Post by toukaze on Jun 30, 2024 17:55:16 GMT
“Thank you for being here during the tournament, sensei.”
Rini didn’t expect her teacher to laugh outright at her gratitude.
“Don’t be silly, child. You’ve wanted us gone since we got here.”
Rini grimaced. Having both Sugioka and Kimura around had certainly been difficult… But she wasn’t allowed to say that and still be polite… But maybe now she didn’t have to be as polite?
“Now sensei, you know I’m not allowed to say that,” she teased, deciding to take the middle path.
She was relieved again when Sugioka laughed. “Now… Are you going to help an old lady with her bag to the station? Or are you going to make her late because you felt a need to be a leaking faucet?”
Rini laughed and took up the suitcase with ease. “Don’t you always arrive exactly when you intend to anyway, sensei?”
“Maybe I should be late this time…”
Rini almost missed her teacher’s muttering as she opened the door. Rini turned and raised an eyebrow at Sugioka. “Sensei?”
“Nothing. Nevermind.”
All the way to the station, no matter how Rini weedled or rephrased her question, Sugioka remained silent on why she would prefer to miss the train.
When she got there, she wasn’t all that surprised.
“Masao-kun!”
Rini almost forgot the bag she carried in her rush to greet the mountain of a man she’d teamed with for the first phase of the tournament. It had been nice to not have to keep one eye on the sky, as it were, for her partner needing an assist.
Masao kept her from glomping him, but only narrowly, by taking Sugioka’s bag from her before she could cause any damage to anyone or anything nearby.
“It’s nice to know a mountain can stop a landslide, if it wants to,” Sugioka commented dryly as she came up to join them. Rini quickly took the suitcase back from Masao, staring intently at her shoes.
“Behave yourself, you harpy, or you’ll wind up sequestered in a nunnery like Hitasho,” Kimura retorted. At Sugioka’s scowl, Kimura winced. “Alright. That was too much.”
“Is a harpy better or worse than a witch?” Masao asked, his expression one of polite confusion.
Sugioka laughed at the fierce scowl Kimura leveled on Masao. “Oh I know that look.”
As if to save everyone, but particularly Rini and Masao, from the potential fireworks that could follow that, the train boarding call sounded.
“Enough! We have to go. Apologies for the rush!” Kimura bowed quickly and, in a move that earned him stares from the students, gently ushered Sugioka onto the train.
Rini waved as they finally boarded, but paused, confused, as their teachers were joined by another woman, who greeted Sugioka warmly and Kimura with what seemed like chilly formality even from a distance.
“I wonder who that was…” Rini mused. She didn’t have to wait long for an answer.
“Is this really it?” Charlie asked, eyeing the few questions she could expect at the interview. It seemed almost insulting that she’d been dodging the media for weeks now and this was all they wanted to know about?
“All that made it through me and Imperial’s staff to follow the guidelines you set.” Hannah responded, almost absently, as she typed away on her laptop. “A lot of the questions were variations of the same thing, so we condensed it further that way.”
Charlie nodded, continuing to look over the questions. It wasn’t so bad. Just one interview and she’d be done… She hoped.
“How much of a stink has been put up by the press wanting-” she started but Hannah cut her off.
“Plenty,” Hannah said drily, “but that’s at least something that’s easily dealt with. If they want to know about you and Pax, or even about your career with Imperial, they know how to ask now.”
Charlie sighed. “Is this a nice way of telling me to expect to still be hounded?”
Hannah didn’t look up but the slight smirk playing at a corner of her mouth as she typed gave away the response before she voiced it. “Something like that.”
Charlie groaned.
She had just finished formulating a basis for most of her answers when Rini came bouncing into the main living area on the top floor of the rental house.
“MAASU!!! Guess what!”
Setting the papers aside with a sigh of relief, Charlie looked up and was surprised to see not only her friends but also Masao Akiyama. The poor man looked as though he’d been dragged somewhat unwillingly by Nat and Rini. Charlie didn’t have time to dwell on that though, as Rini bounded up to her and dragged her from her seat. “Maasu! Our mentors know each other!”
Charlie blinked as Rini hauled her over to where Nat and Masao were standing. “I mean… Of course our teachers know each other… they teach at the same dojo…” Charlie started before the entirety of Rini’s statement caught up with her mind. “Wait… Huh?!”
“What she means to say is all of our masters know each other. Though there wasn’t time to establish how.”
Masao pointed at Nat with a sage nod as if to add a silent ‘mine too’ to that statement.
Charlie blinked several times before the gears in her brain could finally unfreeze. “So… Somehow… Benkei and Sugioka know your teachers?” She looked at Nat and Masao.
Nat nodded. “Kai Minamoto, out of the Bubblegum Crash gym in Osaka.”
Masao nodded and followed up, “Satoru Kimura, out of Kagoshima Kombatives.”
Charlie rattled her brain to see if any of the names sounded familiar but nothing came to mind.
“We know that Kimura and Sugioka were… involved,” Rini supplied, trying to be helpful.
“I’m not sure I want to know…” Charlie muttered.
“Rini-san and I wish we didn’t.” Masao replied flatly.
Natasha took a moment to pull her phone out and scrolled through the pictures, finally pulling out a picture from her earlier training days and handing it to Charlie. “She was watching the first round as well. There’s another picture at the end of the reel.”
But Charlie didn’t need to see another one. She had seen the woman in the picture in another one very similar, though the difference in age at the time of the photos was obvious.
“Oh… Oh my…” she breathed softly. No matter how Rini pestered her though, she’d never tell them that the reason she recognized Kai Minamoto was because of a picture in a place of prominence on Benkei Hitasho’s personal shrine.
The feed opens on a patio overlooking Taitō. Charlotte and Rini, dressed in violet and pink yukata respectively, sit on the ledge.
“Hello again Winston girls and guy… Been a hot minute since I saw any of y’all around, but that don’t matter none.”
“Dixie and Jolene were in London, Maasu.”
Charlotte blinks at Rini’s correction, smiling sheepishly. “Well… Can’t blame me for bein’ a lil distracted at the time, can ya?”
Rini just frowns sternly at Charlotte who laughs at how comical that makes her friend look. “Alright alright! I know! Always pay attention to everything! So how about you tell the girls and their bro how much we’re looking forward to gettin’ all reaquainted?”
“Oh! We are! Very much!” Rini avers with the sparkling passion she’s known for. “I have hoped to see more of the sisters! I only wish we could have equal numbers to face them. We are not helpless damsels who need to trust a prince to save them!” she finishes, her fist clenched over her heart and an eager light in her eyes.
“And that goes for the girls on the other side too,” Charlotte agrees. “While we ain’t danced with Gretchen or Birdie, we trust they know the steps as well as the others do. I almost wish we only had one guy on our side… Might give me a chance to mix it up with the baby brother.”
“Oh Maasu,” Rini said, shaking her head and smiling. “Only you would want to fight someone bigger than you…”
“Be fair!” Charlotte protested. “You know Nat would be there with me!”
“Fine… You and Uranusu would want to fight someone bigger than you, just to see how you’d measure up.”
“I mean… It’s kinda our thing, ya know…” Charlotte smiled. “Anyways… I’m lookin’ forward to this match. I ain’t gonna say anything about chosen family or blood family. For some folks, it’s ‘ride or die’ for their blood kin. For others, their family is shit so they have to rely on their chosen fam. For me? I love my parents… Love my bro and heart my sis, even if she drives me batshit with bein’ my manager as well. Y’all know about that lovely fiasco, don’t ya? Lil Bro Denny ever get too big for his britches with that?”
Rini clears her throat pointedly. Charlotte cuts herself off with an abashed grin. “Right… Anyways, the point is? Much as I love my sibs, I wouldn’t trust them with my back in the ring. Rini and Nat are my sisters that will wade into the mix with me. Add in the boys?” Charlotte’s grin turns eager as she lets her words trail off meaningfully. “Yeah… This don’t look too promisin’ for ya, Winstons.”
“Do not let that discourage you though!” Rini adds. “Let us make this a match to remember, not because of who won or who lost, but because of everything that happened.”
Charlotte nods her agreement, but her grin doesn’t fade one jot. “Of course… We still gonna win… but let’s make it fun, girls…” She pauses then belatedly adds. “And Denny too.”
Charlotte turns to Rini, a question clear in her expression. “By the way, Muun… Ya ever decide who the Winstons were gonna be?”
“Well clearly they’re the Star Lights and Princess Kakyuu,” Rini explains, as though this should’ve been obvious to Charlotte.
“And Denny?” Charlotte prompts with a teasing grin, making Rini squirm uncomfortably.
“It’s not my fault Sailormoon has so few male protagonists!” Rini protests.
“Ya might need to expand your mythology, Muun.” Charlotte comments dryly, making Rini pout. That only lasts until Charlotte rises and pulls the smaller woman to her feet. With a flourish, they pull their yukata off, revealing their senshi-styled ring gear. They strike the oh-so-familiar poses as they face the camera.
“Kasei ni kawatte -”
“Tsuki ni kawatte -”
But Charlotte breaks the exchange with a peace sign. “We’ll show Saitama a good time!”
The feed cuts in a swirl of flames and crescent moons. It’s later released in Japanese.
Rini didn’t expect her teacher to laugh outright at her gratitude.
“Don’t be silly, child. You’ve wanted us gone since we got here.”
Rini grimaced. Having both Sugioka and Kimura around had certainly been difficult… But she wasn’t allowed to say that and still be polite… But maybe now she didn’t have to be as polite?
“Now sensei, you know I’m not allowed to say that,” she teased, deciding to take the middle path.
She was relieved again when Sugioka laughed. “Now… Are you going to help an old lady with her bag to the station? Or are you going to make her late because you felt a need to be a leaking faucet?”
Rini laughed and took up the suitcase with ease. “Don’t you always arrive exactly when you intend to anyway, sensei?”
“Maybe I should be late this time…”
Rini almost missed her teacher’s muttering as she opened the door. Rini turned and raised an eyebrow at Sugioka. “Sensei?”
“Nothing. Nevermind.”
All the way to the station, no matter how Rini weedled or rephrased her question, Sugioka remained silent on why she would prefer to miss the train.
When she got there, she wasn’t all that surprised.
“Masao-kun!”
Rini almost forgot the bag she carried in her rush to greet the mountain of a man she’d teamed with for the first phase of the tournament. It had been nice to not have to keep one eye on the sky, as it were, for her partner needing an assist.
Masao kept her from glomping him, but only narrowly, by taking Sugioka’s bag from her before she could cause any damage to anyone or anything nearby.
“It’s nice to know a mountain can stop a landslide, if it wants to,” Sugioka commented dryly as she came up to join them. Rini quickly took the suitcase back from Masao, staring intently at her shoes.
“Behave yourself, you harpy, or you’ll wind up sequestered in a nunnery like Hitasho,” Kimura retorted. At Sugioka’s scowl, Kimura winced. “Alright. That was too much.”
“Is a harpy better or worse than a witch?” Masao asked, his expression one of polite confusion.
Sugioka laughed at the fierce scowl Kimura leveled on Masao. “Oh I know that look.”
As if to save everyone, but particularly Rini and Masao, from the potential fireworks that could follow that, the train boarding call sounded.
“Enough! We have to go. Apologies for the rush!” Kimura bowed quickly and, in a move that earned him stares from the students, gently ushered Sugioka onto the train.
Rini waved as they finally boarded, but paused, confused, as their teachers were joined by another woman, who greeted Sugioka warmly and Kimura with what seemed like chilly formality even from a distance.
“I wonder who that was…” Rini mused. She didn’t have to wait long for an answer.
“Is this really it?” Charlie asked, eyeing the few questions she could expect at the interview. It seemed almost insulting that she’d been dodging the media for weeks now and this was all they wanted to know about?
“All that made it through me and Imperial’s staff to follow the guidelines you set.” Hannah responded, almost absently, as she typed away on her laptop. “A lot of the questions were variations of the same thing, so we condensed it further that way.”
Charlie nodded, continuing to look over the questions. It wasn’t so bad. Just one interview and she’d be done… She hoped.
“How much of a stink has been put up by the press wanting-” she started but Hannah cut her off.
“Plenty,” Hannah said drily, “but that’s at least something that’s easily dealt with. If they want to know about you and Pax, or even about your career with Imperial, they know how to ask now.”
Charlie sighed. “Is this a nice way of telling me to expect to still be hounded?”
Hannah didn’t look up but the slight smirk playing at a corner of her mouth as she typed gave away the response before she voiced it. “Something like that.”
Charlie groaned.
She had just finished formulating a basis for most of her answers when Rini came bouncing into the main living area on the top floor of the rental house.
“MAASU!!! Guess what!”
Setting the papers aside with a sigh of relief, Charlie looked up and was surprised to see not only her friends but also Masao Akiyama. The poor man looked as though he’d been dragged somewhat unwillingly by Nat and Rini. Charlie didn’t have time to dwell on that though, as Rini bounded up to her and dragged her from her seat. “Maasu! Our mentors know each other!”
Charlie blinked as Rini hauled her over to where Nat and Masao were standing. “I mean… Of course our teachers know each other… they teach at the same dojo…” Charlie started before the entirety of Rini’s statement caught up with her mind. “Wait… Huh?!”
“What she means to say is all of our masters know each other. Though there wasn’t time to establish how.”
Masao pointed at Nat with a sage nod as if to add a silent ‘mine too’ to that statement.
Charlie blinked several times before the gears in her brain could finally unfreeze. “So… Somehow… Benkei and Sugioka know your teachers?” She looked at Nat and Masao.
Nat nodded. “Kai Minamoto, out of the Bubblegum Crash gym in Osaka.”
Masao nodded and followed up, “Satoru Kimura, out of Kagoshima Kombatives.”
Charlie rattled her brain to see if any of the names sounded familiar but nothing came to mind.
“We know that Kimura and Sugioka were… involved,” Rini supplied, trying to be helpful.
“I’m not sure I want to know…” Charlie muttered.
“Rini-san and I wish we didn’t.” Masao replied flatly.
Natasha took a moment to pull her phone out and scrolled through the pictures, finally pulling out a picture from her earlier training days and handing it to Charlie. “She was watching the first round as well. There’s another picture at the end of the reel.”
But Charlie didn’t need to see another one. She had seen the woman in the picture in another one very similar, though the difference in age at the time of the photos was obvious.
“Oh… Oh my…” she breathed softly. No matter how Rini pestered her though, she’d never tell them that the reason she recognized Kai Minamoto was because of a picture in a place of prominence on Benkei Hitasho’s personal shrine.
The feed opens on a patio overlooking Taitō. Charlotte and Rini, dressed in violet and pink yukata respectively, sit on the ledge.
“Hello again Winston girls and guy… Been a hot minute since I saw any of y’all around, but that don’t matter none.”
“Dixie and Jolene were in London, Maasu.”
Charlotte blinks at Rini’s correction, smiling sheepishly. “Well… Can’t blame me for bein’ a lil distracted at the time, can ya?”
Rini just frowns sternly at Charlotte who laughs at how comical that makes her friend look. “Alright alright! I know! Always pay attention to everything! So how about you tell the girls and their bro how much we’re looking forward to gettin’ all reaquainted?”
“Oh! We are! Very much!” Rini avers with the sparkling passion she’s known for. “I have hoped to see more of the sisters! I only wish we could have equal numbers to face them. We are not helpless damsels who need to trust a prince to save them!” she finishes, her fist clenched over her heart and an eager light in her eyes.
“And that goes for the girls on the other side too,” Charlotte agrees. “While we ain’t danced with Gretchen or Birdie, we trust they know the steps as well as the others do. I almost wish we only had one guy on our side… Might give me a chance to mix it up with the baby brother.”
“Oh Maasu,” Rini said, shaking her head and smiling. “Only you would want to fight someone bigger than you…”
“Be fair!” Charlotte protested. “You know Nat would be there with me!”
“Fine… You and Uranusu would want to fight someone bigger than you, just to see how you’d measure up.”
“I mean… It’s kinda our thing, ya know…” Charlotte smiled. “Anyways… I’m lookin’ forward to this match. I ain’t gonna say anything about chosen family or blood family. For some folks, it’s ‘ride or die’ for their blood kin. For others, their family is shit so they have to rely on their chosen fam. For me? I love my parents… Love my bro and heart my sis, even if she drives me batshit with bein’ my manager as well. Y’all know about that lovely fiasco, don’t ya? Lil Bro Denny ever get too big for his britches with that?”
Rini clears her throat pointedly. Charlotte cuts herself off with an abashed grin. “Right… Anyways, the point is? Much as I love my sibs, I wouldn’t trust them with my back in the ring. Rini and Nat are my sisters that will wade into the mix with me. Add in the boys?” Charlotte’s grin turns eager as she lets her words trail off meaningfully. “Yeah… This don’t look too promisin’ for ya, Winstons.”
“Do not let that discourage you though!” Rini adds. “Let us make this a match to remember, not because of who won or who lost, but because of everything that happened.”
Charlotte nods her agreement, but her grin doesn’t fade one jot. “Of course… We still gonna win… but let’s make it fun, girls…” She pauses then belatedly adds. “And Denny too.”
Charlotte turns to Rini, a question clear in her expression. “By the way, Muun… Ya ever decide who the Winstons were gonna be?”
“Well clearly they’re the Star Lights and Princess Kakyuu,” Rini explains, as though this should’ve been obvious to Charlotte.
“And Denny?” Charlotte prompts with a teasing grin, making Rini squirm uncomfortably.
“It’s not my fault Sailormoon has so few male protagonists!” Rini protests.
“Ya might need to expand your mythology, Muun.” Charlotte comments dryly, making Rini pout. That only lasts until Charlotte rises and pulls the smaller woman to her feet. With a flourish, they pull their yukata off, revealing their senshi-styled ring gear. They strike the oh-so-familiar poses as they face the camera.
“Kasei ni kawatte -”
“Tsuki ni kawatte -”
But Charlotte breaks the exchange with a peace sign. “We’ll show Saitama a good time!”
The feed cuts in a swirl of flames and crescent moons. It’s later released in Japanese.
Well howdy there pardner.