Backstage Encounter With The Queen of Queens

Risako's silence as she examined him began to worry Kazuma. With how he played if off, it was obvious to anyone that Kazuma was trying to hide something and in this instance trying to hide something from Panther Risako of all people was probably an exercise in futility. She'd probably look up his matches once she got home and see him for the pervert he was in them and given how she was one of the biggest stars on the roster she'd probably have management ban him from any and all future Friction shows she was in. The moment that thought crossed his mind he saw Risako's lips begin to open he could already picture her asking for more details about those matches........... only what actually came from her mouth were words of praise!

Kazuma couldn't believe that he was actually being praised by Panther Risako for having gone one on one with Justice Asuka, something that she herself hadn't done in her distinguished career...at least not yet. "W-Well I didn't exactly lose, I actually kind of fought her to a draw. If she had been in her prime I'm sure I wouldn't have been so lucky to get her to that point. It was still a good match though." Kazuma replied as he scratched his cheek in a somewhat bashful manner.

It was after that, that Risako would accept his offer to escort her out but with a small bonus of her own, in the form of offering to buy them both some coffee. There was no way in hell he'd ever even think about turning down that offer! "YES MA'AM! I mean, yes as long as I could maybe someday pay you back for it." Kazuma nervously blushed as he gave his reply before looking down, seeing his recently acquired Panther Risako poster on the ground. Kazuma would quickly reach down and pick it up. "Can't leave without this, so shall we go?" Kazuma asked while offering his arm to Risako, sure it'd probably look a bit odd given the size difference between them but it's the though that counts, right?

Risako couldn't help but smile at Kazuma's enthusiasm. It wasn't often, after all, that one got to have coffee with one of their idols. Come to think of it, it wasn't often that one ended up fighting in the same league as their idols, so Kazuma must have been feeling doubly excited. Such was his eagerness that he even extended his arm, offering it for Risako.

Well, she certainly couldn't turn down such a gentlemanly gesture, now could she?

And so Risako allowed Kazuma to escort her to the cafeteria, reminding her of all the world of an excited puppy on a leash. When they finally reached the cafeteria, Risako ordered her usual-- a cocoa latte with extra cinammon and a bit of whipped cream, with a red bean pastry on the side-- and after covering Kazuma's order (and she was admittedly curious as to what he ordered), found a table for them to sit down it, reclining in her seat as she crossed her legs and took a delicate sip of her latte.

"So, I've gotta ask," she said to Kazuma, "what drew you into wrestling in the first place?" She adopted a mock starry-eyed expression. "Feel free to say it was me, by the way-- that you were inspired by my strength, power, and above all beauty in the ring, and wanted to follow in my amazing footsteps." She chuckled to herself. "But in all seriousness, I'm curious."

Kazuma's excitement must've been very apparent to everyone he and Risako walked passed as they made their way to the cafeteria. He must've looked like Risako's newly adopted puppy, in fact he was sure that if he had a tail it would be wagging around just as energetically. Who could blame him, after all he was walking side-by-side with one of the greatest women in wrestling!

Kazuma did his gentlemanly duty and escorted Risako to the cafeteria, making sure he was behaving his utmost best to not do anything disrespectful to Risako.... or anything that his "Shadow" could act on and boot him out. The two of them approached the counter, Risako's order was simple but seemed so elegant...at least to Kazuma anyway. Kazuma would get a light and sweet espresso along with a glazed cinnamon roll and quickly join the Queen at the table that she had chosen for the two of them. He would quietly take a bite out of the cinnamon roll and take a sip out of his coffee. It was a nice, quiet moment that Kazuma wouldn't deny having dreamt of prior to his acceptance into AFW.

It was then that Risako would ask him how he got into wrestling in the first place with a fake starry-eyed look on her face, all the while feigning vanity as she suggested herself being a major influence. Kazuma couldn't help but laugh as it felt like something that one of her WA Colleagues, Beauty Ichigaya, would do. Well he didn't see any harm in telling her. "First of all, great Beauty Ichigaya impression, hehe. Secondly, I'll admit the hope of meeting you someday was one reason although I don't think I could ever hope to follow in your footsteps. But the main reason I got into it was to sort of reinvent myself after a couple of stupid things I did back home." Kazuma said as he took another bite out of the cinnamon roll.

Risako couldn't help but laugh at Kazuma's mention of her frequent rival. "Oh, that wasn't Ichigaya, this is," she said, before delicately putting her fingers to her lips. "Ara ara, are you not astounded by my beauty? Do you not feel luck to be deemed worthy to share the ring with me? Pfhah! You are lucky to be able to bask in my mere presence, peasant! Ohohohohohoho!"

That little bit of levity out of the way, she leaned back in her seat and began to delicately dissect the red bean pastry with her fork. She raised a slight eyebrow at Kazuma's explanation for why had had started a wrestling career. "Hmm...I won't pry into what exactly these 'stupid things' were," she said. "It sounds like they are a bit of a sore spot for you, so you don't have to elaborate on them if you don't want to. What I will say is that you're not the first person who has started this career in order to escape from a troubled life. A lot of my colleagues, opponents, and friends all started off in the same boat." She took a sip from your cocoa. "If you were trying to reinvent yourself, though, then I guess what I should be asking is: who did you want to become, and do you think you've succeeded in becoming that person?"

Kazuma had to admit, Risako's impression of Ichigaya was dead on. He actually briefly imagined himself in the ring with her, although she was wearing Ichigaya's gear as opposed to her regular Panther themed outfit. He almost instinctually went down to bow to and worship her but stopped himself so as not to trouble the Queen of queens.

Kazuma listened carefully to Risako's words, although if he had to be honest he probably wouldn't have minded sharing what those "stupid things" were with her, a feeling he very rarely got when talking to other people. Kazuma would easily picture a number of people getting into wrestling to change themselves, the most infamous case he could think of was Rumble Rose's Candy Cane, but then Risako asked him two questions he hadn't really thought to ask himself. He thought long and hard about his answers, eating the cinnamon roll while taking sips of his espresso between bites, to give Risako a good answer.

"W-well if I would say that I wanted to be a bit more adventurous and the first thing that came to mind was the Adventurers I would read about in manga and light novels. Kinda stupid I know but, it helped me feel brave. As far as I can say I'd say I succeeded, I mean I don't think I'd be a part of AFW and sitting here enjoying coffee with you if I didn't." Kazuma blushed as he said that, reaching for a napkin to clean his hands and mouth. It was then that a certain question came to his mind, one that he had always wanted to ask Risako if he ever got the chance to meet her.

"Hey, Risako-san. What made you take up wrestling? I mean with your brains I'm sure you could've become a successful CEO of a company somewhere and with your beauty I imagine becoming a super model or actress would've been easy for you. What made you decide that you wanted to body slam people through tables or endure possible career ending injuries? If it's a personal thing, that's fine. You don't have to tell me, I'll just leave it like that." Kazuma asked genuinely curious as to what started Risako's path to wrestling stardom.

Risako listened to Kazuma's explanation of why he had wanted to be a pro wrestler, and couldn't help but let out a light-hearted laugh. "You'd be surprised at the number of people I've met who entered the ring for that exact same reason," she said, taking a sip of her coffee. "They either wanted to be a superhero, or they wanted to follow in the footsteps of a manga protagonist. The ring allows them to be just that, and honestly, I don't think that reason is strange at all."

She paused, at that moment, as Kazuma asked why she had become a wrestler, when she could easily have been anything else. "My my, a CEO?" she chuckled. "I'm afraid I don't have the eye for business to go that far. As for modelling...well, believe it or not, I have had more than a few photoshoots...but that was because of my wrestling career more than anything else." She casually brushed her violet hair back. "Believe it or not, I didn't make the decision to join on my own. My best friend Kyoko...you probably know her better as Blade Uehara...and I were both massive wrestling fans way back since we were kids, and we both one day made the decision to train up and join a pro league. In part, we both wanted to be like the amazing women we saw on TV...but mostly, it was a mutual decision we made as friends"

She gave a wistful sigh. "Kyoko and I never did stay together as a tag team, and after a while we did go our separate ways...it's only recently, here in the AFW, that we ran into each other again. But I don't regret joining for one moment. I met a lot of amazing people, had a lot of thrilling fights, and, in a weird way, built up a legacy I can call my own."

Kazuma listened carefully as Risako spoke. Of course he knew that she and Blade Uehara were friends before they split up but he didn't know that their friendship went that far back. Although speaking about it seemed to open up some old wounds, not surprising considering the main reason why they ended their tag team partnership was because Risako started holding back after the Dragon Fujiko incident. "I'm sorry. That probably back some bad memories." Kazuma apologized as he was responsible for asking about her history.

"Did you ever try reaching out to Blade-san, to say you're sorry? I'm sure the two of you could patch things up if you tried. A friendship like the ones you two seemed to have could certainly be patched up right?" He asked. Sure part of him liked the idea of seeing the two of them teaming up again but mostly he understood how lonely it could be to lose someone close to you cause of one event and with what Risako had more or less gone through even after they broke up publicly in the ring, it'd be messed up if they still didn't hang out privately.

Risako raised an eyebrow as Kazuma apologized for bringing up bad memories. In part, it was true that his question had brought up things that Risako didn't like to dwell on, but he could hardly have known that his question would lead back to that dark chapter of her life. At any rate, it hadn't been his intention to make her feel bad. "No need to apologize, Kazuma," she said witha bright smile. "My history is my history, good and bad. I don't believe in pretending it didn't happen."

As she took another sip of her mocha, she raised an eyebrow at Kazuma's follow up question. "Funny you should ask that," she said with a smile. "I actually ran into Uehara again a few months back. We...well, we had a lot of things we had to talk about, but we're officially going to restart our tag team! Nothing had been set in stone yet for our matches, but we both want to fight alongside one another again." She beamed. "If we ever do get something scheduled, I'll make sure you get a front row seat!"

Kazuma sipped his coffee quietly as he listened to Risako talk about Uehara. Apparently the two of them had connected after reuniting here in AFW, what they talked about he could only guess and would never actually try to pry into but then she delivered one bit of news that he knew would make everyone single Panther Risako and Blade Uehara go wild. The two of them were getting the team back together, a one of the few dreams that Kazuma had always hoped would come true.

"THAT'S GREAT, RISAKO-SAN!" He exclaimed in the cafeteria. "I'm sure that you two will dominate the Tag Team division!" Kazuma felt like a high school senior getting into the high profile College that they applied to with a full scholarship. Risako and Blade's team chemistry was amazing, with few teams being able to truly compete with them, even among WA's tag team division. He couldn't be anymore excited for their reunion, or at least that was what he thought, until Risako told him that she'd get him a front row seat to their reunion match! Kazuma was so excited and grateful that he would get out of his seat, take her free hand, and kneel before her like an adventurer would before an actual queen in a fantasy world. "Thank you, Risako-neechan!" He said before going in to kiss her hand.....only to stop once he realized what he was about to do and what he had once again called her. He would get back up and sit back down into his seat. ".....Sorry, I got a bit carried away." He would quietly say as he blushed profusely and silently drank his coffee.

Once again, Risako had to admit to herself that she found Kazuma's enthusiasm adorable. Not many people knew about the conversation between her and Blade thus far, and to be able to tell someone else felt...well, like a relief, honestly. What's more, hearing someone else be enthusiastic about the news was more than a little gratifying.

What she didn't expect was for Kazuma to practically be jumping up and down in excitement, or for him to seemingly reach for one of Risako's hands to kiss them. Thankfully, Kazuma seemed to restrain himself at that point. And it had been a good thing, too-- otherwise, Risako might have had to get a little slappy. All the same, Risako chuckled to herself at the bashful look Kazuma gave after restraining himself.

"No harm done," she said, sipping her own mocha. "But don't go spreading this around, okay? Nothing has been made official yet, and I'm hoping an announcement can be made when everything is finalized. I want to give all of our fans as big of a surprise as I just gave you, after all."