Road of Resistance
Jun 23, 2016 16:40:59 GMT -5
Post by Fujiko Mine on Jun 23, 2016 16:40:59 GMT -5
With All Star Showdown on my horizon, I find myself in the middle of so many thoughts.
I find myself thinking about how one year ago, at the previous All Star Showdown, we were presented with this same match: Johnny Karma vs. Fujiko Mine.
History almost repeats itself, with one difference.
The Pride Championship is on the line.
Well, two differences. I am not leaving this All Star Showdown a loser.
While I have forgiven Johnny for the things he said about me, and I even credit him some for my resurgence and rise here in FGA, I have not forgotten.
Thinking about this match has done nothing but remind me endlessly about the past year I endured here in FGA. It’s done nothing but remind me about how Johnny Karma said I had no claim to the Pride championship. How I had no BUSINESS being around the Pride championship.
About how I wasn’t good enough.
But, what a difference a year can make, right? I’ve done a lot to dispel the idea that I don’t belong, and that I’m not right for the role. But look what I’ve done up to this point. I’ve beaten Jimmy Page, a former Pride champion. I’ve went toe-to-toe with both Johnny Cannon and Karma and held my own, who are quite the decorated stars in their own right. That says plenty about what I can do. Whether or not they want to listen is up to them. But, there’s one thing I can do...one thing that I need to do to prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Beating Johnny Karma twice, whether it be by pinfall or submission, in one night to secure the Frontier Grappling Arts Pride championship. Something I should have been able to do a year ago, if we’re being honest.
This match has been a year in the making, and if you think for a split second that I’ve come this whole way to face off against Johnny Karma and lose two out of three? Come all this way to let the Pride championship slip away? You’re completely wrong.
Johnny has been fine as Pride Champion. He’s done what he set out to do, that being performing a dashing rescue of the Pride division from the clutches of its previous owner. But, he’s gone a bit far.Instead of focusing on the fact that he’s chased the New Kings out of the Pride Division, instead of focusing on making the belt and the division even better than they were before, Karma has been more focused on the New Kings and why they seem to be rewarded for their shenanigans.
While I completely agree with him that they need to be put in their place, he’s going about it the wrong way. If he’s so eager to take them down, then he’s going to have to focus on the same goal that they are—capturing the FGA World Championship.
...and I’ll be more than happy to take over for him as the head of the Pride Division. It needs someone who cares about it. It needs someone who is going to be committed to making it better than it was a year ago, or even a year before that, rather than someone who needs it to make themselves feel great. Someone who isn’t afraid to take risks. By now, it’s obvious that I’m talking about myself. I am going to flat out be a better champion than Karma, in both of his reigns. I’ll end up being better than any of its previous holders. I’m going to break records, take risks, and ultimately elevate the Pride championship to the level it deserves. Through my attitude and my style, I am going to rejuvenate a championship that has been, quite frankly, mistreated.
This isn’t a campaign. Those who know what I’m capable of know that everything I say I am going to stick to. And I’m going to prove it not by saying it, but by doing it. This is just for Karma’s benefit, so he knows what he’s truly up against in a few short days at All Star Showdown when he puts up the Pride title against me.
I’m going to surpass records. I’ll be the fighting champion that everyone says they’re gonna be...up until they actually win the title. Johnny Karma initially sought out the Pride championship in a similar manner the first time he won it, and he ended up not doing much with it that time either. He told the world that he was going to make the Pride title respectable again...and he has. But I am going to carry out what he claimed he was going to do.
I know he doesn’t want to let go of the championship that he feels defines him. I know he feels like he’s worked so very hard to overcome what he did in order to become a two time Pride champion.
But I can’t care about what his reasoning is. I can’t care about what he thinks about me, and what he thinks about my chances of leaving Lakeland a winner. I used to worry about what people like the New Kings thought about me. About what certain snakes thought about me. It used to drag me down, watching the progress I was making getting dragged down by their comments. But now I realize that the fans are the ones whom I should be listening to. Their opinions matter. And quite frankly, they are the ones who helped get me here, so I’m done worrying about negativity trying to bring me down.
Johnny doesn’t realize that he isn’t done being a part of my story. Not yet. He was the one that set me further on that spiral when I was looking for was a handhold. He badgered, berated, and ultimately broke me down just like that little bit more on his way to trying to secure the Pride title.
So it is going to come full circle, one year after our first encounter I am going to repay the favor. I am going to give Johnny the thanks he deserves, and show him that no good deed goes unpunished.
This is something that I have to do, though. I can’t worry about what Karma thinks, anymore. We aren’t partners. We are opponents, and he is the man who is standing in the way of my dreams, just like he was a year ago.
I’m going to prove it against a man who has switched from one of my biggest detractors to one of my biggest supporters. Johnny is going to see the woman I’ve become in that short year, and how vastly different she is from the one he faced back then. The wrestler that he said didn’t belong back then? She’s gotten far better than Johnny could have fathomed in that short year. The wrestler that he confronted back at Final Frontier and gave words of encouragement? She’s taken those words and used them to forge an Iron Goddess built to usurp him as champion. I’m going to show him the WRESTLER that I’ve become, and show him that his time as Pride champion HAS to die a two-out-of-three-falls death at the hands of me.
It’s Fate. Destiny. Karma.
Despite all that, there are no hard feelings on my end. I know that Johnny is going to give me everything he has to try and retain his title. He’s gonna try his hardest to keep the title that I so desperately want.
The title that I need to prove everyone wrong about me, once and for all. The title that I need to prove every baseless, idiotic comment that drips from the sewage pipes of the detractors that have less and less to go on every day. The title that I feel Karma has underappreciated, just like some of the guys and gals in the back have underappreciated my abilities and my progression over this past year. But whether Karma realizes it or not, I’m the most important thing to him right now, and beating him is the most important thing to me right now.
With the help of the Karmic Lion, I am penning my victory.
I am going to beat you, Johnny. I told you to your face, and I meant it with every fiber of my being. I am the realest thing in FGA, and I’ve proven it by not stabbing you in the back, but rather showing you the knife and telling you the time and the place of your demise. You’ve had ample time to prepare for me. You can do your best to lock away the title that will be in my hands, RIGHTFULLY, in just a few short days. When it’s all over, I am going to reach out, shake your hand, and say “thank you.” But it will be with the Pride championship in the hands of its new owner.
Unfortunately for you, Johnny; you are gonna learn an undeniable truth.
You Can’t Stop Fujiko.
Your next Pride Champion.
She’d felt this sense of dread before. Fujiko pulled her hood up to shield herself from the rain that came down around her. It bounced off each surface it found in large, wet drops both around her and on her. She hastened her pace, doing her best to get inside before the rain left her a soaking mess. She broke into something of a jog for a few steps, and then began to zig zag, trying to dodge the raindrops. She was unsuccessful, with a couple of them hitting her squinted eyes and causing them to sting a little. She couldn’t remember the last time she was caught in such a heavy rain.
A small part of her wanted to play in it. She wanted to let it be her escape from her destination.
When her mother, Marcia Gardener, requested that she meet her at a coffee shop, she couldn’t help but be reminded of the last time they spoke in person. She ended up leaving, feeling both a sense of vindication and of insecurity.
Fujiko wished she’d brought along her umbrella. She’d hate to catch cold before she had to go meet fans at Frontier Con, or before she could make it to Saturday. She leaned more towards the buildings, hoping that the awnings would shield her from a majority of the precipitation. She was partially right, but by the time she turned onto Florida Avenue from Beacon road, she might have well have been half soaked anyway.
She grasped at the wet door handle, feeling it slip through her hands the first time. The rain made the handle slippery enough that she whiffed. She felt a twinge of embarrassment.
"Bet everyone inside just saw me do that. Way to go." She chided herself and rolled her eyes before taking hold of the handle a second time and pulling it open. This time, her grip held, and she found herself wincing as the cool, processed air clashed with her wet skin. She blinked, then shuddered. She had no respite from being uncomfortable, neither physically nor mentally. One of the baristas behind the counter glanced at her, depositing a half-hearted ‘Welcome to Concord’ in her general direction. Fujiko forced the corners of her mouth upward into a smile, and she nodded in her direction. She then focused her attention away from the ordering counter and towards the tables in the room.
Fujiko had to fight back the sense of deja vu that wrapped around her, compounding on top of her uncomfortable feeling. She pushed forward through it, and to the table where her mother sat. She took a second to prepare herself, but she warned herself that she was only going to get that second. Marcia looked in her direction and smiled.
Fujiko knew then and there that she needed to control the conversation.
"Hello, mother." Fujiko elected not to sit as she approached the table. Marcia's smile shrunk as she noticed that fact.
"Fujiko, please have a seat."
Fujiko couldn’t help but narrow her eyes. She was already defensive and suspicious of her mother, and the comment didn’t offer any comfort.
"I think I’m just going to dry off a bit, if that’s alright with you."
She leaned forward, and water that soaked into her scalp began to run down her forehead. She wiped it away absentmindedly and braced herself against the back of the chair in front of her.
Standing in front of her mother reminded her of the past few times they’d had a discussion about her. She spaced away from the present and to her ‘greeting’ her last win with a bevy of doctors and worry. Fujiko was not allowed in the slightest to revel in any sort of victory. Marcia tried, just like so many before her, to get her to stop and quit.
"Terrible weather we’re having today, huh?"
The question was a light hearted attempt at small-talk. Fujiko ignored it, still reliving the last time they met in this situation. She stormed out of the Collectivo, leaving her mother there to deal with the awkwardness. So she stood there, defensive, as she expected round three of the same song and dance.
"Yeah, awful." She added, mindlessly. Her focus was out the gloomy window, rather than on her mother. She was waiting for the pleasantries to end and the relentless attempts to dissuade her from wrestling to begin.
"Fujiko, please, have a seat. We’ll get you some coffee, or some hot chocolate. Something to get you warmed up.”
Fujiko couldn’t deny that the sound of hot chocolate after being out in the rain appealed to her, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to give any sort of satisfaction to her mother at the moment. A part of her resented her mother for trying so vehemently to get her to give up on her dream. She stared at her mother for a few moments, and then gave up and pulled out the chair. A second later, she was a half soaked mess wrapped in an uncomfortable situation directly in front of her mother.
"There. I am seated, as you asked."
A couple of moments later, a waiter came over. Marcia ordered the hot chocolate before she turned back towards Fujiko.
"It’s...it’s been awhile, hasn’t it? I guess you’ll probably wondering why I asked you to meet me here today. Honestly, I’m surprised you even decided to humor me."
"Well, we can both be surprised today, then." She said flatly. She knew that she was being a bit harsh, but she wanted to make sure that she knew Fujiko was not about to put up with the same song and dance.
Marcia let out a sigh. "Look, I know things got a bit, intense, between us last time. But I can assure you, I’m not here to fight with you." Fujiko turned her gaze down into the steaming chocolate before responding.
"Fine, you’re not here to fight. Okay. I don’t know why, but I’ll listen." After everything she’d been through, she was surprised she was even giving her mother a chance to explain herself.
Thinking that very thought actually made her a little concerned, when she let the thought come to the forefront of her mind. She assured herself that things would get better after All-Star Showdown. It was a lie, but a comforting one. If she had her way, things were just going to become even more stressful after the big show...but in a good way. That kind of stress she was looking forward to.
"Well...um. A co-worker of mine is a fan of combat sports. We were discussing the matter at lunch time. She was so enthralled that she pulled up a match on YouTube."
Marcia paused for a second. "To my surprise, I looked up and saw you on her phone screen."
Fujiko tilted her head. The statement that emerged from her mother’s mouth was not what she expected, and it almost made her forget the fact that she was out of sorts coming into the conversation.
"I’m sorry, say what?! She was watching me?" Fujiko leaned in towards her, to make sure that her mother knew that she was now listening.
"Yes. She told me that she watches the Frontier Grappling thing quite frequently, much to my surprise. She’s a fan of yours in particular."
Lady Luck stifled a laugh. "Frontier Grappling Arts, mom." Fujiko unconsciously relaxed a little bit. Maybe it was odd, but even this far into her career, it still blew her away somewhat to find that people gravitated to her. That she had something that drew people to her.
"I’m sorry, my apologies." Fujiko grabbed the cup of cooling chocolate and took a sip. It was just cool enough that she could avoid getting her tongue burned with a small sip. She thanked her lucky stars. Burned tongues were the absolute worst.
"Wow...that’s so cool. I love fans!" She clapped her hands together in excitement. She'd completely forgotten her mother's transgression in her excitement. This made Marcia smile.
"Well, there’s something else as well." Fujiko felt the edges of worry creep back in. She gripped at the cup in front of her a little hard and her breath grew a bit short.
"Something else?" A raised eyebrow accompanied the statement. Something in the back of her mind told her she might be adopting that gesture from Tj a bit more than she would like to admit.
"I became curious, so, I began watching your matches on YouTube as well."
Marcia averted her eyes and glanced over at something on the wall.
"They...they were good." Fujiko had to stop herself from falling out of her chair like an exasperated girl in a slice of life anime. She couldn’t believe the words that came out of her mother’s mouth. Not that she said that they were good, but that she had a sense of doubt to suggest that Fujiko wasn’t a good wrestler. She felt like she’d taken a few steps backwards, and she didn’t like it.
"Really, that they were "good?" Do you know how that sounds?" She prepared herself to stand up. "Thanks mom, you really know how to make me feel good about myself." She hissed. Now she felt like she was calling her Fujiko and not Katharine in an attempt to mock her. It really bit into her.
"Fujiko, I was never suggesting that you were bad. It’s just...admittedly, I’ve never been a fan of wrestling. It was always hard for me to watch and enjoy. But, your matches were different—enjoyable."
Some of the tension eased away again. She was getting a bit bored of being on the world’s most stressful rollercoaster of emotions, so perhaps it was for the best.
"Go on." She drew her attention directly on her mother this time.
"Fujiko, I may not understand everything...about you and your profession. I still think it’s dangerous, and I don’t want to see you hurt. But, I realize I have to respect you and your decisions. I didn’t make that clear last time we spoke, and I’m sorry for that."
"Oh." A long pause. "Okay then." She took a few seconds to digest what she’d just heard. Maybe things were turning the corner. As she thought about it, it was more of a relief to have her mother give positive support than have to drown her and the rest of the critics out.
"Thank you, mom. I…" A tremendous sense of relief washed over her. She thought maybe it was premature, but it felt so good that she didn’t care.
"Thank you." She sat looking at her mom, unsure of what to do; when it hit her. She pushed the seat back, and stood up. Fujiko shuffled around the table until she was next to her mom. She didn’t allow her to stand, instead she bent down and wrapped her arms tightly around her.
"Despite everything, I love you. I hope you know that." Fujiko nodded, not moving from her crouched position. She thought about what that meant, and came to the realization that it wasn’t just her hopes riding on her shoulders anymore. Her fans, her friends, and her family were behind her. She had no limitations, so now she had no reason to fail.
"I do. And I’m going to make you proud. I swear."
I find myself thinking about how one year ago, at the previous All Star Showdown, we were presented with this same match: Johnny Karma vs. Fujiko Mine.
History almost repeats itself, with one difference.
The Pride Championship is on the line.
Well, two differences. I am not leaving this All Star Showdown a loser.
While I have forgiven Johnny for the things he said about me, and I even credit him some for my resurgence and rise here in FGA, I have not forgotten.
Thinking about this match has done nothing but remind me endlessly about the past year I endured here in FGA. It’s done nothing but remind me about how Johnny Karma said I had no claim to the Pride championship. How I had no BUSINESS being around the Pride championship.
About how I wasn’t good enough.
But, what a difference a year can make, right? I’ve done a lot to dispel the idea that I don’t belong, and that I’m not right for the role. But look what I’ve done up to this point. I’ve beaten Jimmy Page, a former Pride champion. I’ve went toe-to-toe with both Johnny Cannon and Karma and held my own, who are quite the decorated stars in their own right. That says plenty about what I can do. Whether or not they want to listen is up to them. But, there’s one thing I can do...one thing that I need to do to prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Beating Johnny Karma twice, whether it be by pinfall or submission, in one night to secure the Frontier Grappling Arts Pride championship. Something I should have been able to do a year ago, if we’re being honest.
This match has been a year in the making, and if you think for a split second that I’ve come this whole way to face off against Johnny Karma and lose two out of three? Come all this way to let the Pride championship slip away? You’re completely wrong.
Johnny has been fine as Pride Champion. He’s done what he set out to do, that being performing a dashing rescue of the Pride division from the clutches of its previous owner. But, he’s gone a bit far.Instead of focusing on the fact that he’s chased the New Kings out of the Pride Division, instead of focusing on making the belt and the division even better than they were before, Karma has been more focused on the New Kings and why they seem to be rewarded for their shenanigans.
While I completely agree with him that they need to be put in their place, he’s going about it the wrong way. If he’s so eager to take them down, then he’s going to have to focus on the same goal that they are—capturing the FGA World Championship.
...and I’ll be more than happy to take over for him as the head of the Pride Division. It needs someone who cares about it. It needs someone who is going to be committed to making it better than it was a year ago, or even a year before that, rather than someone who needs it to make themselves feel great. Someone who isn’t afraid to take risks. By now, it’s obvious that I’m talking about myself. I am going to flat out be a better champion than Karma, in both of his reigns. I’ll end up being better than any of its previous holders. I’m going to break records, take risks, and ultimately elevate the Pride championship to the level it deserves. Through my attitude and my style, I am going to rejuvenate a championship that has been, quite frankly, mistreated.
This isn’t a campaign. Those who know what I’m capable of know that everything I say I am going to stick to. And I’m going to prove it not by saying it, but by doing it. This is just for Karma’s benefit, so he knows what he’s truly up against in a few short days at All Star Showdown when he puts up the Pride title against me.
I’m going to surpass records. I’ll be the fighting champion that everyone says they’re gonna be...up until they actually win the title. Johnny Karma initially sought out the Pride championship in a similar manner the first time he won it, and he ended up not doing much with it that time either. He told the world that he was going to make the Pride title respectable again...and he has. But I am going to carry out what he claimed he was going to do.
I know he doesn’t want to let go of the championship that he feels defines him. I know he feels like he’s worked so very hard to overcome what he did in order to become a two time Pride champion.
But I can’t care about what his reasoning is. I can’t care about what he thinks about me, and what he thinks about my chances of leaving Lakeland a winner. I used to worry about what people like the New Kings thought about me. About what certain snakes thought about me. It used to drag me down, watching the progress I was making getting dragged down by their comments. But now I realize that the fans are the ones whom I should be listening to. Their opinions matter. And quite frankly, they are the ones who helped get me here, so I’m done worrying about negativity trying to bring me down.
Johnny doesn’t realize that he isn’t done being a part of my story. Not yet. He was the one that set me further on that spiral when I was looking for was a handhold. He badgered, berated, and ultimately broke me down just like that little bit more on his way to trying to secure the Pride title.
So it is going to come full circle, one year after our first encounter I am going to repay the favor. I am going to give Johnny the thanks he deserves, and show him that no good deed goes unpunished.
This is something that I have to do, though. I can’t worry about what Karma thinks, anymore. We aren’t partners. We are opponents, and he is the man who is standing in the way of my dreams, just like he was a year ago.
I’m going to prove it against a man who has switched from one of my biggest detractors to one of my biggest supporters. Johnny is going to see the woman I’ve become in that short year, and how vastly different she is from the one he faced back then. The wrestler that he said didn’t belong back then? She’s gotten far better than Johnny could have fathomed in that short year. The wrestler that he confronted back at Final Frontier and gave words of encouragement? She’s taken those words and used them to forge an Iron Goddess built to usurp him as champion. I’m going to show him the WRESTLER that I’ve become, and show him that his time as Pride champion HAS to die a two-out-of-three-falls death at the hands of me.
It’s Fate. Destiny. Karma.
Despite all that, there are no hard feelings on my end. I know that Johnny is going to give me everything he has to try and retain his title. He’s gonna try his hardest to keep the title that I so desperately want.
The title that I need to prove everyone wrong about me, once and for all. The title that I need to prove every baseless, idiotic comment that drips from the sewage pipes of the detractors that have less and less to go on every day. The title that I feel Karma has underappreciated, just like some of the guys and gals in the back have underappreciated my abilities and my progression over this past year. But whether Karma realizes it or not, I’m the most important thing to him right now, and beating him is the most important thing to me right now.
With the help of the Karmic Lion, I am penning my victory.
I am going to beat you, Johnny. I told you to your face, and I meant it with every fiber of my being. I am the realest thing in FGA, and I’ve proven it by not stabbing you in the back, but rather showing you the knife and telling you the time and the place of your demise. You’ve had ample time to prepare for me. You can do your best to lock away the title that will be in my hands, RIGHTFULLY, in just a few short days. When it’s all over, I am going to reach out, shake your hand, and say “thank you.” But it will be with the Pride championship in the hands of its new owner.
Unfortunately for you, Johnny; you are gonna learn an undeniable truth.
You Can’t Stop Fujiko.
Your next Pride Champion.
She’d felt this sense of dread before. Fujiko pulled her hood up to shield herself from the rain that came down around her. It bounced off each surface it found in large, wet drops both around her and on her. She hastened her pace, doing her best to get inside before the rain left her a soaking mess. She broke into something of a jog for a few steps, and then began to zig zag, trying to dodge the raindrops. She was unsuccessful, with a couple of them hitting her squinted eyes and causing them to sting a little. She couldn’t remember the last time she was caught in such a heavy rain.
A small part of her wanted to play in it. She wanted to let it be her escape from her destination.
When her mother, Marcia Gardener, requested that she meet her at a coffee shop, she couldn’t help but be reminded of the last time they spoke in person. She ended up leaving, feeling both a sense of vindication and of insecurity.
Fujiko wished she’d brought along her umbrella. She’d hate to catch cold before she had to go meet fans at Frontier Con, or before she could make it to Saturday. She leaned more towards the buildings, hoping that the awnings would shield her from a majority of the precipitation. She was partially right, but by the time she turned onto Florida Avenue from Beacon road, she might have well have been half soaked anyway.
She grasped at the wet door handle, feeling it slip through her hands the first time. The rain made the handle slippery enough that she whiffed. She felt a twinge of embarrassment.
"Bet everyone inside just saw me do that. Way to go." She chided herself and rolled her eyes before taking hold of the handle a second time and pulling it open. This time, her grip held, and she found herself wincing as the cool, processed air clashed with her wet skin. She blinked, then shuddered. She had no respite from being uncomfortable, neither physically nor mentally. One of the baristas behind the counter glanced at her, depositing a half-hearted ‘Welcome to Concord’ in her general direction. Fujiko forced the corners of her mouth upward into a smile, and she nodded in her direction. She then focused her attention away from the ordering counter and towards the tables in the room.
Fujiko had to fight back the sense of deja vu that wrapped around her, compounding on top of her uncomfortable feeling. She pushed forward through it, and to the table where her mother sat. She took a second to prepare herself, but she warned herself that she was only going to get that second. Marcia looked in her direction and smiled.
Fujiko knew then and there that she needed to control the conversation.
"Hello, mother." Fujiko elected not to sit as she approached the table. Marcia's smile shrunk as she noticed that fact.
"Fujiko, please have a seat."
Fujiko couldn’t help but narrow her eyes. She was already defensive and suspicious of her mother, and the comment didn’t offer any comfort.
"I think I’m just going to dry off a bit, if that’s alright with you."
She leaned forward, and water that soaked into her scalp began to run down her forehead. She wiped it away absentmindedly and braced herself against the back of the chair in front of her.
Standing in front of her mother reminded her of the past few times they’d had a discussion about her. She spaced away from the present and to her ‘greeting’ her last win with a bevy of doctors and worry. Fujiko was not allowed in the slightest to revel in any sort of victory. Marcia tried, just like so many before her, to get her to stop and quit.
"Terrible weather we’re having today, huh?"
The question was a light hearted attempt at small-talk. Fujiko ignored it, still reliving the last time they met in this situation. She stormed out of the Collectivo, leaving her mother there to deal with the awkwardness. So she stood there, defensive, as she expected round three of the same song and dance.
"Yeah, awful." She added, mindlessly. Her focus was out the gloomy window, rather than on her mother. She was waiting for the pleasantries to end and the relentless attempts to dissuade her from wrestling to begin.
"Fujiko, please, have a seat. We’ll get you some coffee, or some hot chocolate. Something to get you warmed up.”
Fujiko couldn’t deny that the sound of hot chocolate after being out in the rain appealed to her, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to give any sort of satisfaction to her mother at the moment. A part of her resented her mother for trying so vehemently to get her to give up on her dream. She stared at her mother for a few moments, and then gave up and pulled out the chair. A second later, she was a half soaked mess wrapped in an uncomfortable situation directly in front of her mother.
"There. I am seated, as you asked."
A couple of moments later, a waiter came over. Marcia ordered the hot chocolate before she turned back towards Fujiko.
"It’s...it’s been awhile, hasn’t it? I guess you’ll probably wondering why I asked you to meet me here today. Honestly, I’m surprised you even decided to humor me."
"Well, we can both be surprised today, then." She said flatly. She knew that she was being a bit harsh, but she wanted to make sure that she knew Fujiko was not about to put up with the same song and dance.
Marcia let out a sigh. "Look, I know things got a bit, intense, between us last time. But I can assure you, I’m not here to fight with you." Fujiko turned her gaze down into the steaming chocolate before responding.
"Fine, you’re not here to fight. Okay. I don’t know why, but I’ll listen." After everything she’d been through, she was surprised she was even giving her mother a chance to explain herself.
Thinking that very thought actually made her a little concerned, when she let the thought come to the forefront of her mind. She assured herself that things would get better after All-Star Showdown. It was a lie, but a comforting one. If she had her way, things were just going to become even more stressful after the big show...but in a good way. That kind of stress she was looking forward to.
"Well...um. A co-worker of mine is a fan of combat sports. We were discussing the matter at lunch time. She was so enthralled that she pulled up a match on YouTube."
Marcia paused for a second. "To my surprise, I looked up and saw you on her phone screen."
Fujiko tilted her head. The statement that emerged from her mother’s mouth was not what she expected, and it almost made her forget the fact that she was out of sorts coming into the conversation.
"I’m sorry, say what?! She was watching me?" Fujiko leaned in towards her, to make sure that her mother knew that she was now listening.
"Yes. She told me that she watches the Frontier Grappling thing quite frequently, much to my surprise. She’s a fan of yours in particular."
Lady Luck stifled a laugh. "Frontier Grappling Arts, mom." Fujiko unconsciously relaxed a little bit. Maybe it was odd, but even this far into her career, it still blew her away somewhat to find that people gravitated to her. That she had something that drew people to her.
"I’m sorry, my apologies." Fujiko grabbed the cup of cooling chocolate and took a sip. It was just cool enough that she could avoid getting her tongue burned with a small sip. She thanked her lucky stars. Burned tongues were the absolute worst.
"Wow...that’s so cool. I love fans!" She clapped her hands together in excitement. She'd completely forgotten her mother's transgression in her excitement. This made Marcia smile.
"Well, there’s something else as well." Fujiko felt the edges of worry creep back in. She gripped at the cup in front of her a little hard and her breath grew a bit short.
"Something else?" A raised eyebrow accompanied the statement. Something in the back of her mind told her she might be adopting that gesture from Tj a bit more than she would like to admit.
"I became curious, so, I began watching your matches on YouTube as well."
Marcia averted her eyes and glanced over at something on the wall.
"They...they were good." Fujiko had to stop herself from falling out of her chair like an exasperated girl in a slice of life anime. She couldn’t believe the words that came out of her mother’s mouth. Not that she said that they were good, but that she had a sense of doubt to suggest that Fujiko wasn’t a good wrestler. She felt like she’d taken a few steps backwards, and she didn’t like it.
"Really, that they were "good?" Do you know how that sounds?" She prepared herself to stand up. "Thanks mom, you really know how to make me feel good about myself." She hissed. Now she felt like she was calling her Fujiko and not Katharine in an attempt to mock her. It really bit into her.
"Fujiko, I was never suggesting that you were bad. It’s just...admittedly, I’ve never been a fan of wrestling. It was always hard for me to watch and enjoy. But, your matches were different—enjoyable."
Some of the tension eased away again. She was getting a bit bored of being on the world’s most stressful rollercoaster of emotions, so perhaps it was for the best.
"Go on." She drew her attention directly on her mother this time.
"Fujiko, I may not understand everything...about you and your profession. I still think it’s dangerous, and I don’t want to see you hurt. But, I realize I have to respect you and your decisions. I didn’t make that clear last time we spoke, and I’m sorry for that."
"Oh." A long pause. "Okay then." She took a few seconds to digest what she’d just heard. Maybe things were turning the corner. As she thought about it, it was more of a relief to have her mother give positive support than have to drown her and the rest of the critics out.
"Thank you, mom. I…" A tremendous sense of relief washed over her. She thought maybe it was premature, but it felt so good that she didn’t care.
"Thank you." She sat looking at her mom, unsure of what to do; when it hit her. She pushed the seat back, and stood up. Fujiko shuffled around the table until she was next to her mom. She didn’t allow her to stand, instead she bent down and wrapped her arms tightly around her.
"Despite everything, I love you. I hope you know that." Fujiko nodded, not moving from her crouched position. She thought about what that meant, and came to the realization that it wasn’t just her hopes riding on her shoulders anymore. Her fans, her friends, and her family were behind her. She had no limitations, so now she had no reason to fail.
"I do. And I’m going to make you proud. I swear."
