The Beat (Open)

Kari knew she would be punished. She always knew whenever the lights started flashing behind her car that she'd be punished. At this point, she felt deep in her heart that the others on the force had memorized her license just to catch her going the teeniest bit too fast when she left the house. The commander had yelled at her again. That was annoying and this probably meant a few more months of inactivity while her request for promotion was moved to the bottom of the pile. If that wasn't bad enough, she was given the most boring and least interesting and most not fast paced job that wasn't paperwork. At least it wasn't paperwork.

Kari walked through the so called Lover's park, her shoulders stiff and a forced smile on her face as she nodded to passers by. It wasn't as if there was any real crime here, occasionally a litterer needed a citation, or two people were loving each other in the bushes, but that rarely happened in the day and she'd never seen caught anyone else doing it. She adjusted her sunglasses and looked up at the sky. Storm clouds were gather which meant people would be leaving and even less interesting things would happen on her patrol.

At this moment, what she wanted was to be at home. Then she could get in her car and drive for awhile, let loose the tension that boredom always seemed to leave in her muscles. Of course,that would likely lead to another ticket and more punishment. She considered running, it would be the same as patrolling the path, she'd just see all of it several times more than previously planned, but she dismissed the idea. Running police rarely was a good thing for the public eye. So she readjusted her sunglasses, forced the smile back onto her face and continued to patrol the paths. Still better than paperwork.

For a few brief moments the public space known colloquially as Lover's Park had become an arena packed to the brim with anticipating fans. A crowd on the edge of its seat as the battle between two titans of the squared circle went toe-to-toe. It'd been a long match full of momentum shifts, exciting moments that shocked the crowd and near falls. Now the end was near, only one of the two competitors was going to emerge victorious after a long and grueling fight. On one hand the nefarious Ultimo Diablo, the masked terror from Mexico or somewhere that spoke Spanish, the heel who'd humiliated the Golden Casear. The opponent, whom the fans were fully behind, was none other than the Yule Cat, an athletic young lady who wore nekomimi to the ring and threatened to tear into opponents not wearing new clothes.

"And Diablo lands a dropkick, the Cat might be out of lives now!" Chifuyu offered as commentary while she fell to the ground near a park bench as if she'd been hit by the attack.

Then she rolled to the side, struggled to her feet and fiercely punched the thin air. It was a bizarre tableau as the brunette fought an invisible opponent in the nearly empty section of the park. She'd been at it for about 10 minutes, throwing herself around like a dedicated stunt double rehearsing her next project. Complete with her own commentary as she battled the villain who'd stolen her beloved uncle's mask. Now she grabbed her imaginary opponent and made a slit-throat gesture before acting out a powerbomb and going for the pin. As she lay on the ground she slapped the walkway with a hand and counted out the 1-2-3 before leaping again to her feet.

"She did it! By god she did it! The Yule Cat is the new World Champion!" she declared excitedly as she picked up the flimsy spray-painted cardboard title belt from the bench and draped it over her shoulder. As she celebrated her imaginary victory she imagined her cousin being there with her, cheering on her victory. Her pretty, energetic, awesome cousin.. who she wanted to kiss.

She blushed, shook the thought and then held her belt aloft, "Here is your winner.. and NEW DCW Champion.. the YUUUUUULE CAAAAT!" All while having no idea that someone was coming up the path towards her.

Kari was nearly fed up with the whole business of punishment. In fact, she was quite heavily considering the merits of exploring the outskirts of the park if only for the mild excitement of attempting to get lost in the woods. That would be dereliction of duty though and would probably lead to even more punishment, less driving, and a further delay in promotion. Fortunately, her day got a lot more exciting when she heard a fair bit of scuffling and some shouting. It was her time to shine or at least glimmer a small bit.

Kari ran towards the sound, she hopped over a park bench and ran toward the hedge, behind which the sound was coming from. With a high leap, she jumped over the hedge and shouted "Hold it right-". This was immediately cut off as her back foot was caught in the hedge and she hit the ground rolling ass over teakettle. It had hurt, quite a lot in fact, but she was very quickly back on her feet. "Hold it." She said, not quite as loud as she looked around. Her eyes scanned the area. There was nobody around except a single woman. On closer examination, it was a girl wearing some kind of cardboard thing on her shoulder. Kari brushed herself off a bit and began walking toward the girl, ignoring the fact that she'd just seen a path through the hedge not fifteen feet further down the path.

"You there, what's going on." She called out to the girl. While Kari approached, she was desperately trying to nonchalantly fix her hair and check if any part of her was bleeding, though that was hard without a mirror and without embarrassing herself further in front of the strange girl with the cardboard shoulder pad.

Bizarrely the thing that interrupted the Yule Cat's victory celebration was the sudden intrusion of another woman. Not one wearing a luchadore mask, spandex or anything resembling ring gear so clearly this wasn't just part of her imaginary match. A very real, flesh and blood woman who had dramatically burst through the bushes and would have looked really cool had it not been for her landing. A landing which caused her to tumble forward afterwards. It was just ridiculous enough that she started giggling a little at the sight of such a tall woman making such an awkward landing. That this wasn't just some absurdly tall young woman wasn't evident to Chifuyu until Kari had stood to full height.

Then she realized the woman was a police officer or at least some kind of cosplayer. Actually, Chifu mused, the woman would perhaps make a good wrestler if she were so inclined and could improve her agility. Tall women weren't as common so she could really make a splash in a way that few had ever been capable of before. Musings aside she noted how the woman fussed with her hair and momentarily wondered why that was. Having the question thrown at her was enough to end any speculation Chifuyu might've managed to muster. As both a proper young lady and an aspiring champion she would deal with it using grace, class and sophistication. Smiling warmly she gave her belt a pat as she looked the officer right in the eyes, her own full of confidence.

"I just won the world title of Disney Championship Wrestling, that's all. Sorry if I made a scene of myself, that wasn't my intention," Chifuyu explained quite matter-of-factly, "Is there a problem?"

Kari lightly put her hand over her mouth as if considering something as she approached the girl and heard her excuse. Of course the real reason was so she could glance down at it and see if her nose or lip was bleeding. Neither were, fortunately. "Dis-Disney." The word sounded familiar but nothing seemed to fit into any context, none of the words seemed to go together. "There might be a problem." She said as she stopped a few feet away and looked down the girl. "I heard some shouting and fighting, what's going on."

Now that she was close, she could see the telltale marks of a scuffle, the grass had been torn up and there were some grass stains on the girl's clothes. She wasn't sure how anyone else could have run off before she'd seen them but she wasn't willing to discount the possibility, they'd been given a few extra seconds by her unfortunate jump. "This is a public park for people who wish to enjoy themselves. Fighting is both dangerous and disturbs the piece. I won't be having it on my watch. Where are the others?"

My this tall police officer was certainly taking in interest in the imagined victory which had just transpired in the grass of Lover's Park! Chifuyu realized that she could easily defuse the situation by simply informing the woman that it had been just that, imaginary. However she had a flair for the dramatic when it came to anything related to wrestling. Not the least when she had an audience like this to regale with her acting skills on top of the amazing displays of grappling she could put on. So instead of just explaining the situation as playing pretend the brunette shifted her championship belt on her shoulder and looked up into the eyes of the officer.

"You can't contain the power of a championship match! Wherever it happens it's got to play out for the whole world to see so there's no doubt as to who the best grappler is. It wasn't my choice to face them down here but I was sure as heck going to finish this business here once and for all. And now I stand before you as the DCW Champion," she explained, clenching her fist for emphasis, "Ultimo Diablo has turned tail and run like the coward they are.. I don't know where they went. You might be able to catch them if you hurry after them!"

Kari looked down at the girl and frowned, waiting for her explanation.  The one she was given after a few moments was not satisfactory.  "I'll contain anything I need to.  There are to be no fights on the park grounds unless you've got the right permits and I'm willing to bet that there's not a single permit on your person."  She listened to the girls excuses, she'd already decided each one was an excuse, all the troublemakers involved were guilty in this scenario and guilty people always made excuses.  "Whether you wanted it or not, you took part willingly in causing a disturbance.  Now, come with me and identify this Deeyabolo for me."  She said, trying to pronounce it.  

Kari alwo took out a pencil.  "And give me your name too."  She said as she waited for the girl to start going the way of this so called coward fighter.  She began writing down the details she'd collected so far, they were already a bit muddled.  "Wait a moment, they?  Them?  How many people were in this fight?  If I can't catch them all, it's your duty to give me their names."  She said sternly.

This woman was incredibly tall. Such was the first really in depth thought Chifu had about the officer, who didn't seem to be pleased by her explanation. Really it was like the authority of your company coming down and telling you that your title win wasn't legitimate because there weren't the proper legal documents for it. As a true heroine of the ring should she wasn't at all intimidated by the officer's lecture and stood tall and proud as she could while staring into the woman's eyes. Should it come to a tussle between the two she was ready to rumble in defense of her DCW Championship. By now she was in full character mode and nothing short of a big shock was going to make her break kayfabe in front of her audience.

"Do you have any proof that something went down here? Is there any evidence that I did anything but what I said I did? Ultimo Diablo is long gone by now, but he will return in the darkest of night to try and steal what I've rightfully won. Now if he returns here I'll be happy to turn him over to you officer. Until that time I've done nothing other than what I promised to do.. win this title for my cousin!" she explained, giving her belt a pat.

"The Yule Cat has already told you her name. The Yule Cat also wonders if you're wearing new clothes right now," Chifu continued, sounding more insane to anyone but herself as she went along, "And by they, the Yule Cat means.. the thousands.. upon thousands.. of The Yule Cat's fans! The whole universe even!"

Kari's left eye twitched. It wasn't that this wasn't going well, though it wasn't, it was the flagrant disregard for anything resembling respect to her as an authority figure. Whether or not this patrol was punishment, she was a police officer and if not her, then any other cop could be in this position. She rather wished it were another cop. "Proof? Evidence?" she said rather shrilly, her little patience wearing thin. "I heard a fight and you've admitted that you've fought. I thought you might like a chance to come clean and admit your wrongdoing and perhaps live in the law based society that's done so much for you. But if you want to go on helping this other person avoid trouble that is fine, you can face punishment alone.

"Don't you go about taking the law into your own hands either missy. If this person is a thief, you're only hurting yourself by going after them outside of the law. What would your parents say if they found out you got in trouble for something as silly as vigilanteism. Let the proper authorities handle it. As for you, I need your proper name, not some silly christmas cat thing. And there's nothing wrong with my uniform, I've been a cop for a good long time, if you keep making a mockery of the law like this, you may get a lot more than a citation warning, young missy." This girl was impossible to deal with, when she had wished for something interesting to happen, she'd meant something simple. This was far too complicated and nonsensical for her.

There was probably a fine line between keeping up the mystique of kayfabe and being so convincing that it got you arrested or in trouble. Chifuyu was totally oblivious to this line, so far having done nothing short of curb stomping it into submission so far. Should the current course of action continue on it was likely that she'd leap a good ten meters past the gasping remnants of that line. She found the officer to be a perfect foil for her gimmick, getting irritated while the Yule Cat maintained her cool and said what was what. Had it been an actual promo instead of just improv in a park it would have been a perfect set up for a match between the cop and the Cat.

"Now look here, the Yule Cat doesn't want the dastardly coward Ultimo Diablo to be aided by her actions. The Yule Cat says that you've overstepped your bounds by calling her a 'silly Christmas cat' instead of the holiday monster that she is. The Yule Cat is the DCW Champion and the Yule Cat will get the respect she so richly deserves.." Chifuyu responded with a single eyebrow raised before the lecture actually got to her. Specifically by mentioning what her parents would think of acting this way.

For a bit she kept up her tough face, but then she sniffled and bit her lip, speaking quietly, "Officer.. my.. my parents are dead..."

Kari sighed. More words that she didn't understand but apparently the hooligan was annoyed at her. Well that was the first thing that made sense today. Nobody liked seeing her in uniform with one or two exceptions. "Listen here, kid. Don't give me that, I've arrested better actors with better sob stories. Usually for worse crimes than fighting in the park but that doesn't matter. That teary eye thing doesn't work when my sister tries it and it certainly won't work coming from you. Now, if you can manage to string along a few more sentences with normal words then you'll be free to go." Kari flipped her notepad a few times.

"First, what is your real name, second, why were you fighting, third, what were the names of the person or people you were fighting with. Give me that information and you can go on your merry way with your trophy and you won't have to see me again." Usually that last offering was enough to get people to work with her. Again, people who didn't like to see her in uniform also liked to see her leaving. This whole experience was fraying her nerves, and it wasn't like she wanted to be here. She momentarily thought of dinner at home, waxing the car, it would be so much better when she got off and could buff the stress away.

Chifuyu liked to think of herself as being a tough cookie all around. Able to absorb much more physical abuse than most other grapplers her age and shrug off injuries that would sideline clear minded sorts. This officer had made her upset by just discounting the Yule Cat as some silly Christmas creature. There was nothing silly about a monster cat that would eat you if you weren't wearing new clothes on Christmas day! Worse was that the woman didn't believe her when she explained that her parents had died. Kayfabe aside she could see why a gimmick would be taken less seriously but this? Seriously discounting a family tragedy like that when the person was obviously on the verge of tears? That was much more hurtful than any doubting of her gimmick's validity.

So much so that she actually hung her head and started crying, "But.. it's true.. they're gone.."

She sniffled and managed to answer, "Okay.. fine.. I'm.. um.. Chifuyu Kanzaki, the Yule Cat.. and.. um.. I was just p-pretending to fight.. it was just me.."

Kari didn't enjoy complications, she hated troublemakers, and she rather despised being mocked. That sort of thing was disrespectful not just to her but to the authority she represented. The police were something to be respected and treated with deference. Unfortunately, moments like these could always happen. As the girl's demeanor suddenly changed, Kari realized her mistake and it stung, not just because of her own family issues but because it was a stain on the shining beacon she tried to be. This was her fault and it reflected badly on the force. "Umm," she exhaled and glanced around. "look, I..." She wasn't sure what to say so she took a deep breath.

"I'm sorry," she began and then clarified, "about your parents. I didn't mean to cause offense." It was important to own up to your mistake but she couldn't help but feel that this girl was mostly to blame for the whole act that she'd put the cop through. Unfortunately, maturity and responsibility meant making sacrifices, even if it was a loss of face. "I didn't mean to make you cry. People just lie a lot to get out of trouble and I kind of expect it. I shouldn't have been so harsh." Kari put her notepad away in an attempt to seem less official though she mentally kept track of everything the girl had said. "Sometimes I forget that other people have a hard time too."

"I'm not going to write you up after all, you didn't really cause any harm, but you need to remember that sometimes people don't always know what's going on. There are a lot of people in this park and I have to keep them safe. If there's fighting it could be a mugger or pervert or somebody could get hurt. If people like me don't act quickly, bad folks can get away and cause more trouble elsewhere. That's why I have to ask my questions and why it's important to be honest so innocent people don't get into trouble, especially if you're innocent. I hope you can forgive me for what I said and I'll forgive you for lying to me, Miss Kanzaki." She put on a comforting and friendly smile, though she refrained from any physical contact. No reason to let anything get worse.