It would be a memorable evening. The events that took place earlier led Kami to the backstage infirmary. The halls were aligned with half of the Ultimate Wrestling’s roster waiting to be seen. Some more serious, some just lurking around to the aid of their friends. The funk of sweat and blood perfumed the halls like a rundown mortuary. She sat quietly upon the table, hugging her abdomen, wincing in pain waiting for the medical staff to walk in. Hara was somewhere amongst the chaos out in the halls of the Tokyo Dome.
As the door slid open, an elder man looking to be in his fifties, wearing glasses, walks into the room, with a pad and ink pen. His slender build and slightly bald head and the dirtiness of a five o’clock shadow upon his face, led Kami to believe he was not there to examine her. The man walks further inside and takes a seat in the chair across from Kami.
“The name is Hiroshi Nakamura; I am the interviewer for Ultimate Wrestling. You are half of the new tag team here, True Chaotic, correct, Miss Nakada?”
She looked up from the pain, you could see it in her eyes, she was not accustomed to the likes of the paparazzi. Her family lived out of the spotlight for many decades, even with the murder of her grandmother, the true Emperess of Japan, their family managed to stay clear of them, until now.
“Correct.” She replied, not offering anything more than the answer Mr. Nakamura was looking for.
Hiroshi smirked, he began to open his note pad, while folding back its cover, he leaned forward, almost in an intimidating manner to Kami’s face; she would send the same stare back, only with a brow raise in return.
“Your partner being Shingo Hara, I presume?” He leans back with the same smirk, knowing she would need to give more than a single word answer. She continued with a cunning smirk. She too would lean back, almost mocking Nakamura. She nods, with a snicker escaping her nose.
“I see.” Hiroshi replied. “You two held your debut match here tonight, against Devin Zeagal’s Team Dojo-Z. Was it an exhilarating experience stepping into the ring for the first time?”
Kami cocked a side smile, she began to move herself around on the cold table, trying to ease the pain from her side. Nakamura noticed, and with swift laughter he nodded his head.
“I do believe I got my answer right there.” He shook his head smiling. Kami snarled, squinting her eyes in his direction. She inhales deeply, wanting to speak, but knows Hiroshi was just trying to entice her. She looked at him with a cynical glare, shifting her eyes from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet. She shakes her head.
Nakamura seemed a bit annoyed; he did not figure on her being so timid. Had the “Revealer” lost his touch? Certainly not, he would think to himself. The right question was out there, he just needed to grab it. He sat back, thinking. As so, there was a knock on the door. It slides open as Hara is seen poking his head in, to make sure he is in the right room. He sees Hiroshi sitting in a chair, he bows, as a sign of respect, pardoning himself for the intrusion he thought had happened. As he steps back, sliding closed the door, he hears Kami’s voice, wince out in pain.
“Toad..”
Hara steps back into the room. He gets between Kami with his back to Nakamura.
"Tenshi are you ok? I already talked to someone, and we are going to get our chance for payback. This will not go unpunished. They want to act tough, and blind side us."
Hara stands up and turns around. He looks at Nakamura in the eyes, he leans forward.
"What the hell do you want? Can't you see she is hurt."
Hara reaches over and grabs the notepad from him and looks at it.
"This is what you are doing here. Now is not the time for some bullshit interview. She should be with a doctor, not scum like you. Mr. Hurst is right; you are all Vultures."
Kami began to sigh; she leans forward just enough for her hand to touch Hara's shoulder before letting out an angry grunt of pain.
"He is only doing his job, Hara. Besides, it just might be a good thing he is here now.”
She takes her hand and slides Hara's body to the left just a tad, as she glared at Nakamura in the eyes.
"Go ahead, ask your questions now."
She breathes in deep, gritting her teeth as she takes her hand off Hara's shoulder.
Hiroshi nods, looking over to Hara, with his pen and paper ready. "Shingo.."
Hara immediately steps up to his face. He stares right into Nakamura's eyes. "Never call me that again! You can call me Mr. Hara."
With a nod, Nakamura smiled. "Mr. Hara, then..You and Kami seem to be a very unlikely couple, your style and techniques are very different..."
Kami looked up from the table, she cut her eyes over to Hara as she noticed him about to speak.
"Couples we are not. Partners we are."
Knowing the paparazzi as she does, false information is something they would love to stir. Their private affairs were not what she would want exploited. She looked at Hara, who just stared back at her.
"Yeah, we might have different styles and such. She is a martial artist; I was trained by The Hurst family in Texas. They are a very well-known wrestling family. Even though we are different in style, it seems to work well as you and everyone else has seen. There is not much that they put in front of us that we cannot handle."
Kami formed a smile from the background, while Nakamura began to write. Hara cuts his eyes over to Kami, not trying to be noticed, as he can tell something bad was going on with her. Not wanting to show concern, he lowered his head as she took a glimpse of him looking. Nakamura was finished writing, he looks over to Kami, and then back to Hara.
"Your partner behind you seems to be in a lot of pain. Would that center from the match tonight with Team Dojo-Z? She seemed to be a little out of her league, I should say for a moment."
He looked over to Kami, who in return gives him the go to hell look.
"It doesn't seem to me that her Martial Arts played any importance here tonight. Zeagal's team seemed to have control of her until your handy work came to play."
Hara snaps his head towards Nakamura.
"Right there, right there is why you guys are pieces of crap. You are going to say that she cannot do this because she is a woman, she's soft, she is small. You are a trash person. She is hurt because we were jumped by those dickheads from that AAPW things. She was beaten with a pipe, but at fifty percent she would drop you in a heartbeat."
Hara walks towards the man until he is chest to chest with him forcing him back against the wall. "Look deep into my eyes. If you ever try and belittle her again, I will pull your spine out of your throat. You do not know who she is. She is far better than either of us, and don't you ever forget that."
Hara reaches up and thumps the guy in his forehead.
Nakamura regains his composer against Hara, he takes his hand and brushes his chest, as a form of disrespect. He takes a step frontwards, now looking up to Hara's eyes. His 6'2, 215lb frame would certainly over power his, however he would not be intimidated. "I call it like I see it. The hype building around you two from your first video publication has now been shamed. You warned us all that Chaos was coming, that no one was safe."
He paused as he looked at Kami.
"It appears you were right about that." He smiles back over to Kami. "The AAPW made sure of that. How do you two plan on handling that. "
He looked on, Kami's face was beginning to get red. She was injured, she was in pain, but what she wasn't, was scared. She scoots from the edge of the table, eyes squinting with the pain. She barely stood beside Hara with her hand gripping tightly onto the tail of his shirt. She straightened her back and with a sharp wince, she spat in Nakamura's face.
Hara reaches back and slaps him as well. "From now on you keep our name out of your mouth. If you see us, your best bet is to turn and go the other way. You think that what you say means anything, it doesn't. You spit your venom, and the world eats it up. I know who you are. You are a little man with nothing in his life. You try and make drama out of nothing to make yourself seem important. Let me tell you one thing. I am not from Japan. The only Japanese I have in me is from my good for nothing father. So, all your traditions and your honor bullshit mean nothing to me. So, I am not going to respect you because you are some old wise man. She is not going to respect you, because you are nowhere near her level. So don't step up to us again or you are going to find out who we really are and trust me you will not like it."
Hara pushes him hard against the wall and turns to Kami.
She gives Nakamura an evil glare, she turns as the door would slide open and a UW medical staff member steps inside. He wears a hat and sunglasses, quite odd for being inside the building. He takes notice of Hara's stance to Nakamura and back over to Kami.
"Who is the injured one here?"
Hara would look at Nakamura with squinted eyes as he would turn and point to Kami.
"She is. right now.”
He turned back to Nakamura who again was regaining his composure. Hara took a step back as he allowed him to pass. Nakamura stopped as he reached the sliding door. His look was serious, as he would turn to face the two one last time.
"Stick to the screens, little lady, if you are unable to help us."
Hara steps up, but Kami's arm blocks him from moving. She winces out in pain as the medical staff looks at her. "Ma'am, would you lift the side of your shirt for me?"
Hara looks over with an evil glare to make sure the man was in fact who he appeared to be. Kami would take her hand, slowly lifting the left side of her shirt, revealing a rather large purple and black bruise. The staff member took his hand and gently pressed firmly on her side, rubbing over the abnormalities. He looks cautiously over to both her and Hara.
"It appears you have at least 1 broken rib, miss. Dr. Drake will need you to go get a Xray to be more certain.” Kami looked furious. "Until you do that, I need to put you on medical LOA."
Kami looked at Hara, both their eyes squinted with anger.
"You will do no such thing, Mr..!"
Kami looked directly into the man’s eyes. There would be no way she would fail to wrestle at the Ronin Rumble. She was not going to go out after one measly match. She was built better, and fought harder people before, to be told she could not do it. She slid herself off the table with a little grunt, she stood face to face with the young man.
“You nor anyone else is going to bench me!”
"I can and I will Kami." Hara turns and looks to the man. "You just spoke her name, earlier you did not know it. Just who the hell are you?"
Hara stepped up to the man, his smaller frame stood no chance of going up against Hara, however his backing, would prevail. He writes out an official letter, stamping it with the seal of Dr. Drake from his back pocket. He tosses the letter to Kami as he begins to step out of the room.
((Fast Forward Later that evening))
There was a gentle breeze back at Shikoku Island, a dimly lit lantern rests upon a small table out on the porch of Kami’s Kominka. Kami sits relaxed upon a large swing hanging under the Cherry Blossom tree that sits facing the waterfront, just to the side of the front porch. Her waist is wrapped heavily in a white bandage as Hara stands quietly behind her, pushing her gently in the swing. As the swing retracts back towards him, he reaches for the ropes, slowly bringing Kami to a halt.
“Are you feeling ok, Tenshi?”
Hara leans forward nearly whispering in her ear. Upon reflex, Kami turns in the direction of Hara’s voice, leading to their faces being but a breath apart. Kami quickly leans back, trying to show no interest, as Hara catches a glimpse of her eyes as they connect to his lips as he spoke.
“Why would I not be, Toad?” She would reply with a squint of her eye. Hara sighed and shook his head. “We have a handicap match coming up and that damn Dr. Drake has you benched. I don’t like that.”
Kami turned to Hara; she could tell it was more than just her being black balled. He looked as if he already felt defeated.
“You know, nothing is going to stop me from being by your side in that match, right?” She turned slightly to the right wincing out a slight grunt.
“Paper or no paper, Mudock won’t stop me.”
Hara turns and takes a seat on the steps. "We know that they did this on purpose. We gave them the file. They knew they were going to attack and really did nothing to stop it. So, it is like everything else, we are going to have to fix this ourselves. We had our plan and those AAPW bastards messed it all up. We are going to have to rethink our options now." Hara looks at Kami and just shakes his head.
"The way that slimeball talked about you, just pissed me off so bad. I am sorry if I embarrassed you."
Kami smiled. "Embarrass me?" She laughed. "Not at all. Nakamura just needs a chastity belt for that mouth of his.
Hara's face took a shade of red, as he nearly choked upon the drink he had just picked up. Kami, not laughing at all.
"I mean it, of all the shit he could have said, he wants to tell me, to stick to the screens. Who was it who helped Mudcock with the information? Who was it who helped inform them ahead of time of AAPW's plan of attack?" She begins to mumble. "Stick to the screens, he says.."
Kami leans forward and stands now from the swing. She walks slowly over to the water; she begins to bend slowly as she trickles the water with her hand.
"There once was a time that people took fear in the Nakada name. Now..."
She stood slowly still looking down into the water. "With my brother's death, not only do I need to focus on the AAPW attack, but we are also going to have to be on the watch with Yakuza's secondhand flunky boys. The ones who actually get their hands dirty."
She turned to Hara. "I've had my fair share of run ins with them for years. While my brother took it upon himself to strangle the life out of my grandmother, the true empress of Japan, the Yakuza and their many bands of underrated garbage disposals, have terrorized my family. So, this battle is personal for me.
Hara takes another drink. He wipes his mouth with his arm. "Ok Tenshi, time for us to take the battle to them. We are not going to be watching over our shoulders, though. They want to throw numbers at us, we can play that game. They want to attack from behind and jump people in the shadows. They only wish they could do it better. It is time to show them where we come from. They want to talk about honor and all that. Well, fuck their honor."
Hara pulls out his phone and types out a text message. He turns the phone around and shows it to Kami, then hits send.
She shakes her head laughing. "Rupard is going to shit a brick. He better hope his scooter can outrun what is coming." She turns looking towards the Kominka. "Looks like I need to go to the screen and start to work on some formal entry IDs. They will have no problems getting inside."
Hara laughs. "Yeah, I think this is going to be fun. I will call and set up a place for them to stay." He follows her into the house and sits on the couch.
"Tenshi, you know you are hurt, right? I know that you want to be there for the match, but that will not happen if you don't rest and heal up. Your stubbornness cannot cloud your smarts. Just know if you are not healed up by match time, I am not going to let you fight. I will fight them alone, before I let you hurt yourself even more."
Kami smiles, behind his back. She cannot show a soft side, she refuses to allow another man to get close again. No matter how she had to do it, no matter the cost, she would not risk the heartache again. She walks over to the counter behind the sofa. She looks down upon a set of keys and hesitantly picks them up. She stands looking over at Hara, as he begins to flip through the channels of her tv. It was a wall she felt had to be built, a boundary that would protect her from another abandonment. She takes a deep breath while grunting out with a small fragment of pain, she walks over to the front of the sofa and takes a seat next to him.
"I have just the place."
She extends her arm out opening the palm of her hand. "This is for you. I had the upstairs of the dojo transformed into a living space for you. You no longer have to sleep on this.." She pats the cushions between them. "Anymore, you can have privacy, and there is also room enough for entertaining..."
Hara looks at the keys and then goes back up to Kami. He pushes her hand away and gets off the couch. He walks over the fridge and grabs a bottle of water. Taking a long drink he leans against the counter. "I like staying here. I mean I was sent to watch over you. I thought everything was good." Hara grabs his backpack and starts pushing things into it. He looks at her as he walks to the door. Before he leaves, he pulls out the knife and baton she had given him and lays them on the table. He opens the front door and walks out into the rain.
Kami would stand silently; it had not been the reaction she had hoped for. Why would he not accept her gift? Yes, he was sent to watch over her, yes things were going well; perhaps a little too well. She stood looking out of the door as the rain slowly began to come down. She watched as Hara's image began to fade off into the trees along the wooded path, she held the keys tightly to her chest. as she whispered. " Watashi wa anata wa aishi te i masu, Toad." She backed away slowly, leaving the wooden door open. She placed the keys upon the table in front of the sofa as she would go to her room, sliding the screen behind her.
