Author's Notes: This is the sequel to Kouyou. Please check my profile for the list of fics in this series in order.
Sorry I didn't post this sooner, been busy with last-minute taxes, a drawing, and helping two of my friends with their stories. I hope next month I will be able to update sooner (or I may just be letting out hot air, but I will definitely try!)
I'm just gonna lay it out in the open; this fic will start out pretty happy with some minor bumps in the road, but later will get a bit darker. I will do my best to make note of trigger chapters when I post themor pinpoint trigger sections of the chapter, without completely giving things away. Please feel free to quit the fic or skip over those chapters/parts if reading them will trigger you.
Also a big thank you to those of you that have stuck with this series and supported it. This fic will be a multi-chapter one, so I hope you will enjoy it~
As always, regular text in quotes denotes spoken Japanese, while italic text in quotes will denote spoken English. Bold text in or out of quotes will denote emphasis on a word(s).
Lastly ":::" is to show a time jump of at least half a day or longer.
"What are you doing?"
Shinsuke looked up from his tablet to find Asuka standing at the foot of their bed, fresh from a shower and toweling off her hair. "Watching some of your intergender matches from Japan," he replied, flicking his eyes back to the LCD screen. "If we're ever going to have a match one day, I need to know what I'd be up against."
"You should already know," his fiancée said. He enjoyed the feel of her sliding into bed next to him, the weight of her head on his chest as she peered at his tablet. "Which match are you watching?"
"You and Marufuji Naomichi vs Satomura Meiko and Suzuki Minoru." He patted her head. "Do you have a plate of metal in your skull or something? I've taken Suzuki's head butts before and they weren't at all pleasant. The sounds of impact from the video are gruesome enough, how did you stay conscious?"
"Sheer woman-power," came the proud response.
"Seems so, I've seen men collapse after a Suzuki head butt." His hand smoothed over her hair. "Even so, I must say, even back in Japan, I don't think I could ever hope to be that vicious in a match against you."
"You're not getting cold feet are you?" Asuka teased.
"No, I want to have a match with you," he said without hesitation, then thought over his next words, "I just think we could do so and make it look convincing without having to be ultra-violent. I know I could never hit you in the face like that. And I don't think WWE would ever approve anything like that either."
"But I was hoping to get a Bomaye~" she pouted
Shinsuke was about to outright refute her demand but stopped short as he began picturing it in his head. He paused the video and put his tablet on the nightstand. "Maybe we can still do that."
"Oh?" Asuka straddled his hips, leaning in towards him in obvious elation. "Tell me more~"
"If you were to be in a kneeling position when I deliver it, I would have more control over the force of my movements." He looked up into her glittering eyes as his brain churned out ideas. They had talked about facing off before, but this was their first serious discussion. "I can put a leash on my power so that it'll just be enough to push you off balance. But then the rest will fall to you, Niji. You'll have to sell it so well that it looked like I gave you a real Bomaye."
Her excitement appeared to grow to a feverish pitch, making her eyes wide and her smile bright. "I can sell anything. I can sell a baby smacking me in the face."
"Heh, even babies can hit hard." he chuckled at her enthusiasm, putting his hands leisurely behind his head. "Once my niece gave me a black eye and she was only two at the time."
"Giving the King of Strong Style black eyes at the tender age of two." Asuka whistled. "Now that's girl power. I hate to see what she'd do to you now."
He laughed again. "Me too."
"So back to the topic at hand. The Bomaye is in?"
"Mhmm," he confirmed, trailing one hand delicately over her thigh and waist.
"Then I suggest we focus on body strikes," she went on, her hand finding his where she slipped her fingers between his, linking them. "Body strikes, dropkicks, suplexes, and body slams, and submissions holds. And lots of high drama, high tension moments where no one will be certain who will come out the winner. Counters for counters, near falls, near count outs, all the good stuff."
Shinsuke hummed his approval, giving her a fond smile. "Took the words right out of my mouth."
"Great minds think alike, right?" She leaned forward to capture his lips.
"Indeed," he agreed after their kiss. "Looks like we'll be making a trip to the Performance Center on my next day off."
"You know just what a girl wants," she cooed.
"I guess so, or at least one that wants a knee to the face."
:::
Asuka bounced off the ropes and ran at him with a lariat. Shinsuke ducked and dashed towards the ropes but she met him on the rebound with a running dropkick. Her feet were but a glancing blow to his upper body, giving him just the momentum needed to land a decent bump. As he went to sit up she slid into a shining wizard, knocking him back on the mat. She went for the cover, but he kicked out at an imaginary two count
One week after their conversation Shinsuke and Asuka walked into the WWE Performance Center in their "hometown" of Orlando.
Lately, it wasn't uncommon to find Shinsuke working in the ring with Asuka while she rehabbed her injury. Technically she was cleared to get in the ring but she had plenty of ring rust to work off after a few months doing nothing but physical therapy. And while she was cleared to go through the majority of her repertoire, she was not yet allowed to try power moves. WWE was also still working on a new angle for her return, so that gave the two of them plenty of time to work out the kinks in the storyline they hoped to pitch.
"Think they'll get wise to our plans?" Shinsuke asked his fiancée as they strolled through the facility towards the changing rooms.
Asuka shifted her drawstring bag over her shoulder. "Not if we work on my move set first. We'll slowly sneak in some of your moves over time."
"Guess we can give it a go and see what happens," he nodded.
They headed in opposite directions to get changed into their workout gear, met up back in the main training section of the building, spent some time warming up and stretching, then picked one of the few rings that was empty and started.
Of course, members of the current NXT roster as well as PC trainees immediately came over to scope out why they were there and what they were doing. They had an audience for a good while until Matt Bloom decided the trainees needed to return to their scheduled classes. A few NXT roster members remained, but even they slowly returned to their own business.
"I think it's working," Shinsuke commented quietly as she lay over him. "Wanna see if we can slip in my dragon sleeper?"
"Let's do it," she agreed.
She allowed him to get back to a seated position and moved to give him a kick to the midsection. Catching her leg in his hands, he used one of his long legs to sweep her feet out from under her. With her now on the mat, he pulled her to her knees and moved in behind. He pulled her head back and locked her neck gently beneath his arm.
Asuka flailed about for a few minutes before bringing her legs up and catching him in a head scissors takedown.
Shinsuke rolled to the mat then took a quick survey of their surroundings. No one seemed to have looked their way or if they had, they thought little of it.
After checking to see if Asuka's left arm was okay, he grinned up at Asuka, impressed with her thinking as well as her ring work. "Good thinking."
"We're not done yet." she mocked his taunt.
Pretending to be greatly offended, he lunged at her only to wind up in a guillotine.
:::
Shinsuke's days off followed much of the same pattern for the next few weeks, largely focusing on Asuka working moves on him, making sure her surgically repaired bicep held up, and focusing on the smoothness of the delivery, while Shinsuke occasionally mixed in a few of his moves into the routine. He started out with submissions, like his dragon sleeper, front chancery, or armbar.
No one batted an eyelash and most importantly, her arm was holding up.
Slowly he introduced some kicks to her legs and hips then would let her take over once more.
Still, no one turned their way, either too used to them being there or engrossed in their own mat work or classes.
He then decided to work up to upper body strikes with his hands, elbows, and knees, but kept them sporadic amidst their sessions in order to keep the risk of being caught to a minimum.
So far Asuka's plan had worked to a T. He got a feel for her moves and worked out ways to not only sell them but to escape them and keep up a flow for the match. Meanwhile, Asuka was gradually introduced to his moves, though few and far between. The infrequency of his attacks against her did not hinder her from getting an understanding of them, however, and as she said, she was able to sell his much toned down move set very well.
He had just dodged her apron hip attack during one of their sessions when she ordered, "Give me a power move."
Shinsuke glanced quickly over his shoulder. "You sure?" His immediate concern went to her bicep, even if the repair had proven to hold true to everything else. Asuka would be more likely to reinjure it doing a power move herself, but Shinsuke still had his moments of worry during their practices.
"Yeah. C'mon, hurry!"
He surveyed the scene once more before quickly reentering the ring from his on the apron. He pulled her "vulnerable" body from the ropes to the middle of the ring.
"Get ready," he said near her ear.
Asuka squeezed his arm in response and he hoisted her up and planted her with a scoop front power slam. He had initially considered hitting her with his Reverse Exploder but judicially decided against it for now. When he went for the pin, he asked, "How do you feel?"
"Fantastic," she giggled and kicked out at two and a quarter. "Anyone looking?"
A few people, including Matt Bloom, were looking in their direction. But after Asuka got right back up and got him with a series of Muay-Thai knees to the gut, his cursory look around told them that if they had seen him deliver the power slam, they had elected to ignore it.
"I think we're good," he said, bending over as though catching his breath.
"Good." She then wrapped him up in an octopus hold.
A.N.: At this point in time, Asuka is reaching the last few months of her recovery period and is healthy enough to begin getting back into the ring. This fic will pretty much be in Shinsuke's "POV."
Please leave comments, etc. they are much appreciated~