Guests
In the end, the women's battle royal wrapped up a little past the fifty-minute mark.
Considering they'd managed to stretch it past twenty minutes, it had been a real grind.
Taina came back from nearly fifty minutes in the ring looking completely wiped out.
"I'm dying. I feel like I'm actually going to die."
"You really worked hard out there."
"Yeah, well. I need to eat something."
"Ugh! Just give me water. Water. I can't even think about anything else."
Even so, Olivia forced a banana and some chocolate on her, insisting she eat something.
"I'm never doing a battle royal again. If I have to, I'm going out early and calling it a day."
Taina must have suffered more than a little.
"What if a championship belt was on the line?"
Olivia asked mischievously, but Taina was firm.
"If they're not going to make me champion, I'm just dropping out. Those idiots! Why does everyone have to fall all at once and make the rest of us suffer like dogs?!"
"Just eat something and go wash up."
"Haaah. Give me ten minutes! Just ten minutes to lie down."
WWO filled the empty airtime by allotting a little more to the men's introductions, and the men's side—having been thoroughly warned—managed to avoid any similar mishaps.
We flew back to Orlando together with NEXT on the charter plane WWO had arranged for us.
The next day was Saturday.
I had to welcome Alicia and Charlotte, so I was frantically busy from the morning on. I cleaned, made up the beds, ran to the supermarket, and packed the fridge full.
Once the house was ready for guests, I headed to the airport to pick them up around sunset.
Unlike me, who went around in a hat and sunglasses, the two of them walked out of the gate with nothing covering their faces at all.
People who recognized them snapped photos left and right, but neither of them seemed to care in the slightest.
"You're welcome to take pictures, but I can't do autographs right now. Sorry."
At Charlotte's single line, the crowd immediately stepped back.
Whoa. That's impressive. Her charisma is no joke.
She couldn't turn down a kid's request for a signature, though, and finished that one off right away.
"Senior."
"Hey, Lina."
"Let me take your bag."
"I'm fine. Grab the fairy princess's over there for me, would you?"
"Ah. Yes, ma'am."
Compared to Charlotte, who'd come with a roughly twenty-four-inch carry-on and a Boston bag, Alicia was hauling a thirty-inch suitcase bigger than she was.
Very Alicia, I supposed.
I loaded them up and drove straight home.
"It's a clean, quiet neighborhood."
"Yes. TPA's close, and so is the WWO Performance Center."
"Convenient. Having the house nearby is the best thing."
"One more—Stacey McMahon's place is close too."
"Really? Have you been?"
"You've been? How do you know that?"
The mention that Stacey's house was nearby surprised not only Charlotte but Alicia as well.
"No. I haven't been. I just heard about it over a meal."
Jane had said the same thing, but these two also found the interior of the house a little too bare and empty, and it clearly felt unfamiliar to them.
Still, they were satisfied with the condition of the rooms, saying they were better than most hotels.
"You must be hungry. Shall we eat first?"
"No. Show us the ring first."
"Yeah. Where's the ring? In the basement?"
"Yes."
I led them straight downstairs.
A ring in the basement of the house. I'd only used it a few times before going to the 3D Academy, and not at all since. The attached gym was the same story.
"I cleaned in a hurry, so there might still be some dust."
"Whoa! The basement is a total secret fortress. The ceiling has to be at least six meters high."
"Did they plan this when they built the house? That's insane…. So that's why you're so good for your age."
I don't know that either. Whether the status window made it or stole it….
Because safety was involved, they inspected the condition of the ring with meticulous care.
"How much does a house like this cost?"
"I don't know either. My parents left it to me."
"Ah! Sorry."
Word that I was an orphan must have gotten around somehow.
"It's fine. And if this place is inconvenient for you, you're welcome to practice at the Performance Center."
"No. This is more than enough."
"Right. It's perfect. No weird smells, and we don't have to worry about anyone watching."
After looking over the rest of the facilities, both of them wore satisfied smiles.
"Shall we head upstairs for dinner, then?"
We had a perfectly ordinary, unremarkable steak for dinner.
"I thought Korean food was going to come out."
"Yeah. Me too."
"I wasn't sure if it would suit your tastes. Would you like some?"
"I've had it a few times. Everything except the spicy stuff is fine."
"Same."
"Then I'll make some tomorrow evening. I can handle the simple dishes."
Midway through the meal, something I'd been thinking about made me carefully open my mouth.
"Um…."
"Hmm? What is it?"
"If you've got something to say, say it."
"There are three of us, so we're one short, right? Would it be okay if I called Selma?"
At my words, Charlotte and Alicia looked at each other, then shook their heads in perfect unison.
"Selma. She's good for a rookie. But that's about it. She's not special the way you are."
"Agreed. Sorry, but other than being a little fast, she doesn't really leave an impression. WWO's full of people at that level. If we really had to call one more person, Olivia or Dorothy would make more sense."
"I came here to work on chemistry with you, not to hang out."
Charlotte added under her breath at the end, "Though that one over there did come to hang out…," but Alicia pretended not to hear and busied herself cutting at an empty plate.
"It's about time for Lord of the Crown. You're going to watch, right?"
"That? Let's watch tomorrow. I don't really feel like it right now."
When Alicia showed no interest, Charlotte went along with her.
Does Alicia not get along with someone who's on tonight?
It felt awkward to ask, so I just agreed and cleared the table.
The next day, we loosened up with a run, had a simple breakfast outside, came back in, and started practice.
"You go first."
"Huh? What's this? You're yielding to me?"
"I've already worked with her."
"Whaaat? When?"
"Secret!"
"You two have this many secrets? Is there anything else you're hiding? Spit it out."
Alicia pouted cutely as she said it.
I'd thought she was only like that in the ring, but she was pretty much the same in real life.
"Alicia, Senior. Is that kayfabe? Or is that your actual personality?"
At my question, both of them burst out laughing.
"How childish does she look for her to ask that?"
"Hmph. The more I do it, the more my personality just keeps shifting this way. And I'm only like this when I'm with her."
And yet they still stuck together. Why?
"Are you two teaming up again?"
"No. There aren't any teams worth pairing with, so it's boring. It's not like there are any proper tag teams anyway."
"I'm not particularly interested in tag teams right now."
On the women's side, dedicated tag teams were nonexistent. Most of them felt thrown together based on convenience and politics, so no team had signature tag moves of their own—it all came down to individual ability.
"Ah. I see."
"Lina. As a rookie, avoid tag teams if you can help it. It takes forever to shake that image."
"Yes. Jane, Senior, told me the same thing."
"Jane's your mentor?"
"Not quite a mentor. She just gives me a lot of advice on various things."
Once the conversation wound down, Charlotte clapped her hands.
"All right, talk ends here. Let's warm up first."
Following her lead, I climbed into the ring and started working through sequences with Alicia.
I couldn't do it the same way I had with Charlotte, though. Alicia's technical range was narrow, and she wasn't particularly strong either. That meant the match had to be built around submissions and strikes, so there was no real need to practice the way we had before.
Even so, Alicia seemed to enjoy it.
—Thud—
"You okay?"
"I'm fine."
Alicia hit a power slam entirely under her own strength.
"Feels just like practicing with Love Morgan. I like how light you are."
She managed the power slam somehow, but anything that required more strength was out of the question.
The practice continued. Her signature moves and finishers were mostly submissions, DDT variations, and splash-type attacks, so taking them was no trouble at all. In a way, she felt like a slightly weaker version of Selma.
I sold for her smoothly and skillfully.
"How is it?"
"I'll give her that. Working with her, you're almost never going to botch anything."
"Want to see something even more impressive?"
"There's more?"
Charlotte said it proudly to Alicia, then looked at me and suggested we run a match.
"Lina. How about a fifteen-minute match?"
"Hmm. Same as last time?"
"Yeah. Let's do it exactly like last time. We need to finish that sequence. You've got it all memorized?"
"Of course. I've reviewed it plenty of times."
"Good."
Alicia agreed to referee. We set up a camera for recording and the ring bell, then climbed in.
And now the Timer skill, upgraded so it could be set for three separate alarms. I casually set them for five, ten, and thirteen minutes.
"Knee kick!"
Right at the start, I took her flying knee kick!
"German!"
I took her German suplex too.
Originally a moonsault was supposed to come next and I was supposed to dodge it, but Charlotte added a stomp like a real match, grinding her foot down.
"Moonsault."
I rolled out of the way.
My turn!
"Bulldog."
"Slam."
"Samoan drop."
Then up, and a rope rebound!
The pace was so fast that Charlotte wordlessly hit a head-scissors whip.
—Beep—
An alarm rang inside my head!
That brought us to the five-minute mark.
Even though we'd been calling out move names, the match flowed so naturally, like water, that Alicia stared at us with an incredulous look.
"You two! When did you meet up and practice this much?"
"We're in the middle of a match. Talk later."
Our sequences kept chaining together, and the practice gradually headed toward its end.
This time, the thirteen-minute alarm went off in my head just before I was supposed to take the big boot. Because we'd been weaving in small extra bits of business, we were running a little later than last time.
After planting the big boot on me, Charlotte asked,
"Lina. How long has it been?"
"Thirteen minutes fifteen? Around twenty seconds."
"O.K."
"Wait, what is that supposed to mean?"
Last time, everything after this point had just been free-form technique work, so from here on we were in uncharted territory. Still, I knew this was the moment I was supposed to start fighting back.
Charlotte reached down to pull me up after the big boot, and I threw a small punch into her midsection—a tiny counter.
"Nice. Russian leg sweep."
She kicked me once to sell the control, then hooked my leg while standing side by side and dumped me backward.
—Thud—
She pulled me up again and successfully hit the choke slam we'd practiced last time.
To burn a little more time, she climbed to the top rope, caught her breath, hit a moonsault, and went straight into the cover.
"What are you doing? Aren't you going to count?"
"Oh. Three! Two! One!"
At Alicia's call, both Charlotte and I cracked up.
"Pffft!"
"Heh. What are you doing right now? How many years have you been wrestling, and you still can't call a count?"
"Huh? Why?"
Alicia didn't seem to realize what she'd done wrong.
"Hey! Who counts three, two, one? Get your head on straight!"
"Aaagh! I must be losing it."
Only then did Alicia grasp just how ridiculous she'd been, and she turned red from her ears all the way down her neck.
— Ding ding ding —
The ring bell rang right on cue.