変化
Change: An Ichiko Oda RP
Author's note: all dialogue in <> is spoken in Japanese.
September 9, 2021
11:17 AM
A modest apartment living room in Manchester, England
The curtains are drawn, only cracks of light sneaking in from the edges they don’t quite obscure. This room has become more disheveled in the past couple weeks, not that its occupant particularly cares. A blanket and some pillows are piled in a corner as if tossed aside without much thought. Two used bowls rest on the coffee table, chopsticks still resting inside them. For whatever reason the usual musty smell of the place is stronger and more pungent than ever before. Seated lazily on the couch is the figure of a woman who has had a very bad two weeks, mostly due to the actions of the person who used to occupy this flat with her.
Ichiko doesn’t have anything remotely pleasant on her mind right now. Just the memories of all the things that her former love had done to her. Went behind Ichiko’s back to work a match and then tried to hide what she’d been up to. Tried to make excuses when the truth came to light. Then the worst offense to date, daring to intrude on Ichiko to make a big damn name for herself. That was the conclusion Ichiko kept coming back to every time Sawako crossed her mind. Sawako was just out for herself, more concerned with fame than the heart of someone who had promised to fight for her.
Her most recent offense had been one that was nigh unforgivable. It smacks of malicious intent because of how similar it was to a past insult Ichiko had suffered. Back in 2017, when she was still trying to be a goody two shoes by the name of Ichiko Nishi. That first year had been exceptionally hard on her; no matter how hard she fought she couldn’t get the respect of others. When she finally managed to start winning people over and had scored the biggest win of her career at that point, what did people talk about? Not her big win or how it marked her real arrival in the ring. No, it was how her sister Mako made a surprise return with her music hitting just after Ichiko’s win. Showing up just to steal the spotlight from Ichiko.
Sawako had just done the same thing to Ichiko on First Class. Gotten in the way of Ichiko doing what she wanted just to put the spotlight back on herself. Ichiko plays the moment over and over in her mind, and remembers the word she said to the Battle Maiden. ‘Traitor’. While she’s absolutely furious with the other woman, Ichiko has no intention of going after her. The Battle Maiden may have broken her promise but Ichiko is not going to follow suit. When they fell in love she promised to never fight Sawako again. Even now when Sawako has chosen herself over their relationship, Ichiko isn’t going to go back on that. Because when Ichiko makes a promise those words mean something.
There’s still pent up rage that Ichiko has needed to release somehow. Yet the usual ways aren’t working for her and she is at kind of a loss. Going out and picking fights, going after her opponent in an extra violent way and the like don’t do the trick now. Even going to the show where Sawako first broke her promise isn’t helping. Wrecking everyone in the ring during a match she wasn’t even in still isn’t what Ichiko needs. She feels empty after wrecking havoc on three unsuspecting victims and isn’t sure why. Brawls have long been a source of chaotic joy for the Sukeban but now she remains unfulfilled. So instead of training she’s spent the last two days replaying all these events in her head, attempting to glean some wisdom out of them. And it remains a jumbled mess of pain, anguish, fury and melancholy.
That’s when her phone begins to ring and send vibrations through the couch cushion it rests on. Ichiko snaps out of her thoughts and eyes the device suspiciously. In her current state she expects this to be a call she does not want. Sawako pitifully attempting to manipulate her into forgiveness is the first thought Ichiko has. She glares at the phone for a long moment before realizing that it is a call coming through her messaging app. The name on the screen proves it is the one person she’s been able to talk to recently - Kōgō. With a sigh she taps the screen to accept the video call, not bothering to so much as consider fixing her hair.
Kōgō: <”You look like hell.”>
Ichiko frowns at her friend stating the obvious.
Ichiko: <”I’ve been through hell. What’s it to you?”>
Kōgō: <” Come now. I’m just worried you Ichi.”>
Ichiko sighs again and puts her feet up on the package that was recently delivered to her doorstep. It confounds her still that someone in Japan had sent her a package and she hasn’t felt like opening it. Serving as a footrest is the most use it has gotten from her. She wonders for a moment if she even feels like chatting. But Kōgō actually listens to her, so she’s willing to give it a shot.
Ichiko: <”She actually fucking did it, Kōgō. She pulled a Mako on me just to get the attention back onto herself. I was right, she only cares about one person: herself. It pisses me off so much that she’d just throw away everything we had for.. that.”>
Kōgō seems unimpressed by Ichiko’s lamentations, and continues on as if it was just a minor inconvenience.
Kōgō: <”It just shows she isn’t worth your time. I also noticed your little.. Tantrum during that dark match.”>
Ichiko snarls as this is mentioned. She feels unfulfilled by her actions there but she doesn’t want to admit that to her friend. What business is it of hers anyway?
Ichiko: <”Yeah, I beat the shit out of a bunch of wannabe losers. What about it?”>
Kōgō: <”That’s unbecoming of you, Ichi. You can be so much better than that.”>
This stokes the fires inside Ichiko rather effectively. To be called out for just attempting to work through her pain is an insult. Ichiko isn’t one to take insults lightly and she loses her cool with Kōgō for the first time. Ichiko flips her friend the bird as she responds.
Ichiko: <”Fuck off. You have no idea what I’m going through! Not like you’ve ever been hurt by someone you gave your heart to! Fighting is all I have left!!”>
Kōgō’s eyes narrow at this outburst and her lips curl into a disapproving frown.
Kōgō: <”Are we done being a brat? I am going to help you, Ichi.”>
Ichiko is about to respond to that with yet more anger, but she stops herself. She can’t be burning this bridge too. Kōgō has been in her corner the whole time, even when she goes off on some violent excursion. To be honest Ichiko isn’t sure how much she can focus without a bit of guidance from her friend.
Ichiko: <”Fine.”>
Kōgō: <”Did you feel any better after beating them senseless?”>
Ichiko looks down as she answers.
Ichiko: <”No. It’s weird, I feel empty. Like it didn’t make a difference at all.”>
Kōgō nods knowingly at this, appearing to expect that answer.
Kōgō: <”I don’t need you to be a rabid dog. I need a focused wolf.”>
Ichiko nods slowly at this. Lashing out randomly has never really ended well for her either in Japan or here. It’s when she redirects herself and focuses in on one woman or one match that she is at her best. That is the woman who strikes fear into the hearts of her opponent! How has she lost sight of that? It makes a lot more sense now that it’s come back to her mind. Before she replies, her friend actually continues.
Kōgō: <”I sent you a package. You need to open it when you get it.”>
Ichiko is taken aback at this. Kōgō had sent her something? Of course. Who the hell else would be sending her something from Japan? She looks down at the package under her feet and feels a bit dumb. She probably ought to have opened it when she’d gotten it, but instead it’d just been a haphazard addition to her furnishings. The Sukeban laughs a little as she pulls the package out from under her feet and holds it up.
Ichiko: <”You mean this package?”>
When Kōgō nods Ichiko decides she’d better open it now. No way to deny that she’d gotten it when she’d just shown it off. Ichiko rips the box open and pulls out the paper that was used to cushion the contents within. What she finds is hardly what she expects anyone to send her. A set of red ring gear with predominantly black trim. It even has the sleeves, pads and boots that together create a much more Joshi look than Ichiko has worn in years. She frowns in slight disapproval as she holds the top up.
Ichiko: <”What the hell is this?”>
Kōgō: <”It’s your next step.”>
Ichiko’s face remains dubious as they talk.
Ichiko: <”Huh? What’s that supposed to mean?”>
Kōgō rolls her eyes in response, as if she’s struggling to make her point clear enough for Ichiko to understand.
Kōgō: <”A sukeban is a girl, a violent girl for sure but just a girl. You are a woman Ichi. It’s time for you to show that to the world.”>
Ichiko: <”But a sukeban is a girl boss, the baddest bitch on wheels. If that’s not what I am..”>
She considers the proposal before her. What she’s been doing hasn’t been making her feel any better, despite it doing so in the past. Didn’t that mean that she needed to move forward with things instead of constantly trying what she did in the past? It is hard to even consider leaving her biker days behind her, but.. It is time. Time for something new that better suits her as she is now. Ichiko holds up the trunks from the ring gear and ponders her future for a bit. This gear is definitely a major departure from her biker gang look. Maybe that isn’t the only change she should make.
Ichiko: <”Then I’m a different kind of boss. The big final boss who ends other people’s dreams and crushes them under her boot. I’m the Boss of Them All. And you know what? If I’m changing this up I’m going to really change it up. Sawako liked my hair black so.. Fuck it, I’m going to dye it like I’ve always wanted to.”>
Kōgō is unimpressed by the last addition, but she does appear to be pleased overall. While Ichiko has known her for a while, she has rarely if ever seen the woman smile. Yet now she can clearly see the hint of one on Kōgō’s lips. About as much indication as you were liable to get from such a dead serious competitor. Ichiko herself has some semblance of a sense of purpose again as well, a new direction to focus her energy and anger. She smiles a little bit too, though it is more unhinged and primal than the regal one her friend wore.
Ichiko: <”It looks like I’ve got some work to do before the next show. Time for the brutal girl to start being the dangerous woman she’s supposed to be. But if I’m not ‘Sukeban’ Ichiko anymore I guess I need a different name to go by.”>
Her face scrunches up as she starts attempting to come up with something acceptably mature and still tough. Obviously she is not going to go back to her birth name Ichiko Nishi. The Nishi style is too confined by moral code, a guideline on how to be a ‘good woman.’ It’s not something that’s ever been useful for Ichiko, so she’s long since buried that version of herself. Having anything to do with the family that never let her grow is out of the question. What are her options then? No last name? Just Ichiko? That also doesn’t seem right, like it’s missing something kind of crucial. An extra punch to really make her stand out either among her fellow Joshi wrestlers or the international roster of First Class. Something that is both intimidating and personal to her. But what? She thinks it over a lot and then suddenly an answer comes from a very unexpected place. A name she’d heard in history class one time and seen in a few games and various media: a man nicknamed the Demon King or King of Hell. In that long dead samurai warlord, she found her answer.
Ichiko: <”Oda. Ichiko Oda. That’s it.. As Ichiko Oda, Boss of Them All, I’m going to put my enemies through a living hell.”>
Kōgō: <”My, how dramatic. Whatever you call yourself, go out there and prove that you are skilled and dangerous woman. Not an angry petulant girl..”>
Ichiko grins wildly and nods slowly.
Ichiko: <”I promise, this is going to be the start of a new, more dangerous woman in the ring. Anyone who gets in the way? They’ll just have to learn that first hand.”>
September 15, 2021
6:43 PM
Mad Manx’s Gym
Manchester, England
A week passes and plans have been put into action by one Ichiko Oda. She’s rededicated herself to being less of a chaotic child and more focused on the tasks at hand. It’s hard work for her because her every instinct cries out for her to hunt down and strike out at people who’ve hurt her. Her promise to not fight Sawako again have in the recent past diverted her attention to opponents and other unsuspecting victims. But she knows that going down that road probably leads to self destruction; another girl boss back in Japan had been her idol once. A terrifying girl who got her kicks slicing up enemies’ faces with a razor blade and starting fights just for the sake of fighting. In the end she just couldn’t let go of that lust for battle and it got her killed at the hands of some still unknown person or persons.
Ichiko’s memory has been so clouded by fury at her estranged girlfriend that she hasn’t recalled that ending to the story. Her role model had failed in the end. Lying dead in a puddle on some grimey back alley street isn’t the kind of ending that Ichiko wants for herself. The talk with Kōgō has helped her put a lot of things into perspective. Violence is fine and good but it can’t be the entirety of her approach to matches anymore. It simply isn’t going to get her to the lofty heights she knows that she is capable of. It isn’t going to make her name more revered than that of Mako Nishi. So the time has come to put the Sukeban to rest and open a new chapter in her life. The time of the Boss of Them All has come.
Of all the changes Ichiko has or plans to make, having her hair done is by far the most awkward part of the process. Being the sort of girl who never bothered much with her looks before this, Ichiko is very unfamiliar with salons of any kind. She also quickly recognized that she could not change up that part of herself alone after staring aimlessly at all the different dyes on display at the store. Ichiko spent her entire morning the previous day at a hair salon feeling incredibly lost as the stylist explained the process and worked on her hair. Even now Ichiko kind of shudders at the idea of being in such a conventionally girly place. Not the sort of place that a Boss of Them All should be seen too frequently. Yet the stylist had done a very good job at it and now Ichiko Oda sports light reddish brown hair rather than her previous simple black tone. A statement of her intent to evolve from the past and to carve out a bigger and better future.
Many things have changed but she is still back in the crummy gym she’s been training in since moving to Manchester. It might be dingy, have suspicious stains and grime on the walls and floors and generally smell stomach turning on a good day but she’s gotten into a rhythm here. Until she finally finds a better place to keep up her fighting shape, this is her stomping ground. Today she’s not here for typical training. She knows that in western wrestling especially, people want you to be able to talk well. Previously she’s been content to let her actions do her talking to the public. Now? Now she’s a changing woman and damn if she’s not going to try and surprise people by talking more.
And there’s a lot to let those people know. A lot of things on her chest that she didn’t even know were there until the past few days. In preparation for her upcoming battle with “Death Wish” Kassidy Owens, Ichiko has watched a number of Owens’ past matches. In doing so a recurring theme continued to build up until Ichiko couldn’t ignore it anymore. The Englishwoman was mainly known for hardcore or deathmatch competition than anything. A virtuoso in the symphony of destruction those things so often tend to be. Plenty of video exists out there of Owens doing crazy variations of her signature moves through various furniture, or onto whatever items were handy during the match. Of her drinking with the fans or generally being a rough, vulgar, tough woman who thrilled in the onrush of violence.
It was a major wake up call to the now-former Sukeban. All of the things which her opponent was known for, for the most part, were the same things that Ichiko herself had earned a reputation for. She’s stood out among Japanese talents for her aggressiveness, foul language and bloodlust. That was the Sukeban anyhow. Now she isn’t really feeling as drawn to chaos and carnage. A rebellious girl might do those things to get herself noticed; a true wolf of a woman needs to be more. Her old path leads to being dead face down in an alley. Evolving and becoming something better is the only way Ichiko becomes what she should be. So being thought of only for violence and hardcore fighting is quickly becoming the last thing she wants.
Watching those matches has also gotten Ichiko to think about hers in her short time on the First Class roster. To her initial astonishment she’s finding that there is absolutely a trend already. Triple threat match against an American hardcore wrestler and a violent Russian who literally carried a weapon with her at all times. A match against someone who couldn’t be bothered to actually fight which just invited Ichiko’s aggressive and brutal side in response. Now a match in which kendo sticks were legal against this woman whose whole reputation was based around that kind of brutality. Ichiko finds herself surprisingly unsettled by this realization.
Is this all she’s seen as? Cheap bloody entertainment for a crowd of people who paid to see the Takasaki thug brawl with the latest flavor of hardcore nonsense? The more she thinks about it the more insulting it is to be considered nothing more than a street tough who roughed people up. Ichiko Oda is far more than what people think she is, and she needs to get people to see that. If certain people want her to be one thing, then she’s sure as hell going to go in a different direction. This is why she’s working on her talking today - it’s part of who she is going to prove she can be.
Kōgō has a lot of connections which Ichiko was not aware too. When she brought the idea up in a text chat her friend gave her a name and number of someone she knew in England. Really just someone who is vacationing in the country but happens to have the skills that Ichiko needs to make her first public step towards her evolution. The woman had set up a video camera in the same crappy ring Ichiko has used for sparring in the past. Ichiko stands in the center of the ring collecting her thoughts while the woman sets up the other equipment to ensure a high quality recording. It’s going to be edited and subtitled by the woman after this, to be released for the world to see online. A bold statement of Ichiko Oda’s transformation. Once the woman gives her the thumbs up, Ichiko stands in the center of the ring and looks right down the camera lens.
Ichiko: <”You there. Whoever the hell you are, wherever you are when you’re watching this, I want you to look me in the eyes. See the truth of who I am, not who you think I am. I want you to understand exactly who’s talking to you, and exactly what I’m telling you. I’m not repeating myself so open your ears too.”>
She snarls haughtily as she continues.
Ichiko: <”For years I’ve been just the biker bitch who also happened to be good at fucking people up in the ring. The girl who went against the normal and just wanted to fight. And that’s all people want out of me. To go out to the ring, fight someone and unleash hell on whoever’s thrown in there with me. It’s what you all want from me, and it’s all you’ll ever want. Let me clue you in on something though.”>
Ichiko’s expression goes colder with a hint of sadism as she says ‘clue you in’. She holds up her right hand, balled into a fist and occasionally shakes it for emphasis as she continues.
Ichiko: <”That was the girl. The Sukeban. The time for that has past, and now I am becoming something better. No more violence for violence’s sake alone. No more beating the shit out of someone just for the thrill of it. I’m moving on from that, it’s what people expect from me. From now on I’m doing things the way that I want, not the way you all want me to.”>
She lowers her fist as she tilts her head slightly; her expression becomes scornful, resentful.
Ichiko: <”You want that kind of shit? You’ll get plenty on First Class when I fight Kassidy Owens. She’ll give you all the damn violence that you want, because that’s what she does. Hell, she’s nicknamed “Death Wish”, what else do you need to know, huh? Go ahead and cheer for her all you want. I can kind of understand why you would. In the past I would have almost thought she was worth my time.”>
A pause as Ichiko scoffs at the notion.
Ichiko: <”Infamous for her hardcore matches, skilled at bringing any and all weapons to bear on her opponent. There might not be anyone in that locker room who knows more ways to hurt you with more different items than her. I’m sure she must know some other ways to cause pain, but that’s what everyone’s coming to see in this match. Pure, bloody violence at its most chaotic. The kind of reckless brutality that you get in high school gyms for maybe a few dozen people at a time. Kassidy Owens can take the punishment, keep coming after you and then still find new ways to break your body. It’s honestly impressive, and “Sukeban” Ichiko was the same when she went around cracking heads in turf wars. So Kassidy, you’re tough and you’re going to push me to new places I’m sure.”>
Ichiko smiles wildly.
Ichiko: <”In fact just being put in this kind of match with you is already pushing me to those places. A kendo stick match. Just the kind of thing that a former biker boss and a death match star would love to take on. The thing is, Kassidy.. I’ve changed. I’ve grown up. I’m not just some thug who’s going to give you a back alley brawl. I’m the woman who pushes you back, pushes you to your limits. I’m the one who gets in your way and stops you cold. Just when you think you’ve climbed to the top of a mountain I’m the one who kicks you back down. I’m the one who ruins your dreams and replaces them with nightmares.”>
She folds her arms over her chest as she speaks.
Ichiko: <”So you can say whatever you want about how you’re in your environment, this is your home. When that bell rings on September 19th, you’re not getting the match you want. I’m better than that. Use all the kendo sticks you want, but it won’t change the fact that the only thing you’re ever going to be is a death match girl. And that’s all that you’re good at anyway. When we fight I am going to show you what a real wrestler looks like. I’m going to take you to school and show you that it takes a hell of a lot more than just using weapons to succeed. The simple fact is that I am better than you. You will feel plenty of pain, but it’ll come at the hands of my expert dissection of your body instead of bamboo splintering on impact. I will out-wrestle you. I will not give those pathetic bottom feeders who mindlessly cheer for you the satisfaction of pure unsophisticated violence they’re expecting. Because I’m going to win this match my way; breaking you down in front of them, then choking you out in front of your adoring public.”>
Ichiko’s psychotic smile returns as she enters the conclusion of her speech.
Ichiko: <You’re going to be staring up at the lights while I move on to better things. Because I’m not a sukeban any more. I am Ichiko Oda, the Boss of Them All. And come First Class this Sunday, the world will change.. Starting with your annihilation.”>
終わり