Short story 1: A grappler's beginning

The roar of the crowd, the sweat and tears and blood of the fighters and the raw power of two massive beasts slamming together, this was the reality of the beast man's wrestling circuit. A place where aggression and brutality were greeted with cheers and roars of the blood thirsty crowd that took in every rage infused punch, every bone breaking slam and every limb crushing submission hold.

However this is all that is upon the mind of one particular guy as he stood inside the MC's office. The room was well furnished, a large business desk with was placed near a large window that overlooked the nearby park. A sofa for those times when you wanted to just laze about and a trio of chairs sitting in front of the desk. Sitting in the middle chair was a beast, not your typical wolf or tiger. His species was a mix of two particulars; a panda and an eastern dragon. His right eye was scarred shut and his left was the color of blood. It was locked on the two crystal blue eyes of the lion who sat across from him in the seat behind the desk. "So, you really think you'd have what it takes in this league eh?" The white lion asks.

"Yeah, I know I have what it takes. I've seen some of the actual fights here." The pandragon responded as he leaned back a bit in his seat. As he does so his weight causes the chair to tip backwards and he tumbles out of it, landing on his back. He does a backwards roll to get back to his feet. The lion just stares at him during that whole little moment. The pandragon shakes his head as the lion puts his head in his arms. The pandragon picks up the chair and sits back in it "Ignore that." He states

"Kind of hard to when you do foolish things like that Hokutoseicthat is your name right, Hokutosei?" The lion asks the pandragon. "Yeah, that's about right. Just call me Sei though, much easier to remember." He responded with a light frown "Why don't you like people calling you Hoku?" The lion asks Sei. "That was the name of my father, who was kind of a dick." Sei frowns as he says that. The lion arches an eyebrow suddenly reaching a hand down to his trousers, gripping the waistband and tugging it forward. There's an awkward silence for a moment before Sei hears it snap back in place and the lion looks back at him. "Last time I checked everyone in the league is a dick, we all have them. You're a dick aren't you?" The lion leans forward, having to look up at the rather tall fellow waiting for his response.

Sei honestly didn't know how to respond. But here apparently being called a dick was being called a man due to how the lion responded. "Yeah, guess I'm a dick then" The lion smirks slyly and then reaches into the large desk, opening a drawer and then tossing out a large stack of papers. "Well if you're serious about participating in the Beastmen Circuit, you'll need to sign these with your signature" He pushes the stack toward Sei who picks them up, reading over them cautiously. "What's the matter, afraid of a few legal words?" The lion taunts him. "Humph, I'm not one for reading things blindly" Sei retorts dryly

The pandragon's red eye continues to scan it. Several minutes of scanning later, he puts the stack down. Well nothing seems to be out of order, mostly just stuff covering their asses. He thinks to himself then starts to sign each of the papers with the lion watching him. He slides them back after a few moments "There." He says simply to the large lion before standing up with a mild grimace. I didn't realize there were so many papers one had to sign just to get into the league.

The lion looks over the papers, his icy eyes scanning over each signature, after a moment of silence the stack smacks against the large desk "Whelp looks like everything is in order now. Head to the rookie office on the third floor, everything will be taken care of by the time you get there."

Sei starts to leave but pauses in his steps "Wait, what's your name?" the large beast turns to face the lion. "My name, did you not see the name plate?" The lion points to it. Sei hadn't noticed it before but for some reason it was as obvious as a large black dot on a white sheet of paper now. He wondered why he didn't see it before.

Of course the reason was because it hadn't actually been there; the lion was just that fast with his hands. Sei reads the name plate "Rex, the MC of the Wild Beastmen circuit" He reads out loud without realizing it. "There, you know my name now. So do me a favor and get out of here" Rex waves a hand lazily at the pandragon and presses a button near his left hand. "Lucy? Yeah we got a new rookie, do the usual tests and such for him." "Right away Rex" A female voice buzzes from a hidden speaker.

Sei was already making his way outside to the hallway. It seemed much noisier than about thirty minutes ago when he was in the office.

As he stepped outside he encounters two men. A fairly massive tiger clad in black wrestling trunks and boots with a smaller but still beefy German Shepard who was wearing a singlet and boots. Both were white with a black stripe in going down the middle of them. The tiger smirks as he folds his brawny arms across his cream furred chest. "Well, look it there. Looks like some fresh meat has stumbled in" The tiger grins cruelly. "Too bad he's in one of the lower ranks, he looks like someone I'd want to crush in the ring, make him beg for mercy under my heel heheheh."

The German Shepard tilts his head a bit "Ignore my companion here. He's always saying that to the new recruits, trying to scare them away." Sei tilts his head, arching the eyebrow of his good left eye. News travels fast around here apparently. "Oh? Well it seems like you're the one with the smarts around here." Sei responds, completely ignoring the tiger's comment resulting in the tiger going a bit red faced. "Hey! James that's not fairc" he's silenced suddenly as the Shepard raised a paw "Enough Razor, I'm talking to the rookie." The tiger's mouth was open briefly then abruptly shut with a loud snap as if he was biting down on something in the air.

James shook his head again, a paw coming up to rub over the crew cut between his ears "I have the brains and the brawn too apparently, for all of his talk he's never actually won against me; kind of sad for someone of his stature right?" Sei shrugs "Size means nothing if your opponent knows how to fight against you" James smirks while Razor grimaces "That's very truecwhat's your name rookie you don't seem like someone who's coming here just hoping he'll make a name for himself and get crushed"

The pandragon shakes his head "The name's Hokutosei, but just call me Sei. Easier to remember" James grins smugly to Razor "You hear that Razor? Call him Sei otherwise you'll forget his name" Razor growls angrily.

James laughs "You know what Sei I like you, not a lot of people actually manage to make Razor mad, they're usually too busy pissing their pants!" Sei arches his left eyebrow again "Ah. Well it was nice meeting you Jamesc" He looks at Razor who was glowering at him. "And you too I suppose" James smiles "Likewise, I'll probably see you around if you live long enough. C'mon lets go Razor" The German Shepard grins and walks off, Razor still glowering at Sei follows after the canine with a loud humph.

Sei watches them go and shakes his head a bit "Well, that was just kind of weird." He thinks to himself as he walks down the hallway, making his way up a flight of stairs then up another set to the third floor. He realizes he has no clue where the rookie office is. He starts to walk around the floor blindly, looking at each room he passes. In the course of that he's not watching where he's going and runs smack into another person. Neither of them is knocked back by the impact but he feels stunned for a brief moment.

"Whoa, whoa, careful there amigo got to watch where you're going Ese." This time it's a rather massive beast. Sei could see he was the exact same height as himself 12 feet tall and just as ridiculously muscled as himself but instead of a muscle gut, he possessed six-pack abs. "You ok there amigo? It's not often when people bump into me" Sei stares harder at the male. He looked feline, but his fur was pitch black with white stripes. Two thick saber like fangs protruded downward from his feline muzzle. The saber toothed tiger was wearing silver spandex shorts which covered his thick thighs and went down to his knee caps. A pair of running shoes covered his size 15 feet. Sei shook his head, clearing the cobwebs from his head "I'm all right. I'm trying to find the rookie's office. I have absolutely no idea where it is."

"Oh? Well follow me amigo, I'll lead you to it" He says before he starts to walk down the hallway. Sei promptly follows after him, they walk past a massive gym where several groups of grapplers were working out, all doing different workouts. Sei made a mental note to come back here later on. "So you're the new recruit eh ese?" Sei wasn't paying attention so all he heard was ese. "Huh?" His vision comes back to the saber tooth "I asked if you're the new recruit everyone's talking about, some of them said you were a looker. I think you're the new rookie amigo." He smiles "Because you are quite the looker."

Sei smiles softly "Well thank you eamigo'" He had no idea what that meant but it was probably something positive. "What's your name ese?" The saber tooth stops in front of a rather large imposing office. "My name's Hokutosei, just call me Sei" The saber tooth nods "Ohhh, that's a funny sounding name amigo. My name's Rodrigo. It's a pleasure to meet you amigo" He does a short bow. "Also, we're here at the rookie's office. Hope all goes well amigo!" He says as he walks off, before disappearing behind the corner.

Sei stares at the door for a moment. There's a slight moment of hesitation before he decides to go in. He's greeted by an empty room save for a female vixen typing, gazing at a computer monitor. She looks past it at him as he comes in "Oh? You've finally arrived Hokutosei Ryuujin right?"

Her voice is one that would make one think of all of the sweet things in the world with a hint of madness thrown in. It was the same voice he heard in Rex's office. Sei simply nods in response. "Well great, it's been so long since we've had a rookie. I was beginning to wonder if Rex was just keeping me here for the sake of eye candy." Sei arches an eyebrow "Eye candy? What is that?" The vixen giggles "Well, I could explain it to you but, that's not why you're here. Come on there's a few tests that I'd like you to do." Sei blinks a bit "Tests?" She smiles "Well not really tests per say, just need to obtain a couple of things. A blood sample, a urine sample andc a sperm sample"

Sei was ok with all she had said until she said sperm.

"Wait, a sperm sample? Why do you need that?" Sei went slightly pale in the face at the thought. "I honestly don't know; Rex recently started asking for sperm samples from all of the wrestlers about three months ago." She hands him two cups "The bathroom's over there, do whatever you have to do but don't make a mess."

Sei nods with a blank expression before going into the bathroom. It took him roughly an hour to produce the sperm sample, and it took him about an additional 30 minutes to produce the urine sample she wanted. He grumbled throughout the whole process. "Here, I have the samples." He hands her the two oddly still clean looking cups on the outside. It looked like the pandragon was a good shot with his tool. The vixen smiles sweetly "Wonderful, now the blood samplec" Sei tilts his head "Well, um I could give you that easily." He cuts himself suddenly with one of his sharp, short claws. A few drops of blood form and then float into the air suddenly. The vixen stares blankly at them "What are you doing? You didn't need to do that I was going toc" The blood droplets continue to flow out of the cut until it all forms into a grape sized drop of blood and which hovers in the air. Sei walks over and picks up a smaller cup and it drops into it.

"There, you have a blood sample as well. Is there anything else you need?" He asks her. She smiles "No, nothing else at all" Sei nods softly "Then I shall take my leave." He starts to walk out but he is stopped by her voice "Wait, there is one more thing. I'm sure Rex didn't bother mentioning this but there are four ranks here in the Beastmen circuit. Guard, Prince, King and Ace, guard being the lowest and Ace being the highest. "

Sei blinks "I'm assuming I'm in guard rank?" She nods to him "Yes, I have no idea why he doesn't bother explaining that to new rookies." She hears a deep gruff voice next to her desk "It's because most rookies don't live long enough for the rank explanation to matter" Both Sei and the vixen look at the tiny speaker and then at each other. "Well I've explained it to him." She says to the speaker. "Good, that means he knows what he's capable of challenging"

There's a loud click and the room goes silent for a brief moment. "Hmmmm, I left that part out. As far as the rankings go, you can only challenge within your own rank. Unless you're at the top of your rank in which case you can challenge any of the last 3 ranked grapplers of the next rank for their spot." She shakes his head a bit "Some of the grapplers here are a bit lazy though. They are actually rather comfortable in their top rank spots and won't challenge the next rank."

Sei tilts his head a bit "Why? Are they afraid of fighting the stronger people?" The vixen shrugs her shoulders. "I don't know honestly. I guess it's something with being number 1 or 2 or 3 and then having to start over at the bottom of the rankings again." Sei arches an eyebrow "But that doesn'tc.really make any sense. They'd be higher than the top grappler of the previous rank"

"I don't know, it's weird to me too, anyway I have actual work to do. Now that I've explained that to you, please leave. I have to conduct those tests now." Sei nods softly "All right, well thank you for the explanation." He does an one armed bow to her and then exits the office briskly. As he stepped outside, he saw several different groups of grapplers conversing among themselves along the floor. Also he walked back to the large gym he had seen before he wondered what they were talking about.

He didn't have to wait long though for once he arrived there he encountered the large brawny tiger from either. He still looked pretty pissed off from before. "Grrrrowlcthere you are kitten. I realized something while you were gone. That while I can't smash you in a ranking match, I can still turn you into a battered heap in an exhibition match."

Sei stares blankly at the tiger "Wait, who are you again? You look familiar but your disruptive attitude is messing with my thinking." The tiger glowers hotly at the pandragon "I'm going to enjoy messing you up in thec" Rodrigo comes from around the corner in the gym. "Are you seriously at this again tonto?" The saber tooth tiger from before walks over and gets right in Razor's face "Stop bugging the newbie before I bust your jaw again ese" Sei looks from one then to the other before speaking. "Rodrigo, as much as I appreciate you stepping in, I'd like to handle this myself if you don't mind."

Rodrigo looks at Sei for a moment "You sure amigo?" Sei nods to him "Yeah, I want to hear this challenge he's issuing to me." Rodrigo backs off and nods "Well ok. He's all yours then amigo" Sei faces Razor again "Humph, so what exactly are you saying? Do you want to face me in one of those exhibition matches you were talking about a moment ago?"

Razor nods with a grimace "Hell yeah. I'm going to wipe the floor with you. If the gym's ring wasn't being used, I'd make an example out of you right now!" Sei simply tilts his head to the side "I see, so when exactly did you intendc" Razor interrupts him "Here, tonight at 10 PM on the dot. I've already okayed it with the boss" Sei stares at the tiger for a moment and then nods "Fine, I'll be here" Razor smirks evilly in response "Good, good, enjoy your last few hours of walking, you won't be doing much of it after tonight hahahaha!"

He says as he walks out of the gym, shoulder bumping Sei hard as he did so. Sei looks around, a hush had fallen over the gym. Pretty much everyone was staring at him. A few were whispering to others nearby. Sei could pick up a few things like "Wow, first day here and he's being challenged by Razor." "Man, sucks to be that guy. Glad I'm not in his shoes."

Rodrigo smirks. "Well, looks like you got yourself a fight. I hope you'll be able to crush him amigo. I'll be cheering you on from the sidelines. You should probably get ready for your fight. It's already 4 PM" Sei nods softly "Yeah, I'll see you in 3 hours" He says as he walks out of the gym.

3 hours later

Sei stood in front of the wrestling ring. The entire gym where the ring was located was crowded with grapplers. Rex was there also. He was clad in what he called his casual wear which consisted of a wife beater and black jeans. He looked huge and brawny without the desk blocking most of a good view of him. Razor stood on the opposite side. They stared intensely at each other as they climbed into the ring. "Humph, I honestly didn't think you'd show your ugly mug here. You're either really brave or really stupid." Razor states while making a sneering expression. Sei shrugged a bit "I'm not really scared of you. You challenged me and I'm accepting it nothing else to it really aside from that.

Razor frowns "Humph, trying to act all tough are we? I'll make you whimper like the little cub you are!" Sei starts to say something but at that moment the vixen arrived. Still in her typical office affair and walked up to a console. She presses the large red button in the middle of it. Once she does a large bell is rung on the side of the wrestling ring. Both Sei and Razor instantly get into stances circling around each other for a few moments before they both charge forward clashing in the center in a grapple lock!

TO BE CONTINUED!