Japan-U.S. Relations

Takiyama Miyabi skipped down the hall, glancing at each door as she passed it, peering down each open corridor, seeing plenty of cute girls and friendly faces, but not the one she was looking for. She had been looking forward to this for a while. She had been preparing a long time, actually, for this moment. Her mentor Akashi had helped her with those preparations some, in between their usual training sessions. She had also started studying online. Finally, after many months, the sumo girl finally felt that she knew English well enough that she could go back to the first girl she had fought at AFW and finally have the opportunity to actually talk to Sally Brown!

She remembered how much fun she had had with Sally. The American was big and cuddly, and had quite the mild, sweet temperament. Miyabi knew how rare it was to find a girl that nice at AFW. She felt like she and Sally had hit it off right away, even though they couldn’t speak to each other across the language barrier. Since then, Miyabi had seen Sally a couple of times—only briefly, in the locker room or in the hall—but they still hadn’t been able to communicate.

Well, that was going to change today! Miyabi still wasn’t perfectly fluent with English, but she knew enough to talk to Sally now!

She was sure that Sally was around here somewhere. She had seen the American girl around at this time of day in the AFW facilities before. It was just a matter of finding her. Dressed in a T-shirt and a skirt, Miyabi didn’t mind walking. She felt comfortable, and she felt giddy. This was all so exciting! She headed for the locker room next, wondering if she might find Sally there.

"Hmm hmm hmm...one, two three, A, B, C..." Miyabi would sing to herself as she skipped, trying to put herself in an English mindset.

Sally had been havin' a bad time.

Since she had fought with Miyabi, months ago, she had been on a losing streak. A pretty bad one! Her record was pretty crappy, and knowing just what kind of horrible gals you could run into in the AFW had definitely dampened her spirits. Her confusing, weird match against Mazzie had just been a couple of weeks ago, and she still hadn't really gotten back into the saddle since.

She wasn't sure what was gunna get her out of her funk... although meeting with Kameyo had helped some. Maybe she just needed to find some more nice, precious wrestlers like herself?

She turned the corner, daydreaming, hardly paying attention to who or what she may accidentally walk into!

Miyabi had sort of gotten herself lost in her search. She wanted to be thorough, but in doing so she had started out with some pretty weird, out-of-the-way sections of the AFW complex, and she wasn’t entirely sure how to get back to the locker room. She followed one hallway down, realized it was the wrong way, went all the way back, then took a completely different hallway.

Finally, when she passed the cafeteria, she knew she was in the right place. Hurrying a little, knowing that it was starting to get late and knowing that she definitely didn’t want to miss the chance to talk to Sally, Miyabi would jog quickly down the hall, taking the next corner a little faster than she might otherwise have…

“Ooomphf!”

Miyabi would smack right into someone. She would bounce off the other fleshy girl and stumble back. Her eyes were wide as she started to apologize, but then she noticed who she had run into. “Huh? Sally-chan?” she would say, before she would perk up and smile. <Oh, Sally-chan! I found you! I was looking for you!>

Remembering that she wanted to show off her new language skills, Miyabi would put her hands on Sally’s shoulders, as if holding the American still, and would say, with a little effort: “Hi, uh, Sally-chan. How…are you?”

Sally let a surprised squawk as someone walked smackdab into her, sending the tall American wrestler stumbling backwards. She shook her head, then looked down at whoever she had hit, starting to extend a hand to help them up... before realizing that not only had they not fallen, but that... they looked... familiar...

"Miyabi?" She said, looking her in the eye as the sumo wrestler put her hands on her shoulders, holding her steady. She looked down into the slightly shorter woman's eyes, hands holding Miyabi's waist for a second before awkwardly moving up to around her torso, then sliding up again to hold her by the shoulders. There. Better.

She couldn't hide her shock as Miyabi spoke in English, though, gasping softly and staring down at her! "Aww, hey, lookit you!" She said, big, delighted smile on her lips, earlier musings forgotten. "Y'all are speakin' English, Aw, glory be, you couldn't speak a lick of it in our match! You must be one mighty smart girl, Miyabi-chan!"

Sally’s hands came to rest on Miyabi’s shoulders, too, as the Japanese girl would smile at Sally and start talking in the American’s native language. Judging by Sally’s shocked, dumbfounded reaction, Miyabi assumed that her English was actually pretty good. She was glad. She only got to practice it in front of another person every once in a great while, when she and Tanikaze-sama were practicing their sumo techniques.

Miyabi would listen closely to what Sally had to say. A lot of it still didn’t make sense to her. She sort of knew the word “glory,” but “glory be” didn’t really seem to mean anything, and Miyabi thought that the words might be in the wrong order. Sally’s accent almost tripped her up, too—but Miyabi had prepared herself mentally for it, and she remembered that “Y’all” was just a contraction. You. All. Y’all. It was still a little weird, but she understood it.

“I…yeah, I am smart! Very smart!” Miyabi would agree with a laugh. She didn’t have the words for anything more nuanced than that sort of boastful pronouncement. “I worked very—or, umm, I worked…a lot, to, uh, learn English. I like it!” She would chuckle a little. Her vocabulary still wasn’t as expansive as she would prefer. <I still have a lot to learn, though, before I can speak it like you and the other Americans do, Sally-chan!> she would add in Japanese, even though she doubted Sally would understand it.

"Aww, you are very smart!" Sally said, giggling and with a big, honest grin on her face. "Gosh, I'm so proud of you, Miyabi. You are super smart!" She paused for a moment, then furrowed her brow and concentrated.

Sally pulled back and grabbed Miyabi by the hand. "I know about this little side lobby that's almost never used with great couches. Let's go over there and chitty chat!" She said cheerfully in English, tugging on Miyabi's hand as she walked her through the hallways of the lesser used parts of the AFW, until they found themselves in a quiet reception area, unmanned and locked, with only one nice, big couch, which Sally plopped down on. "So... what have you been up to, Miyabi chan?"

"Thank you, Sally-chan! Thanks! You are very great!" Miyabi would sing happily, as Sally smiled at her and told her how smart she was. Miyabi liked being told she was smart, because those words hadn't been all too common when she was in school. She had usually heard something more along the lines of having potential, but not quite living up to it. Well, she wanted to change that.

Sally stopped and furrowed her brow when Miyabi spoke Japanese. The sumo girl wondered if her American counterpart had been learning a new language, too. That would be something!

As Sally grabbed her hand and spoke quickly in English, Miyabi would concentrate to try to understand. She didn't know what "lobby" was, or "chitty," but she thought she understood everything else. Well, she would just let Sally lead the way! When they got to the lobby and Sally plopped down on the big couch, Miyabi would happily plop down beside her.

"I, uh, I do a lot. Umm...I wrestled a lot of girls! Uh, some bad girls, some good girls. And I...I ate good food, too! Very good!" she would say. Then, she would ask Sally: "How are you, Sally-chan? Uh, what's up?"

"Hot darn!" Sally said, big smile on her lips. Sounds like Miyabi had been busy since their bout. The tough little gal must've been wrestling her pants off, by the sound of it--bad girls and good girls, huh? A brief wave of concern washed over Sally; had she fought her own Mazzie type? Not by the sounds of it--she seemed... quite cheerful! It was lucky they had randomly happened to bump into each other like this! "Sounds like y'all've been havin' quite the experience! And good food, too? That's great!"

She raised her right hand in the air and wiggled her fingers, cocking her neck to the side and making an 'ehhhh' sound as Miyabi answered her question. "Y'know, wrasslin'. Runnin' my diner. Same old, same old, really. Jus' the usual. 'M glad that y'all are havin' a good time, though!"

"Umm...yeah! Very good! Very great! I, uh, sometimes I am sad, or, uh, mad, but I am very good more," Miyabi would say, feeling her English slip a little as she tried to convey more complex concepts. Well, it was still a work in progress. Maybe Sally could help her with it a little bit, now that Miyabi was able to speak it well enough that they could understand each other!

Miyabi, when describing how she had been, dwelt briefly on her encounter with those evil Russians. But, almost as soon as the thought entered her head, it was gone. She couldn't be upset for long now that she finally was able to talk to Sally!

It was good to hear that Sally was doing alright, too, though she didn't seem to be too happy about what she had been doing. Miyabi wondered why. Wrestling was fun, and food was awesome, so if Sally got to do both it sounded like a dream come true.

"Oh, okay. The, uh, usual. Oh, and, yeah, my time is very good! But, umm...great now! I am happy I am talking to Sally-chan now!" Miyabi beamed merrily as she would throw her arms around Sally's waist and squeeze her tightly in a big hug!

"Ah, you sweetheart!" Sally said, overcome for a moment by Miyabi's sheer cuteness! The sumo was such a nice girl--and she seemed so happy to see her again, it made Brown want to blush. She hadn't realized she had made such a good impression on the girl!

She let out a small ooph as Miyabi caught her in a hug, before giving her an extra tight one of her own, grinning widely before pulling back a moment. "Hey, anyway... didja want to talk to me about somethin'?" She asked, flicking the hair from eyes