Post by Ishikawa Rini on Apr 8, 2024 6:37:07 GMT
How she’d gotten out of this without being seriously hurt was a miracle, she’d remembered even as Charlie was celebrating, Abigail’s voice letting loose a chuckle as their eyes met, the chuckle slowing as they recognised a shared glint each other’s eyes the sort of look that said ‘Yeah, I can do that again.’
Nat had felt herself smile right back even as they pulled themselves away from each other, was it mutual respect? Mutual madness? Who knew? All she knew was glass was still falling into the shower as she breathed heavily whilst gathering her thoughts.
She hurt, everything hurt. The ice bath hadn’t helped so much but she took the fact she was still walking as a sign that everything was good in her universe. A five point check had confirmed it and even medical had given the all clear.
Fingers? They were still there.
Toes? Thank god.
Head, shoulders, knees and all.
But fuck, everything hurt.
The next day had been a bit of a daze, operating on autopilot even as Charlie was operating on clouds 9 to 20, she had her flowers.
You go Girl; I’ll get you next time, Gadget, next time.
As she was pulling into Heathrow, her phone would finally light up and there it was a single text.
Megan and I watched that circus you call a living: I’m not helping you with any medical bills.
Another thing; if you persist in living this way you’ll see yourself to an early grave. What were you thinking? Why can’t you be more like your sister :/ - Your Mother
The anger made the pain subside as she stuffed the phone into her pocket angrily and pulled the brim of a cap over her head some, huffing a breath as she cursed under her breath and about marched to the luggage carousel and check out, totally ignoring any notions of duty free shopping.
She was in London, she was going to see LONDON. No one was going to stop her, not her mom, not precious Megan, not Charlie, not Hannah, and certainly not Rini…
Shit, Rini.
She took a breath and looked up for the smaller woman, hoping her little sulk hadn’t left the little ball of energy behind. Half the reason they were even here in London early was to shake the jet lag and get some rest in before their match this week. Questions would be asked and she’d already been a bit stormy since Hanners had asked her why she hadn’t called her family, an uncharacteristic little rising snap, and she apologized after but that probably hadn’t done Hannah any favors after the last week so she reasoned she’d make up for it.
Looks like she’d be making it up to Rini too, a lot of cues had been given away, her family was a sore subject it seemed.
Her mother had a way of getting under her skin. She’d been eating the blame for everything ever since the divorce whilst she was only 2, never living up to her mother’s standards or in fact not being Meg, the golden child who could do no wrong.
Not even making state, not even the dance recitals, nothing was good enough.
She felt her jaw tighten as she wiped her eyes, missing her pack on the first trip around as she half reached for it with a raspy croak and sighed.
Cheer up Nat, you’re in London among friends, hell among people who accepted you.
Only a matter of time before you shatter this family too.
Her inner doubts wore her mother’s voice for that particular mental gutshot and she kept looking for Rini, a solitary rock of irrepressible light in her ocean of anger and spite right now.
She occupied herself with other people’s problems for now, eyes catching on that bright smile which had gotten held up waving brightly.
Nat waved back, but the smile didn’t quite reach her eyes even as she caught her bag on what must have been the third time around by this point securing her bag as she gave Rini a hug that was almost too tight and felt herself wince a little as Rini hugged back.
“I’m ok Rini, Just still feeling it some” She chuckled softly and smiled.
“I still feel like I could do it again, Even though I didn’t walk out winning I wanna do it again. There must be somethin’ wrong with me.”
The moment of shared silence between them as Rini spoke up with a bright smile.
“Uranusu… Have I mentioned you are very strange?”
She winked a bit playfully, something in Rini understood what Nat was saying even as she picked up her own bag and made their way to the hotel.
Nat couldn’t help herself; with a soft snuffle, she decided to poke the proverbial bear. “Have you told her yet?”
She smiled and Rini shook her head in abject denial and Nat squeezed Rini’s hand and she sighed softly even as they were working towards the desk. "I couldn't tell her before the Iron Maiden, it wasn't the right time.."
Nat suspected it would never be the right time.
“It’s ok, let’s get ourselves settled and we’ll get to enjoying London, play the maximum tourist card for the day?”
Rini’s demeanor changed on a dime to her usual hyper happiness at the idea of exploring the sights and sounds with her new friend.
“Hai! But we can’t do everything! We have to go with Maasu.”
London Calling it seems…
Rini stared out over Thames, her eyes occasionally flicking to her phone. The app she had for an international clock told her that it was rapidly approaching the time she could call her cousin. Being several hours ahead of her usual time zone, she had to tell Akira she wouldn’t be able to call him early Saturday morning. He had insisted that she call him at 5pm Sapporo time on Saturday if she couldn’t call in the morning.
It worked out well enough since Nat was still asleep, despite it being almost nine in the morning. Rini would’ve rather been asleep herself, but she knew this call was necessary.
Right as the clock ticked over to the hour, her phone started playing “Moonlight Densetsu” and she scooped her phone up. Quickly, Rini turned off the musical alarm and switched over to LINE and found her cousin’s contact quickly. She hit the button to call and waited.
She didn’t know why her stomach knotted during the brief silence between the two rings it took for Akira to answer. She knew he would. He’d said he would. But part of her still feared that he, like her parents, would turn away from her again.
“Rini! When were you going to tell me that IWF is only the largest professional wrestling promotion in the world?!” Akira demanded, making Rini idly wonder if this is how Charlie had felt when she had found out where Charlie had gotten signed upon her return to the States.
“How was I supposed to tell you, Akira? You only know what you do because you wanted to know what I was talking about. I saw your eyes get glazed the moment I started talking about anything beyond the story involved,” Rini protested.
Rini heard Akira grumbling, which made her laugh. “And how do you expect me to tell Oji and Oba about this? They’re going to panic even more when they do!”
Rini blinked. “Why would they panic, Akira?” she asked, confused. She could hear the frustration in her cousin’s voice, but couldn’t understand it.
“Because, baka, after you left Neo-Honshu, people here started asking questions about why they would let a foreigner beat you so badly. Then they started asking why you were no longer with the promotion,” Akira explained, his voice strained with the effort to sound patient. “You were still in Japan, weren’t you? Why didn’t you hear any of this?”
“I was living at the Dojo, trying to get myself to the States!” Rini protested.
Akira’s groan of frustration was almost a scream in Rini’s ear. “You were a ten minute bus-ride away that whole time and you couldn’t even call us to-” Akira cut himself off, sighing gustily. “Never mind… The point is, the more questions got asked, the more odd things came to light. The scandal broke about a month ago. Turns out Neo-Honshu was abusing its top talent, either by starving them, forcing them to work out more, or by offering wins or better matches in exchange for sexual favors.”
Rini felt her stomach twist with nausea. Her friendship with Charlie had spared her that? Yet another debt she couldn’t hope to repay. She swallowed the sick feeling down. “IWF isn’t like that, Akira.”
“That you know of,” Akira interjected skeptically.
“Akira… Trust me. Even if it happened at all, it’s not going to be me that it happens to. For one thing, you know Una would kill anyone who tried that; secondly, Tsuki would be right behind Una, threatening all the lawsuits for sexual harassment.”
Rini let her cousin stew on that for a moment until she heard him grumble something that sounded vaguely like acquiescence. “I’m still not gonna tell them. It has to be you, Rini. They won’t believe me that you’re okay.”
Rini grimaced at her cousin’s words. “Alright… I promise I’ll call them next week… You have full harassment rights if I don’t… I’ll call Wednesday night, alright?” Rini grimaced, realizing that, if what her cousin said was true, her family would easily recognize Nat. “Oh… and Akira?”
“Yeah Rini?”
“Just… try not to freak out too badly when you see who I’m teamed up with this week, okay?”
“What?! RINI!” Akira protested, but Rini rode over him.
“Gotta go train now. Bye!” Rini quickly disconnected, and then put her phone on DND. It was time for Nat to get up anyways.
The recognisable chimes of Big Ben echo into a lack of camera shot for now, a slow fade in focusing on a couple of shots of some London landmarks. The houses of Parliament, Piccadilly Circus and Camden Market as the chimes come towards the O’clock moment.
Cut to black at the first, and only chime before slowly coming back to hear the excitable noise of Nat whilst she walks into shot and we fully fade into what seems to be a back room at an IWF fan meet-up, the idle buzz of excitement and mass of humanity caught by the microphone.
Natasha grins brightly before making an overly cinematic motion to the camera as if asking it to pull back and as it does so, Rini also seems to explode into frame with a similarly excitable noise, the two of them feeding off others energy like some sort of excitable cycle.
“We’re in London! First time!”
Nat seems to steady herself with an abashed smile and a slight wince.
“Sorry I’m kinda hype about it.”
Nat rolls a shoulder and grins softly.
“Seems this week, hell this last month, has been all about tests. For me, for both of us, so i wanted to use this moment to address a question, I’m fine, sure everything aches and I’m still pickin’ pieces of glass out of the shower every now and again, but medical has cleared me, and so I’m plannin’ to go out there and do the tag thing, Say hi Rini.”
“Ohayo mina!” Rini’s enthusiasm is infectious, even though the screen, as she grins and waves happily. “Happy to be here with my friend, Uranusu!” Rini puts an arm across Nat’s shoulders, but pulls away as Nat winces at the contact, looking apologetic. Nat’s reassuring smile does the trick and Rini is back to her usual cheerful expression in no time.
“I’m also aware I have a Target on my back because of the ringer I went through at High Stakes, questions if I can handle it, how banged up am I? I’ll tell you somethin’ even knowing what I know now? I wouldn't change a damn thing and I won’t have any hesitation in throwin’ myself into -this- match either. Doesn’t matter if it’s the Winstons or the Murder, I am going out there with Rini here to show we can go!”
Nat bounces and grins with a smile.
“What y'all expected me to be down? I may not have won the Iron Maiden but I am DAMN proud of what I’ve done. I’m happy for my friend, I’m happy to take some of the weight off her shoulders; I’m happy for Charlie to go out and take it to Jennie Fenix, happy and put more weight on my own by taggin’ with Rini here, who also has the inside scoop on this week opponents.”
Nat turned to Rini as if to ask her opinion, even let her get a few words in edgeways.
Rini grins. “Dixie and Jolene are good. Maasu and I had a good match with them. They are good person.” Seeming to realize her English is starting to falter, she turns to Nat and continues in Japanese. Nat takes a second and without missing a beat picks up the translation. “The Winston Sisters, while not as good as East Wind, are still worthy opponents. While Uranusu is not Maasu, I still feel the result will be the same.”
Nat clicks her fingers and smiles pointing at the camera.
“That’s right, I’m not gonna guarantee it’ll be an easy fight. The Winstons are a hell of a bunch of competitors but the fire burns bright here. I want more, I feel more and Rini here is bright as the moon and ready to roll as well, a tank in adorable clothing.”
Rini blushes at the praise. “Uranusu is too kind. I am small still next to you and Maasu.”
Nat shook her head and smiled.
“Nah, You see my tag partner here and I are comin’ out to make a statement and I’ll happily say a major part of that statement is you do not mess with Rini Ishikawa. I’ve had the pleasure of facing the woman myself and trust me; she hits like a damn RAILGUN so this time? I’m glad she's on my side.”
Rini’s blush deepens to almost crimson. Whether it’s from the excess of praise or the reminder of their previous match is unclear.
Nat gives a smile and a reassuring shoulder squeeze.
“So, London’s calling, the O2 will come alive by the light of the moon. We’ll prevail cause the future is coming..”
Nat holds out a fist for Rinini to bump and the woman instead gives Nat another shoulder squeeze, which despite a wince Nat returns with a laugh.
“We’ll see you there ladies. Give us all you got and we’ll give it back. Try to keep up.”
Fade out
Well howdy there pardner.