way I live will finally catch up to me one day. Maybe I wake up tomorrow, grey streaks in my hair, wrinkles forming on my face, the results of 4 decades of being a wrestler coming to bear on my body all at once. Maybe my body will just break down, collapse, and I'm dead at 65." Tiki turned her head to look at Niko before addressing her, "You know those stories where the moral that eternal life would actually be a living hell? I get it. I... think I'd rather die at 65 than live to 200... at least then I'd get to see Ban Ban again soon."

Tears began running down Tiki's face again. "Damnit," she spat. "I know I have people who care about me, like me, I've got you laying right next to me for Christ sake. Why do I feel so alone?"

[Bare]

Niko felt good seeing even the small trace of a smile on Tiki's face, like maybe her talk was working. Especially given Tiki was able to have at last some fun with things. But then the woman continued. Going into full detail about what was really eating away at her soul, the issue with her, or the lack of how well it showed in her. Along with all the worries, insecurities and what ifs that came along with it.

It was a heartbreaking speech honestly. One that completely repainted how Niko viewed her mentor and her condition. After all Niko sometimes forgot that the woman was as old as she was and when she did remember Niko found herself a little jealous, wishing sh too could look like she does now at Tiki's age. Or at least she did. Now... she wasn't so sure. Not after hear what it was like straight from Tiki's mouth.

Still she didn't interrupt as Tiki continued to talk, laying bear all she dealt with until eventually she finished and Niko just looked at her teacher sadly. Sad because she had to deal with this, alone no less, without anyone to understand or help her deal with it. It made gravity of the situation all the more heavy on Niko, because in this moment, she was the closest with Tiki that could possibly help her.

Scooting forward and hugging the now crying Tiki the pinkette would let the older woman get some sobs and tears out, letting the brunt of the feelings run their course before finally pulling away a bit so Niko could look Tiki in the eyes. "I... I can't possibly understand what you're going through right now..." Niko said,letting the words hang there for a moment before continuing. "But... while I'm no expert in genetics, or philosophy, or anything like that... I do know that you're an amazing person, the healthiest health nut I've ever seen... not taking tonight into account at least." Niko said with a chuckle before continuing.

"Even if all the toll of wrestling hit you all at once tomorrow... you'd still be like the hottest, most fit 50 something year old ever, who could throw down with the best of them." Niko said brightly while holding Tiki's shoulders. "But you shouldn't worry about that, it doesn't matter how or why you are the way you are, or how long you will be, you should live in the moment, do what you can while you can, you're already one of the best teachers in LAW, and I'm confident you'll be one of the best champions too!" Niko said proudly, standing up as she got worked up and pumping her fists at Tiki, trying to share as much positive energy as she could with the woman!

[deezcastforms]

Tiki wasn't really sure what to expect when she bared her heart to Niko like this. She figured, or at least hoped that her student would at least be supportive of her. But Tiki also knew that Niko was by no means a therapist, and somewhat prone to getting herself into trouble by running her mouth without thinking enough about what was coming out.

All in all, what Tiki got was what she probably would have thought to expect had she been in a clearer state of mind. Niko didn't even try to tackle the existential crisis that her mentor was undergoing, openly admitting that she wouldn't even know where to start if she tried. Niko's words were more centered around trying to instill positivity. That it was alright. That Tiki was alright. That everything would be just alright. You don't need to worry about the future.

Perhaps dodging the core issue would not the most helpful words under normal circumstance, but considering that Tiki's demons were only strong enough to plague her when she was mentally impaired, Niko's firm motivational pick me up managed to click with something in the veteran's brain. One might even wonder if trying to get deep and philosophical with Tiki while she was drunk and crying may have just made things worse for her.

Tiki stood up and immediately hugged Niko. Tears still ran from her eyes, but the smile now on her face suggested that they had more happiness mixed into them than before. "Niko," she said. "I may not have made a single better choice in my life than when I decided to reach out to you that final time. The time when you finally reached back and became my student. God knows I'd have laughed in your face if you told me you'd become like this to me back then, but you did. Thank you so much, Niko Tomiji."

When Tiki released the hug, she noticed that the sun was most of the way down. "Well today's been... certainly something. Drunk breakdowns aside, I'd say amazing, actually. But I do think it's about time we head back. You can drive back to your place first, I'll get mys-" Tiki paused as she remembered. "Wait, I can't drive. Uhhh, if you drive me to my home and then take yourself back, then we'd still have to make extra trips back and forth the next day since you'll have my car. Same if I take a train or a cab home... and I don't wanna make you drive me home just to have to take a cab back to your place." Tiki held her fist to her forehead in thought before looking back at Niko. "Sleepover at your place?"