Chapter 23 (Daily)
A large commotion of reporters gathered around taking pictures of Sayuri Rogue as she stood in before a collection of wrestlers who work for her. Natsuki Okumura and Kanae Fujishita stood at the front. Sayuri held up her hand and everyone calmed down.
"Right." Sayuri said. "As you all know, this weekend, we will begin the first ever Xtrema pay-per-view, Olympia. I have called you all here so I can reveal the match-ups. I've given these eight matches a lot of thought and used my best judgement. First of all, as the winner of last week's battle royal, Platinum Mask gets to start the match."
The crowd cheered as the silver-masked woman stood and approached the front of Sayuri to address the crowd.
"And as for her opponent, I had to do some convincing. It's… Black Swan."
The bird-themed luchadora stood and approached Platinum Mask. Black Swan may have been a head shorter than her opponent, but she gave her most confident smile.
"To get her to agree to this, I am going to have to make this match mascara contra mascara. For those of you who don't know it means whoever wins keeps the loser's mask as a prize. Is this acceptable to you, Platinum Mask."
Elodie Silverwind was nervous all right. Her first singles match, and she has to bet your mask. She didn't want to accept, but Platinum Mask wouldn't look good if she refused a bet like that.
"Bring it on." Platinum Mask said.
"Hope you're ready to lose your mask live." Black Swan said.
The two returned to their seats. Sayuri took the floor again.
"This next match is a rivalry match which both girls promised me will end for now after this. These two have a 1-1 record against each other, and after last week, it opened up quite an opportunity for a match. Ladies and gentlemen, Carly X and Neko Girl will face each other in a dumpster match!"
The crowd both gasped and cheered when Carly X and Neko Girl came up to the stage face to face with each other. They were so heated up that they didn't notice their foreheads were touching.
"I warned you not to cross me again." Neko Girl said. "It's a real shame your mom won't see you get your ass handed to you again."
Carly really wanted to slap the smirk off of Neko Girl's face, but she knew that if she did, it would prove she's getting under her skin. So instead, she takes a deep breath and retorts.
"Well, if anyone knows anything about horrible mothers…"
"Okay, girls. Save it for the ring." Sayuri said as she guided them back to their original places. "Next up is a requested match by someone in our roster. The Skunk herself has issued a match against our own male, Kaito Marx."
The Skunk strutted her way to the front where Kaito also went. Upon seeing him, the Skunk chuckled.
"Hope you're ready for another ass appointment on the first PPV, buttface." The Skunk said. "Don't think all that fancy-shmancy training means anything. After I defeat you, I'll be breaking in a new chair for me to sit on with your face as a cushion."
Kaito didn't say anything. Sayuri sent them both back to their places.
"You sure about this?" Kaito asked Queen Bee in a whisper.
"I've trained you enough. Play it good enough, and you may pull off a win yet. Just remember, she deserves it."
"Now, our next match will be a triple threat match." Sayuri announced. "After a brief hiatus, the cunning Eris will be defending her undefeated streak against Liza Surkova and Freya."
The three stood and gave each other glares, but they didn't do much else. The crowd just snapped pictures at Eris' confident smile, Liza's aggressive sneer, and Freya's indifferent glances.
"Not much words there, right?" Sayuri continued. "Next up is our mysterious Scarlette who will be going up against the military powerhouse, Mercy!"
Scarlette and Mercy got up from their seats and confronted each other.
"Better get used to my name, because I'm going to make you scream it." The German said. "When I'm done, you losing your TV championship will be the least painful thing that's ever happened to you."
Suddenly, a teenage boy stood up in the crowd and cheered. "Don't let her get away with that, Scarlette!"
The red masked wrestler observed the boy who called out and she gasped silently. She recognized him as her son, Jason. The man next to her was his father, Isaac.
"Jason, Isaac?" Scarlette thought to herself. "What are they doing here?"
"I think that's about enough." Sayuri said as she guided the two back to their seats. "Now, as you all know, Atlantis Force recently became the number one contenders for the Xtrema Tag Team Championship. Unfortunately, there has been a recent change."
"Huh?" Starla asked.
"What do you mean?" Isebella asked.
"Amazon Aqua and Calypso have been assaulted and they are currently in the hospital. They should be fine soon, just not in time for Olympia. If another tag team doesn't come up, we'll have to…"
"We'll take it!"
The crowd gasped as the team of Diana Diaz and Poison came from the left. They walked to the stage to confront Team Spirit.
"What are you doing here?" Isebella asked.
"It appears that you need a tag team to challenge." Poison said. "My client and I would like to throw our names in for those belts."
"You can't just come up and challenge us?" Starla asked. "You've never even had a match together yet."
"I don't think you have a choice." Poison said.
"Ryuji." Sayuri called for her assistant.
"Well… Poison might be right." Ryuji said. "Atlantis Force is in the hospital, half of the Killer Kitties already has a match on Olympia, and the only way the Daughters of Darkness are can challenge is if they invoke their rematch clause, which they refuse to do. Diaz and Poison are literally all that's left."
Sayuri sighed. "We've got to get some more tag teams."
Starla widened her eyes before glaring them at Diaz and Poison. "It was you. You attacked Atlantis Force, didn't you?"
"Maybe we did. Maybe we didn't." Diaz said confidently.
"Either way, it doesn't matter." Poison said. "If you want your title defense match, we're your only chance."
Both Starla and Isebella nodded their heads. "Ms. Rogue, book it." Isebella said.
"All right then." Sayuri said. She gestured for the four women to head to their designated areas. She cleared her throat and continued. "Well, it looks like we've got a tag team title match between the champions, Team Spirit, against the challengers, Diaz and Poison. Now, as for the penultimate event, we have our visitor's match. Allow me to welcome… Mother Devil!"
The crowd fell silent as the large woman appeared at the side. She marched to the stage with a very stoic look on her face.
"Mother Devil?" Natsuki Okumura asked. "As in THE Mother Devil?"
"That's her all right." Kanae said.
"I hope you have a decent challenge for me, Rogue." Mother Devil said. "I wouldn't want to enter the ring with these clowns."
"What did she call me?" Queen Bee asked begrudgingly. She was about to get up, but Kaito grabbed her shoulders to keep her down.
"Rest assured, Mother Devil," Sayuri said, "I do have the perfect opponent for you. It's none other than… yours truly!"
The crowd gasped and flashed even more cameras. The other wrestlers widened their eyes in surprise as well.
"She's going to wrestle?" Natsuki asked. "She hasn't done that in months."
"Now, this is going to be a great match!" Kanae said as she wrote notes in her book.
On the stage, Mother Devil smirked. "Finally. It's been such a while since anyone's given me a decent match. I know you won't disappoint."
"I'm sure I'll surprise you." Sayuri Rogue said. "Now, take a seat."
Mother Devil turned and sat in an empty chair. That's when Queen Bee and Thunder Mana stood up. Mana was met with whispers and sneers, and she even heard one of them say "GWM". She tried not to let it get to her.
"Now, for our main event." Sayuri said. "Queen Bee, Thunder Mana, the two of you have made a major impact these past couple of weeks. And just last week, you really made an impression. But after this, your feud ends for now. But since regular rules aren't going to cut it this time, I will be making this a very special match. No pins. No submissions. No count out. No disqualification. But you get the biggest weapons imaginable to reach up for the prize. That's right. The two of you will be competing in a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match!"
Both wresters were stunned while the crowd cheered some more.
"That's right." Sayuri said. "The belt will be hung above the ring, and the objective will be for the two of you to grab a ladder, climb to the belt, and unhook it. Tables and chairs can be used as well. However, the match will only count when one of you two unhooks the belt yourselves. No outside help. And for a bit more flair, I've taken the liberty of rebranding the belt. So whoever wins this TLC match won't be the Xtrema Champion… She will be the first ever Xtrema World Champion!"
Queen Bee smirked as she looked at her opponent. "Sounds like your masked friend won't be much help this time."
"She's not my friend! I don't know who she was!" Thunder Mana denied. "And I'll prove it! I'll sink you into the mat while I get that belt! Then, you're going to apologize for treating me like this!"
"It'll take a miracle to get me to apologize for anything, trash!" Queen Bee retorted
"Easy now." Sayuri said. "Save it for the match. She gestured Queen Bee and Thunder Mana to sit back down. Mana looked at Bee's general direction and caught her pointing to her own eyes before redirecting her fingers at her.
For the next few minutes, reporters gave their questions and Sayuri answered. When it was over, the reporters left and Sayuri wished everyone else good luck before the PPV. That's when Scarlette came to her.
"Ms. Rogue. That boy and his father in the crowd. What were they doing here?"
Sayuri looked around and saw that no one was listening. "Look, Emily, I'm sorry. Your son won the sweepstakes online and got him and his dad two free tickets to watch Olympia from the front row. They also get all expenses paid for the weekend and backstage passes."
"Backstage passes?" Scarlette asked. "If they get too close, they're going to know who I really am."
"I am sorry, Emily. But he won and I couldn't just tell him to leave. Still, I thought they would've told you by now."
"They didn't." Scarlette said before slowly widening her eyes. "Oh, my goodness! They're going to head to my address to surprise me! I gotta go now!" And she left before Sayuri could say anything else. Ryuji approached his boss as well.
"You're competing against Mother Devil?" Ryuji asked. "That sounds kinda risky."
"We need the ratings, and the people will eat this match up." Sayuri said. "Besides, it's been a while since I've had a serious match. I need to sharpen my skills, and who's a better sharpening tool then Mother Devil herself? By the way, tell Thunder Mana to meet me in my office in one hour."
Just outside, Natsuki and Kanae discussed the conference.
"This is going to be an amazing PPV." Natsuki said. "You think we'll get a lot of pages about it?"
"I'm sure you will," Kanae said, "But you're gonna have to do it without me."
"Why?" Natsuki asked.
"That same night as Olympia, Berserk's doing their own show. Sakura Hagiwara's going against Kurea Komiyama, and hopefully, it'll be different."
"How do you know?" Natsuki asked. "Sakura's been losing to the Boston crab over sixty times. What makes you think this time's going to be different?"
"Well, Misaki's given Sakura a… very special form of training." Kanae replied. "I've witnessed it myself the other night, and it kinda brought me back to a time. I'll cover that show while you cover Xtrema's."
"All right." Natsuki said.
As per the boss' request, Thunder Mana entered Sayuri Rogue's office. There, she encountered the boss, Ryuji, and Jasper Jones.
"Is there a problem, ma'am." Thunder Mana said.
"There… could be." Sayuri said. "It's about the masked woman who interfered with your last match."
"I keep telling everyone, I have no idea who that is." Thunder Mana said.
"That's okay," Jasper said, "Because I do. Or at least, I have a pretty good idea."
"What?" Mana asked.
"Jasper here has been investigating the matter on my behalf." Sayuri said. "And she just came to me with a very possible theory on who it was. I'm trusting you with this secret because something tells me you're telling the truth, and you deserve to know this truth and prepare for whatever may come next."
"How do you know I'm not working with her?" Mana asked.
"Because if it's who I think it is, then you haven't spoken to her in a while." Jasper said. "I have a friend in the police department, and he was kind enough to send me a copy of phone records, and you certainly haven't called her in over a month."
"Well, how can you possibly tell who it is?"
"It's called process of elimination." Jasper explained. "First, we take into account that she is female, which eliminates half of the city. Then, there's her size and body. And then, there's the leg drop."
"The leg drop?"
"The move she used on you to disqualify Queen Bee. It was perfectly executed. Which means it's either a natural, much like my old life as Barbaria the Savage Queen…" Thunder Mana rolled her eyes. "Or she's a trained pro wrestler. I've been assuming the latter. After adding it all up, it gave us a much shorter list of supects. It wasn't enough, until I thought of what the motive might be. If it was to make you win, it must have been to make Queen Bee lose. Not a lot of people would benefit from making you win, so I checked the records for anyone who might have made contact with Queen Bee. After I found someone who Queen Bee made contact with, I checked her phone records. And so, I came up with a suspect who I'm 85% sure is our masked woman."
Jasper held up a piece of paper and passed it to Mana. The former GWM star read through it and found a certain name circled in it. She widened her eyes when she figured out what it meant.
"Her? She's the masked woman?"
"Most likely." Jasper said. "And I think I might know why."
Luckily for Scarlette, she knew a shortcut from the arena to her home. With the traffic backed up in the usual route, she made it home several minutes before she figured her ex-husband and son would arrive. She changed into her normal clothes, took down her photographic evidence of being Scarlette, and hid away all her fan letters. She made sure they were all stuffed in her bedroom closet. Now, Scarlette was mild-mannered Emily Mancini, salary woman. Just seconds after she was done, there were two knocks on her door.
"Just in time." She thought to herself. "Now, Emily, remember, they think I don't know they'r coming. So I have to act surprised."
Emily opened the door and there stood Isaac and Jason. They both cheered when they saw her. Emily acting surprised and smiled.
"Hey, Mom!" Jason said hugging his mother.
"I don't believe it!" Emily said. "You guys are here! What are you doing all they way here in Japan?"
"Well, Jason here won a sweepstakes to see that wrestling league he loves so much." Isaac explained. "So we thought we'd surprise you with a visit."
"Well, you definitely surprised me!" Emily said. She didn't want to lie to her family's faces, but she had no choice. She didn't want them to know. "So you'll be staying at my place."
"Well…" Isaac said, "Actually, I didn't want to make it awkward, so I rented a hotel. Thankfully, all expenses are paid by this Sarah Rogue."
"It's Sayuri, Dad. Not Sarah." Jason said. "It's Japanese."
Isaac chuckled. "Right. Silly me."
"Well, it's good to see you boys." Emily said. "It really is."
"I just can't wait for the pay-per-view." Jason said. "Scarlette is going to decimate that Mercy! I just know it."
Emily chuckled at that, but her smile hid her worry and her inner thoughts.
"I have to win. For you, Jason. I let you down once, and I will not do it again."
Later that night, Sayuri Rogue had looked at the poster design she came up with. It had the word "Olympia" written on the top in silver. The background was a tall mountain with the top covered by a lightning storm. At the base of that mountain, all the wrestlers participating with the PPV stood confronting each other's opponents. The tagline read "Immortals Fight Among Us".
"This had better go well." Sayuri said. "No, it will go well. I promise."
Author's Note: The PPV begins next. The match card is as follows...
1.) Platinum Mask vs Black Swan (mascara contra mascara)
2.) Carly X vs Neko Girl (dumpster match)
3.) The Skunk vs Kaito Marx
4.) Liza Surkova vs Eris vs Freya (triple threat)
5.) Mercy vs Scarlette
6.) Team Spirit vs Diaz and Poison (for the Tag Team Championship)
7.) Sayuri Rogue vs Mother Devil
8.) Queen Bee vs Thunder Mana (Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match for the Xtrema World Championship)
What are your predictions? Who will win? Find out next time on Olympia.
Any and all comments are welcome.