Kawaii Crossroads

Micca, as nervous as she had seemed just a couple minutes ago, did not hesitate when Claire handed her this arm wrestling challenge. That, alone, was a very good sign, a sign that she was going to be able to throw everything she had into a title match with Claire, and she was not going to shrink away from a tough situation. Claire made her arm rigid, sticking straight up from where her elbow connected with the table, and let Micca do the same, setting up her arm and locking their hands together, ready for the contest to begin.

Claire, too, noticed the eyes on them, some of the bigger Friction girls taking notice of what was going on, with one or two other kawaiis watching with keen interest. The two of them were not intending to make this a big display, of course. But any kind of action like this was going to draw some eyes!

"Alright, if you're ready, start on three, okay?" Claire would say, as she gave Micca's hand a squeeze. "One, two...three!"

With many eyes on them, Micca couldn't help but feel a bit nervous, but she wouldn't back down right after accepting Claire's challenge. Now that their hands were locked together, it's about time for them to start the arm wrestling. Preparing herself, she gave the kawaii champion's hand a slight squeeze after taking a deep breath.

When it finally began, Micca would muster her strength to push Claire's hand down while also enduring her push as well. Right at this moment, Micca decided to give everything she got because there's no way she could hold back! She might not have a great strength like many bigger girls here in AFW, but as long as she gave everything she got, she knew that no matter what the outcome might be, she wouldn't regret it.

"Hhhnnnnrghh!" Micca grunted as she exerted her strength in her attempt to push Claire's hand down. She wanted to show it to the champion that she would give her all, no matter what. Now that there was an opportunity before her eyes, going all out was the only logical thing to do.

Claire felt Micca squeeze her hand back, signalling the fact that she was ready to go. Claire closed her eyes, took a deep breath, calmed her mind and focused everything on their locked hands, then opened her eyes again. Everything was in place, people were watching, and so Claire counted up to three, and then, as soon as they started, she gave everything she had, throwing all her strength into her arm and trying to lever Micca's arm down onto the table!

Micca gave everything she had right from the start, too. It made sense, seeing as how this wasn't a full test of strength to begin a lengthier match: this arm wrestle was the whole kit and caboodle, and there was no reason to hold anything in reserve. But when both of them shoved the other's arm with everything they had, the initial result was probably to be expected: their arms trembled upright with exertion, palms pressing hard into each other, but neither one moved much, as the two similarly-sized kawaiis seemed to be possessed of just about equal strength, at least in terms of pure pushing power!

"Rrrrrghk..." Claire groaned, as she kept on pushing, trying to turn her hand just a little bit, not enough to do any damage or even hurt, but just to try to reposition them, if only by a millimeter, and gain some leverage as she and Micca battled!

Despite the cafeteria being air-conditioned, beads of sweat started to appear on Micca's brow as she mustered her strength to push Claire's hand in this contest. It seemed that both of them were evenly-matched, or at least were equal in terms of pushing power. But, tenacity and endurance were also important in arm-wrestling, and she would make sure to endure as long as she could while trying to give her all in order to push Claire's hand down.

"Mmmmnnghh..." Micca groaned when she felt her muscle start aching after a while. This could be bad, the kawaii thought. While they might be equal in terms of strength, Micca might be sort of lacking in terms of endurance, and before she knew it, her hand was slowly pushed back by the kawaii champion, and she gritted her teeth and shut her eyes as she tried to jerk her hand up in order to give her arm an additional boost.

The number of girls watching this arm-wrestling contest started to increase. Some of them had speculated that Claire would be the one to win this, while there were some who believed in darkhorse victory and thought that Micca could win this one.

Even as her arm started to push Micca's downward, showing the considerable endurance which Claire had built up over years and years competing against all kinds of girls, Claire felt the effects of the prolonged struggle. It had been well over a minute, already, and her arm was trembling not just with exertion, but now with the telltale signs of fatigue at its very onset, and her brow, like Micca's, was starting to glisten with sweat, one particular bead sliding all the way down the bridge of her nose and dripping down onto her upper lip, almost breaking her concentration before Claire found a way to sort of feel through it and into their clasped hands.

The crowd murmured as Claire got Micca's hand halfway down onto the table, and then, suddenly, the brunette rookie managed to fight her way back, shoving upwards, keeping her arm rigid and wrenching upward, making Claire gasp as she started to lose ground, their hands now almost straight up and equal again. "Rrrrruuhhhggh...!" she gasped, as she tried to use what altitude advantage she still had, trying to force her hand down on top of Micca's, her palm feeling sweaty, slipping slightly against Micca's as she tried to extinguish the comeback...!

The sudden boost helped Micca somehow to prevent an immediate defeat, but right after that, her arm was throbbing from all the stress while trying to push Claire's hand. Soon after that, her burst of power immediately receded and her arm was slowly pushed down by the kawaii champion. She tried to jerk her arm again in order to give herself another boost, but her aching arm made such a thing difficult to accomplish.

"Mrrghhhhh!!"

Scrunching up her brow, she continued pushing against Claire's arm even though her arm was slowly pushed down to the table. When the back of her hand was inches away from the table, she attempted to resist, trying her best to push back despite her endurance running out. She might be losing, but she wouldn't give Claire an easy victory if she could help it.

The arm wrestling match had gone on for at least two, if not three minutes now, and any arm wrestling match which went on for that long was definitely going to be a sight to behold. In this case, the audience of Friction wrestlers who were watching from nearby tables or, in a couple cases, standing up to get a slightly better view over the heads of the two struggling little fighters. The two of them were in a bit of disarray now, as they were sweaty, red-faced, and trembling as they still shoved against each other's arms with all the force they had.

Claire's whole face was wet with sweat droplets, and her glasses were a little askew from wiggling and shifting her weight around. Her arm was trembling, and the aching in it, even as she began to crush Micca's counterattack and slowly regained her advantage, forcing the brunette's arm further and further down towards the table, only kept on piling up, her whole limb throbbing, and even as it seemed Micca's resistance was crumbling completely, Claire was having difficulty summoning up enough strength to put her foe away for good.

For now, she focused on keeping Micca's hand where it was: mere inches from being pinned. She would restrict the battlefield to just those few inches, and, slowly but surely, would try to fight it further and further down, using her own aching, almost limp hand to just try to weigh Micca's equally exhausted limb into the table.

"Gyyuuh...!"

Micca's endurance was ebbing away the longer she kept on pushing, with her hand being slowly pushed down by Claire. It was clear now who was about to win, with her hand merely inches away from the table. She no longer had enough strength to push back, and little by little, her hand got closer and closer to the table. "Mmrrghhhh... nnghhhh!!"

Her spirit kept reminding her to not give up, to not allow her opponent to gain another inch, but her body was screaming to her, telling her that it no longer had enough strength to continue. Her whole arm felt hot, and Micca could even see droplets of sweat on her own arm as it was slowly pushed down towards the table. Still, Micca kept resisting, kept denying Claire an easy victory over her, but there was a point where she could no longer keep going, and when she finally reached that point, Micca could tell that it was over.

The back of her hand touched the table, ending the arm wrestling with Claire's victory. For a few seconds, she did not move her hand before she brought her other hand to her forehead, wiping the beads of sweat off. "Hah... *pant* uuh... d-dangit..." she expressed her disappointment in her own defeat before she sighed. She would let go of Claire's hand, feeling her arm throbbing from the intense contest of strength. "W-well... it's your win, Claire-san..." she said, smiling at the kawaii champion. Sure, she felt a little bummed that she lost, but the match itself was actually very exciting.

The margin of this arm wrestling match was a lot narrower than the result might have shown. Though Claire's arm had never been forced past their midpoint, it had taken her almost five minutes to finally work Micca's all the way down onto the table. That told her that her advantage was small, tiny even. It was enough to win, but not enough to win without working a hell of a lot harder than one might hope to do in a contest like this. In a full-on wrestling match, that would mean that she could not just bully Micca around the ring. Claire was older and more experienced, and she would need every little bit of strategy she could bring to bear in order to keep her incredibly slim muscular advantage.

If Micca got the jump on her even once, then that one single moment could be enough to flip the match from a Claire victory to a defeat. As she let her arm go limp, relaxing after that brutal, sweaty contest, Claire would smile. She was pretty sure she had made the right choice about who was getting this title shot.

"Haaaa...heh...gosh, I can barely move my arm..." she would pant, bringing her other hand up to massage her lower arm, trying to get some feeling besides that dull, throbbing ache back into it. She craned her neck to wipe her own forehead on the sleeve of her shirt, something which wasn't exactly dignified but was necessary. She already had an annoying droplet of sweat on one glasses lens.

"That was...really quite tough. And I bet you're getting stronger every day, even without the motivation that this title match is going to give you." She took a deep breath in, then let it out. She glanced around to their crowd, some of whom were still looking on. "I'll need to step up my game..."

Micca clenched and unclenched her hand, still feeling sore but was getting better. From this, she had learned that she still needed to work hard in order to improve herself. Hearing Claire's words, Micca beamed, feeling motivated. She might have lost in this arm-wrestling, but she had learned something important, and she was thankful that she got to meet the kawaii champion. If she hadn't met her, then this kind of opportunity would never arise, and she would never learn this important lesson.

"Haa... well, thank you so much, Claire-san..." Micca said, smiling at Claire. "I'll work harder so that after this, I can be much better than you." At this point, winning the kawaii title would just be a bonus for her. What was important the most was that she would be facing the reigning kawaii champion in the ring soon, and she couldn't wait.

"Putting that aside, arm-wrestling with you makes me thirsty," Micca said, changing the topic. "I'm going to get something to drink. Anything you want?" She asked Claire as she would then get up from her seat so that she could get some drinks for both of them.