Soon after her victory against Hornet, Queen Bee was fit enough to return to her training at Berserk. It was basically the same as any other day at the gym; practicing moves, working out, training against submissions with Ryo. But at this day, things were going to be different.

"Hey, Dawn."

"Yes, Misaki?" Dawn asked the ace as she was setting down the dumbbells she was lifting.

"Come with me. I wanna show you something."

Dawn curiously followed to the far back of the gym. She and Misaki stopped at the front of a garage door. Misaki flipped open the switch and the door opened up. Inside was a dark room mostly. There was a light, but it shined right on a feature that Dawn didn't expect to see.

"Is that… mud?" Dawn asked.

"That's correct." Misaki said. "This is Berserk's special training course."

"Training?" Dawn asked. "I've never seen you girls do any mud wrestling."

"That's because this is a secret training session." Misaki said. "Since you broke expectations and bested the League of Evil, we believe that you have earned this opportunity."

"I see." Dawn said looking nervous.

"Is something up?" Misaki asked. "You ever mud wrestled before?"

"Well, once." Dawn said. "Back in America, I was booked for a wrestling gig at this Mud Fest. I was pitted against this pro mud wrestler named Muddy Maddy, but the problem was that I had absolutely no experience with mud wrestling, so I basically got dominated most of the match. I only won by a lucky roll-up and Maddy's been pestering me for a rematch ever since."

"I see." Misaki said. "Well, this is a training session, so you'll be practicing."

"All right." Dawn said. "So who am I practicing with? You?"

"Not me." Misaki said. She then pointed behind Dawn. "One of the best mud wrestlers I know."

Dawn turned to see a familiar woman with short, green hair and glasses. She also had on a white-and-blue two-piece.

"Kanae?" Dawn asked. "You're pitting me against someone who's just gotten back from sabbatical?"

"Believe it or not, Kanae has more experience with the special training than most other Berserk wrestlers." Misaki explained.

"That's right." Kanae said removing her glasses. "You'd do well not to underestimate me."

Dawn sighed before putting on her Queen Bee face. "Let's do this!"

Queen Bee and Kanae carefully stepped into the mud pit. They were careful not to slip on any mud stains.

"Well, this is starting off okay already." Misaki said.

"We haven't even started yet." Queen Bee said.

"Well, when we introduced Sakura to this training course, she immediately started slipping, falling, and pulling tops off by accident."

"Seriously?" Queen Bee asked. "Even I wasn't that clumsy."

"Let's just get this started." Kanae said eagerly. She didn't hesitate to grab Queen Bee's arm and flip her down into the mud. She then turned her over and applied a Boston crab. She wretched hard at Queen Bee's legs.

"GET OFF!" Queen Bee commanded as she struggled to get out. Fortunately for her, her legs were slippery enough for her to slide out of the hold.

"Nice escape." Kanae said as she stood up. "Go ahead and get up. I'd like to see you on the offensive."

Queen Bee winced in frustration thinking she wasn't taken seriously. She stood up facing Kanae and charged at her. She tackled the veteran into the mud and put her in a camel clutch. She managed to get a grunt from Kanae.

"Not bad…Kanae said. "But let's get creative."

Queen Bee was confused until Kanae grabbed a handful of mud and threw it right at her face. Queen Bee let go to dodge it, but that gave Kanae the chance she needed to throw her back landing facedown. She then slide her lower half under Queen Bee and wrapped her legs around her chest. Queen Bee was then lifted up with Kanae's legs before she was pushed down onto the mud. Kanae lifted her up and slammed her down again. After a third time, she let go letting Queen Bee spit out the mud she accidently swallowed.

"What was that?" Queen Bee asked.

"Rule number one: when training under me, expect the unexpected." Kanae advised.

"Under you?" Misaki asked.

"Yeah. You have Sakura and Juri has Elena." Kanae said. "I think it's about time I got a student of my own."

"Hold on. I don't need a teacher anymore." Queen Bee protested. "What could you have to teach me?"

"Well, I am schooling you in this session, aren't I?" Kanae asked.

"You nearly threw mud in my face before slamming my face into mud for real." Queen Bee argued.

"This is mud wrestling." Kanae reminded. "You can't expect normal rules to apply here. Look, how's about a wager? If I win, you let me teach you how we wrestle here in Berserk. You win, and I'll pull some strings with my publisher and put you on the front cover of the next magazine."

"That's not fair." Queen Bee said. "Misaki said you have experience with mud wrestling. I got lucky in the one match I had."

"Fine then." Kanae said. "Then how's about a handicap? If I don't make you submit in less than one minute, you can have the win."

"Just one minute?" Queen Bee asked. "All right. I'm sure I can hold out for that long. Start the clock, Misaki!"

Misaki shrugged and pulled out a stopwatch. As soon as she pressed the button to start, Queen Bee and Kanae grabbed each other in a test of strength. Queen Bee smirked and grabbed Kanae before dropping her in a belly-to-belly suplex. She then wrapped her muddy legs around Kanae's head and started squeezing.

"Looks like the tables have turned." Queen Bee said confidently. "Hey, Misaki, how much time is left?"

"40 seconds."

"Wow. Maybe I can get lucky and…"

Queen Bee was caught off guard when Kanae slid out and tossed her aside.

"Next lesson. Don't assume anything." Kanae said.

"Why you…"

Queen Bee tackled Kanae again, but the veteran turned the tables by somehow trapping Queen Bee in a dragon sleeper while applying a bodyscissors. Queen Bee struggled to try and slip out, but this time, Kanae had the hold locked tight. It was too much and Queen Bee was forced to tap out.

Kanae let go of Queen Bee and stood up. "How was that, Misaki?"

"You had 20 seconds to spare." Misaki said.

"This is so stupid!" Queen Bee complained. "I don't know why you thought I could do this!"

"Oh, I knew you couldn't." Misaki said.

"What?" Dawn gasped. "You set me up to fail? What the heck?"

"Dawn, the whole purpose of the special training is to get wrestlers here better at improvising." Kanae said. "If you only do what you know you can do, you can't improve. You're a powerful wrestler and that's how you managed to beat Hornet, but you're still rough around the edges at certain stuff. You're quick to assume and you underestimate your opponents. Against the wrong opponent, you'd be at a disadvantage. So I've decided to help you with that."

"I've already had training from one of the best wrestlers I know." Dawn said. "How can you possibly help me?"

"Well, I guess we'll see when we get there." Kanae said. "Anyway, now that you're familiar with this training, you should be ready for the next two."

"We'll begin the next one tomorrow." Misaki said.

Dawn looked nervous. "Are they as embarrassing as this one?"

"More or less." Misaki said. "Let's just say I've known plenty of wrestlers including myself who lost their tops to them. For you, today might just have been lucky."

Dawn sighed covering her face with her right hand. "This is going to be the most embarrassing three days of my career."

Author's Note: That's right. For these next couple of chapters, we'll be referencing the specials. And yes, I am making Kanae to be Queen Bee's Berserk mentor. Mostly, I'm thinking about how Kanae doesn't have a student and Queen Bee is the only person qualified for that since this is her story. I hope that's not stretching too far.

Any and all comments are welcome.