Author's Note: First of all, I'd like to give a shout out to Foxboy614. You see, today is his birthday. And to commemorate this, I've allowed him to choose Queen Bee's substitute opponent for the upcoming I Quit match, who will be revealed near the end of this chapter. Happy birthday, Foxboy614.
Anyhoo, enjoy the chapter. More notes at the bottom.
After a day of training, Dawn decided to check up on Kaito Marx. She walked into the Animal Squadron gym to see him in a practice ring against Ichiro, who had him in a rear waistlock. When Kaito saw Dawn coming in, he motioned his hands for a time-out, but Ichiro squeezed harder.
"Gah! What the hell, man?" Kaito exclaimed.
"Sorry, but there are no time-outs in matches." Ichiro answered mischievously.
"But this is a sparring match!"
"A match is still a match. If you want me to let you go, you gotta tap out."
Ichiro squeezed one more time before Kaito tapped on his arm. "All right! Fine! Now, let me go!"
Ichiro released Kaito and let him rest on the ropes. "You better take it up a notch, new guy, if you want to win your debut match."
"So you do have a match?" Dawn asked Kaito asked.
"Yeah." Kaito answered. "Satoru is arranging with Inoba to squeeze it into the match card this Friday night. The fans are already stoked with Misaki and Chocho's championship match and your I Quit match with Smythe. Now, they get to see me fight with a good chance of winning for once."
"Sounds great." Dawn said. "Who are you facing?"
"Well, it took a bit of thought," Kaito said, "But the guys in charge ultimately decided to make my match to be against Yoshi."
"Sounds exciting." Dawn said. "Just don't hold back just because he's your friend. This kind of stuff happens a lot in pro wrestling."
"I know. I've seen Sakura against Elena before." Yoshi said climbing out of the ring. "What about you? How are things on your end? You nervous about facing Smythe?"
"Well, I'm not admitting how I feel walking into a match. If I say it out loud, I'm going to feel less confident." Dawn said. "But I will say that I'm more than…"
Dawn was interrupted abruptly by the ringing coming from her pants pocket. She chuckled awkwardly and answered.
"Hello? …Oh, hey, Mr. Inoba. …What? …Uh, sure. I can stop by the office right now. …Okay. See you there." She hung up. "That's weird. Mr. Inoba wants to see me at his office."
"What for?" Kaito asked.
"He didn't say." Dawn said. "Oh, well. I'll see when I get there."
After returning to Berserk, Dawn was surprised to see Misaki, Kanae, and Juri waiting for her alongside Inoba. But the strangest thing in the room was a pair of police women that were standing at the side of the room.
"What?" Dawn asked. "Does Berserk have a couple of new recruits with police gimmicks now?"
"Cute, but no." said one of the officers. She was the tallest one with short, black hair and a pair of glasses. She seemed to be the more professional of the two. "I'm Detective Karin. This is my parter, Detective Mei."
"Hi." Greeted the shorter, blonde girl displaying a smile. "I'm a big fan."
"Mei." Karin called out before looking back at Dawn. "Anyway, we're here on an investigation."
"What's this have to do with me?" Dawn asked.
Kanae sighed before answering. "Someone attacked Tania Smythe the other night and put her in the hospital."
Dawn widened her eyes. "What? You're serious?"
"I saw it myself." Juri said. "Most of her body was in a cast and the rest of her body was swelling with black and blue bruises."
"Well, I didn't do it." Dawn defended.
"Take it easy. We're not accusing you." Detective Karin said.
"We'd never do that." Mei said. "Anyway, Tania said that whoever attacked her was as big as her. Obviously, that doesn't apply to you."
"Oh, thank God." Dawn sighed in relief. "Wait. Then who did attack her?"
"We don't know. That description was the only thing we got." Karin said. "According to Tania, she was on her way home late at night when some woman challenged her to a fight right then and there. That was the last thing she remembered. The doctors think it's some kind of concussion."
"We're just here as a formality." Mei said. "We need you to tell us about the last time you saw Smythe."
Dawn nodded and told the detectives about her heated banter with Smythe at the Berserk vs Miyabi afterparty. When she was done, the sleuths closed their notebooks, said their goodbyes, and left the office. Still, there was one thing on the minds of those who remained.
"What about my match?" Dawn asked.
"We can't cancel it now." Inoba said. "The public already paid for this match."
"Any ideas, Juri?" Misaki asked.
"Actually, yes. We can't cancel the match, but in this case, we have to substitute Tania with another Miyabi wrestler. You'll still have your I Quit match, but it will be against someone else."
"And who will that be?" Dawn asked.
"Upon due reflection, I've decided that your opponent will be Sara Savage."
"Who's that?" Dawn asked.
"That would be… her." Kanae said as she pulled out her phone. She showed Dawn a full-length image of a tan girl with black, braided hair. She had an athletic figure with an impressive set of abs. She had black striped painted across her cheeks and across her eyes. She also wore a brown and green two-piece. Her left arm was covered with a green sleeve and she wore a red glove on her right hand. Both her boots were green with black stripes across their backs.
"Looks like a tough girl." Dawn said.
"She is." Juri said. "She was in the independent circuit with an undefeated streak. She vowed to only join an organization if someone from that organization beats her."
"And let me guess. It was you?" Dawn guessed.
"Actually, it was Elena." Juri corrected. "This was during her early days when she was the Blue Panther. Beating someone with a winning streak is what she considered good practice for when she would eventually face Sakura."
"I see." Dawn said. "Well, that's not quite the opponent I imagined, but at least I'm getting that match."
"Just don't let your guard down." Kanae said. "She may not be Tania, but they don't call her Savage for nothing."
"Plus, Tania said that when she gets cleared to return to the ring, she's going to want to come after you right away." Juri said.
Dawn nodded and headed out of the gym. Once she returned home, she started looking up on Sara Savage's past matches and studied them. If she was going to face her in an I Quit match, she had to be smart as well as durable.
Author's Note: So yes. Queen Bee's new opponent is Sara Savage. If you want to know about her, simply find her profile in chapter 29. For the next three chapters, I will be covering the most important matches in the match card. Here they are below.
*Kaito Marx vs Yoshi Hirano
*Queen Bee vs Sara Savage (in an I Quit match)
*Misaki Toyoda vs Chocho (for the BWQ championship)
Does anyone have any predictions? If so, let me know. I'll see you all next time. Any and all comments are welcome.
