Ayame walked into the house, set the keys down and sat on the couch with a sigh.

"I was wondering when you were gonna get back." Linna said as she walked into the living room from the hallway.

"Yea Mr. Mason wanted to ask me if I was coming back anytime soon." Ayame said.

"And are you?" Linna asked.

"I don't know yet." Ayame said feeling her shoulder.

"Still hurt?" Linna asked.

"No I was just thinking about it." Ayame said.

"You know that is tarring your father apart." Linna said. "He loves you and knowing that he almost killed you is killing him. He may not show it but I can see it clearly."

"I know how he feels." Ayame said. "He won't even look me in the eye sometimes."

"Anyone I know?" Josh asked walking into the room.

"No just girl talk." Linna said.

"Oh." Josh said. "Anyway when are we gonna head over to Sylia's?"

"Might as well go now." Linna said. "Want to go Ayame? You could learn your new suit.

"Yea sure and I can tell Rosemary about my engagement." Ayame said and got up.

"Well then let's go." Linna said and the three of them walked out and headed for Sylia's.

Silky Doll

Sylia and Rosemary were sitting in the living room talking about strategies (seeing as Rosemary had never been in a fight her whole life) When Linna Josh and Ayame walked in.

"Now if an opponent comes in with a right hook what do you do?" Sylia asked.

"Get the hell out of the way." Josh said with a laugh.

"Hey now this is serious Rosemary needs to know how to defend herself." Sylia scolded. "So what do you do?"

"I don't know." Rosemary said.

"You block their punch with your right arm like so." Josh said and demonstrated it by raising his right arm in a defensive stance. "This will throw your opponent off for a seconded and that is when you take your left fist and burry it into their gut. If you feel a pop then you ruptured their spleen and they are as good as dead."

"Gross." Rosemary said.

"Anyway if Josh is finished telling sweet Rosemary how to kill someone I'd like to set Ayame up in her new suit and get her trained." Linna said.

"Ok." Sylia said. "Rosemary do you want to face off with a real opponent?"

"I guess as long as she goes easy on me." Rosemary said.

"I will." Ayame laughed.

Ayame Rosemary and their parents headed down to the pit and proceeded to suit the young girls up.

"Ok Ayame your suit is ready you may move out." Sylia said over the radio.

"Ok." Ayame said and walked out of the hanger and into the training area.

"Rosemary your suit is also ready move out and meet Ayame in the training room." Sylia said.

"10-4 (Means I understand or ok)." Rosemary said and clumsily walked into the training room.

Ayame was in a corner of the room talking to Linna and getting pointers on maneuvering this particular suit seeing as it was different from her work suit when Rosemary walked in.

"Ok now I know your friends and all but I expect nothing less than gratuitous violence from both of you." Sylia said. "If one leaves an opening the other should take it."

"Is this gonna leave a burse?" Rosemary asked.

"Probably." Sylia said. "But don't worry you'll heal."

"Great." Rosemary groaned.

"Get over it because here I come." Ayame said and moved in with a hard right and caught Rosemary off guard and sent her to the ground with a crash.

"That was low I wasn't ready." Rosemary said getting back to her feet.

"You must remain on guard at all times." Sylia said. "Ayame say that you were not focused and took advantage."

Ayame stood in a fighting stance listening to Sylia's words and couldn't help but smile. Rosemary now back on her feet took a rather bad fighting stance and left her chest and stomach open to all attacks.

"Rosemary look at your stance. What is wrong with it?" Sylia asked.

Rosemary looked at how she was standing with her feet together and her fists shoulder length apart.

"Look at Ayame's stance that is text book." Sylia said.

Rosemary adjusted her stance to make it look like Ayame's and felt her balance was better.

"Ok I think we need to do this step by step." Sylia said. "Ayame I want you to slowly throw a punch at rosemary so she can work on blocking."

"Ok." Ayame said and did as she was told and slowly threw a right hook.

"Now Rosemary use your right forearm and block her bunch and counter with a left." Sylia said and Rosemary did as she was told.

Her right arm pushed Ayame's away from her head and her left came in across Ayame's head slowly.

"Ok good now Ayame do a left hook and Rosemary do the same thing you just did but switch your arms." Sylia said.

'This is so lame.' Ayame thought as she did as she was told.

Sylia instructed Rosemary on how to use her fist's and legs to both block and attack for hours.

"Ok rosemary do you feel like you have it down?" Sylia asked.

"Yes I think so." Rosemary said.

"Thank Good I was falling asleep." Ayame said.

"Well then spar off and have a good fight then hit the showers." Sylia said and clicked the radio off.

The young girls did as they were tolled and faced off. Ayame know that Rosemary learned fast and would now be able to handle herself but she knew she would still be easy pry.

"I'll go easy." Ayame said.

"Good." Rosemary said and launched an attack.

Much to Ayame's surprise the attacks were skilled but she was able to block the attacks and deliver some of her own and a few connected.

"Damn where did I go wrong?" Rosemary said.

"You didn't think out all your attacks." Ayame said. "If you would have I would have been in trouble. Let's see how you are at defense."

Ayame launched a flurry of right and left hooks that Rosemary was able to block without much trouble.

"Not bad but I was going easy." Ayame said. "Here I come full force."

"Oh shit." Rosemary said as Ayame came at her like a tornado.

Rosemary swung her arms wildly trying to block the on slot of punches but was unsuccessful. Ayame landed a hard right then a left followed by another right and sent Rosemary to the floor.

"Rosemary you got scared and panicked." Sylia said. "If you lose your head in a fight you will surly lose."

"I can see that now." Rosemary said as she got to her feet and took her stance again. "Now it's my turn." She said and attacked Ayame with skill and thought out her movements.

'Oh shit she is learning faster than I thought.' Ayame thought as she blocked blow after blow from Rosemary.

Ayame caught Rosemary's arm and slammed her to the ground and rammed a fist into her chest. Without thinking Rosemary lifted her knee and slammed it into Ayame's head sending her on her back.

"Oh damn." Josh laughed from the observation room. "That hurt."

Rosemary jumped to her feet and rushed Ayame as she was getting back up.

"Shit." Ayame said as she saw Rosemary's fist coming right at her.

The punch was perfect and landed right on Ayame's chin making her take a step back. Rosemary began a series of combinations with her fist and legs that Ayame was powerless to stop. After landing about 8 hits Rosemary backed off to deliver a final blow. This was the chance Ayame was waiting for. When Rosemary came in with her fist cocked Ayame moved out of the way and did a spin kick that landed on Rosemary's visor. All Rosemary saw was a leg coming for her head then it was lights out.

"Well Sylia." Linna said. "You asked for gratuitous violence and you got it."

"Yep." Sylia said as she walked out of the observation room and on to the training floor where Ayame was taking off her helmet.

"Well that was fun." She said. "I think I knocked her out."

Sylia took off Rosemary's helmet supporting her neck and saw a small trickle of blood coming from her nose.

"I don't think there is any spinal damage you just knocked her out." Sylia said. "Help me get her out of her suit and up to her room."

They lifted Rosemary and took her into the dressing room and removed her from her suit and wrapped her in a robe and took her to her room and put her in her bed.

Rosemary's room 2 hours later

Rosemary awoke with a pounding head ach and sat up.

'I guess I lost.' She thought and stood up.

She walked to her closet and took out a pair of jeans and a shirt and got dressed. Ayame and the others were sitting in the living room drinking a beer and talking about nothing important when Rosemary walked in.

"Well look who's awake." Linna said.

Rosemary responded with only one word.

"Aspirin?" She said.

"Here." Josh said and tossed her a bottle of aspirin.

Rosemary opened the bottle and took 3 of the pills and sat on the couch next to her mom with a sigh.

"Well I must say that you did great for your first fight." Sylia said and patted her on the back.  

"Yea well I still lost." Rosemary said.

"That don't matter you still gave me a run for my money." Ayame said.

"What's with the ring?" Rosemary asked.

"Oh this." Ayame said. "That's the real reason I came. Lilly and I are getting married."

"What?!" Sylia and Rosemary said at the same time.

"We don't have a date yet but it will be within the year." Ayame said.

"Well this calls for something better than beer." Sylia said and walked to the alcohol cabinet and removed her best bottle of Brandy and 5 glasses.

"Mother there are only 4 of us." Rosemary said.

"I know but Lilly will be here soon." Sylia said looking at the clock on the wall.

She opened the bottle and poured for shots into the glasses.

"Are you starting without me?" Lilly asked as she walked through the door with Priss, Leon and Andrew behind her. "Aunt Nene and Uncle Macky will be here soon so will Linna (Terry and Kenny's kid) Terry, Kenny, Mike and Sharon let's wait for them before we begin."

"Wait for us to begin what?" Nene said as she walked through the door with the others right behind her.

"Ah good now that everyone's here we can start." Sylia said heading to the alcohol cabinet to get more glasses.

She filled all the glasses and handed them out.

"So what is this all about?" Nene asked.

"Lilly and Ayame the floor is yours." Sylia said and sat down.

"Well." Lilly said. "As you all should know by now I hope Ayame and I have been dating for over 8 months. And well." She said raising her hand and showing off her ring. "We're getting married."

Nene's face lit up and she hugged Ayame and Lilly.

"That's great." She said.

"So you did it." Josh (Nene and Mackey's kid) said.

"Yes we did." Lilly said with a smile.

"Well here's to you two." Mike said raising his glass. "May you find happiness with each other."

The other's raised their glasses and toasted to them and they all emptied their glasses.

"Oh before I forget." Lilly said. "Sue Ann and Ayekwon want to take us out tonight."

"Ok let's go." Ayame said and set down her glass.

"You're gonna leave just like that?" Linna asked.

"Sorry mom." Ayame said. "Don't wait up."

Lilly and Ayame walked out of the silky Doll and closed the door.

"Now how do you like that?" Linna asked.

"Kids." Josh said and threw up his arms.

(I know it took me a long time to update this but I was in a dead zone as to where I wanted to go. But I'm back at it.)