A Breathtaking Lesson

Another day, another workout. Although on this particular day, Nora Novák found herself looking forward to her daily visit to the gym. She had ordered custom leggings reflecting the design of her ring gear, and they had finally arrived today. Putting them on along with a sports bra and sneakers, she observed herself in the mirror, admiring her reflection. She took a picture on her phone and posted it on Instagram, before finally heading off.

Nora:

Soon after she arrived at the gym. And from the moment she walked in the door, she felt eyes turning her way everywhere she went, men and women she passed not so subtly sneaking peeks and checking her out. Nora didn’t openly acknowledge any of it, but couldn’t help but grin confidently as she strode through the gym.

She found a training dummy, nearly as tall as her and generally shaped like a person, and carried it off into the ring. Once inside of it, she kicked her sneakers off and set them off to the side, took a few moments to stretch, then picked the dummy back up and brought it to the middle of the ring. She took it by the wrist, pivoted her hip into it and flipped the dummy over her shoulder, slamming it onto the mat with a loud crash, then quickly swiveled onto it in a mount while leaning her chest down onto where its face would be. Then Nora stood and picked the dummy back up and slammed it with the same takedown, but this time when she pounced on it she moved to pin its shoulders with her knees while sitting on top of the face. Again and again she repeated the process, each takedown leading straight into a different smother technique. This training method was likely as unusual as Nora’s smother-centric style itself, but anyone watching could clearly see the effectiveness of it, as she moved with practiced fluidity and precision over the dummy.

Today had come off to be a rather slow day for Tatsumi. Having joined AFW and yet to have a match set up, Tatsumi had decided to go down to the gym to practice his techniques. Setting up a punching bag, he warmed up throwing kicks across the right of it in quick succession, showing that he had little trouble in preforming the basics despite his insistent need to keep it up.

Although after awhile into his training he felt the atmosphere in the gym seem to change, looking around and seeing several fellow patrons all looking in the same direction to his confusion. That was when he looked behind to see the source of their attention, he himself temporarily caught by the stunning beauty of Nora as she walked through the gym, grabbing her own test dummy and bringing it to the ring in the vast gym. He'd attempt to look away and continue his training, but when he heard a slam on the ring's canvas he looked back to see Nora's training.

He was surprised at the seemingly unorthodox method of wrestling, flipping the dummy over and then preforming one of several pins that resulted in a smother. But looking past that, Tatsumi saw that her movements were fluid despite her tall stature. Along with that, her technique and process showed a deep understanding of grappling, the vital piece of a technique that the boy was lacking in. Aside from that, Tatsumi was also aware that many of the women in the AFW would do similar moves that otherwise seemed unorthodox. Seeing as he didn't have an experience, and he was also looking to get an understanding behind grapples, perhaps making some approach was ideal?

It took him awhile to do so, unsure of what the right way to approach such a woman as he's green in the league and an unknown. Eventually he went with the most simple way, walking to the ring and looking up past the ropes as Nora was in the midst of preforming another one of her smothers on the dummy. "Hi there! I'm Tatsumi Namura, it's nice to meet you." He introduced himself to Nora, waving his hand. "Sorry if you're in the middle of something, but I was wondering if I could ask for some help with something?"

Tatsumi:

Nora knew perfectly well that people in the gym were giving her side-eyed glances and odd looks while she trained. She was just so used to it that she’d stopped caring what people thought about it long before she found her way into AFW. Completely tuning out the rest of the gym, she continued on through her routine.

Double leg takedown into side mount, then cross body pin with her belly over the dummy’s face.

Another takedown into mount, quick shift up into a forward facesit.

And that was when she noticed a voice calling out to her. Still sitting astride what would be the dummy’s face, she glanced up at the stranger and smiled while waving back. “Nora Novak. Nice to meet you too. What do you need help with?”