SGW GOS - Maki Itoh

Fuck. This is the first thought which crosses the mind of the world’s cutest wrestler as she hears the news about SGW. Flying to Los Angeles, fighting through a bunch of pumpkin mess to win SGW gold only to fail to win the match? All of that is by now a distant memory, maybe just a fever dream brought on by the elation of getting such major international exposure. What she recalls are a bunch of people she’d never heard that much about dying and that fashionista somehow stealing her thunder. Bizarrely enough that woman and Maki Itoh ended up as Twinstar Champions together. The fact that they despised each other really had nothing to do with the result.

Since Halloween Maki has gone about her life as before, performing at home in Japan and occasionally abroad. As always, life is at least part pain when she’s trying to establish herself as the top entertainer in all of professional wrestling. Despite her efforts there isn’t quite the landslide opinion that she is in fact the Cutest in the World. Some people even still see her as a damn novelty act who wears out her welcome after a few minutes. Daily she’s reminded of those facts as she scrolls through social media feeds and eavesdrops on conversations. No matter what those losers think she is still a champion! Sometimes she forgets that too, and has to look at the title belt she carries in her bag to remind herself. All it takes is some of that belt poking out from under her gear and towels to jog her memory.

That is to say, it’s kind of important but not inseparable from her identity as Maki “Fucking” Itoh. It’s only when someone mentioned to her that SGW suddenly announced another show that Maki paid full attention to her own championship. If they are having another show they probably expect her to show up and defend the title. WIth that woman as her partner. The mere idea of it causes her to shudder! Thus began the brief period of a couple weeks wherein Maki Itoh attempted to connive her way into some alternative manner of defending the title. Not like she was just going to hand it over of course!

Despite her lobbying to have a special title defense against Tam Nakano and a mystery partner (who would have turned out to be Maki Itoh), such things were not to be. It’s either defend that title with someone who calls her ‘flavor of the week’ and ‘a child’ or forfeit the title and prove that she doesn’t deserve it. It’s pretty easy for her to make her choice. After all the torture life has inflicted upon her, Maki sure as hell isn’t just handing over her Twinstar championship! If anything, she is the Twinstar Champions! Jinny just happens to have her name attached to the Fashion Idols because Maki needs someone to take punishment while she catches her breath. So it is that she’s summoned her now close friend Tam to brainstorm about this first defense.

<"What the hell is taking her so long?">

That request had been answered affirmatively two hours ago. Still there's no sign of her friend anywhere and no word about unanticipated delays. Has Tam already forgotten about her? After all, Tam's always called herself the cutest in the cosmos. Despite lip service to the Itoh Respect Army, Tam must only be loyal to herself and her band of angels. Great. Maki Itoh once again has to deal with being stood up by someone who's got a big head and thinks Maki isn't important enough to stand behind. She's just going to have to suffer through the training and match alone. Not like she hasn't had to suffer on her own her whole life! To hell with it, she's going to show that dumbass magical girl just how strong the iron will of Maki Itoh is! Hell yeah!

Hands balled up into fists, Maki is now determined to do this all with no help from anyone! Then there's a loud pounding on the door which shakes her from this reverie. Furthermore, the sound of that door creaking open causes all kinds of red flags to dominate her thoughts. An intruder? Someone coming to trip away her title before the show even happens? Miyu Yamashita going door to door skull kicking everyone she finds?

Slowly Maki turns around, staring at the solid wood door as if it were a gateway to hell opening up. More by instinct than anything, her face falls into false smug confidence. No way is she giving this intruder the satisfaction of her looking scared. The door opens the rest of the way, revealing a woman backlit by the morning sun. Dressed in a purple boiler suit yet with pristine makeup making her dour scowl look delightful, it's the woman Maki has been waiting for. Tam has a duffle bag bursting at the seams with its contents sling over her left shoulder. Maki's eyes drift from that to a panda puppet stuffed into Tam's right breast pocket. It wears an eye patch over its left eye.

<"About time your> ass <showed up. Where have you been?">

Tam just smirks.

<"When you told me about this next match, I knew I'd have to help you prepare for a war. So I got together some useful training implements.">

<"Including the panda?">

Tam shakes her head.

<"P-Chan's more like a special advisor for your training.">

Maki cracks a smile at that.

<"Well P-Chan's just as cute as you, and I like the eye patch. Not as cute as me, but.. close.">

<"It's not a cute eye patch. He's just seen things no panda should ever see.">

Without any further explanation, Tam breezes past Maki into the gym proper. Maki cocks her head to the side, a weirded out expression on her face as she stares at her friend. If Tam cares she doesn’t show it as she stops near the practice ring and drops the bag on the floor with a thud. Not a small thud but rather one which speaks to quite a heavy load within! What in the hell did Tam put in there which could possibly make such a racket? The Cutest Wrestler in the World slowly follows Tam over to the ring, eying the bag suspiciously the whole time. Unable to put a damper on her curiosity and damned if she’s going to let her friend pull something unexpected, Maki unzips the bag and thrusts her hand in. Moments later she produces a baseball bat with the business end wrapped in barbed wire! Tossing this aside she fishes around again and finds a chain, very solid steel pipe and oddly enough a CD wallet.

What is Tam expecting Maki to face, a biker gang? Maki pulls the bag the rest of the way open and sees many other implements of destruction packed inside. If she didn’t know better she could’ve sworn Tam is planning to carry out a hit on someone who’d talked shit about Cosmic Angels. Holding on to the CD wallet she stands up and eyes Tam with a look that expresses exactly how crazy she thought her friend had gotten. She waves that CD wallet at Tam for emphasis.

<”And just what the> fuck <is all this supposed to be for? It’s not like I’m going to be fighting that crazy deathmatch idol or Tom ‘surprise-I’m-not-actually-dead’ Cruise! Wait, is he secretly going to be there, and you found out ahead of time?! That’s just the kind of sneaky thing someone who’s that full of himself would try.”>

Tam signs and shakes her head.

<”No he’s not. You do know who you’re facing, don’t you?”>

Maki’s smug as hell smirk returns.

<”Yeah, okay fine. Sasha Banks and Dakota Kai. Two foreigners who like to talk a big game and are very good at wrestling. But they haven’t suffered the indignities that I’ve suffered in life! They haven’t had to deal with the hellish reality of fighting for your dream of becoming a star just to be pushed to the back by a stupid manager who calls you ugly and then cuts you from the group even after you sold 500 tickets to a show at 5,000 yen each. 5,000 yen!”>

Tam steps closer and shakes her head.

<”You’re not ready, Maki. To beat them you need to be in better fighting shape than you’ve ever been. Right now you look and sound like a novelty act!”>

Maki instinctively moves to flip off Tam, but the CD wallet opens to reveal its horrifying contents. LINQ cd’s!

“SON OF A BITCH!”

Now it’s Tam who smirks.

<”Welcome to hell.”>

******

Sometime later, the same gym is filled with the cheerful pop tunes of the very group which Maki Itoh was fired from. Each and every chipper note is like a nail being driven into her brain. Not that the music is terrible; she’s just long since sworn a vow to surpass the success and relevance of that accursed group. Their management did not believe in the Cutest in the World and now she was going to be bigger than they’d ever be! Which makes it all the more frustrating when she has to listen to the same songs she once exhausted herself singing. Maybe worse than that, she’s currently dangling from a pull up bar. And then there’s the small matter of that incoming barbed wire-wrapped baseball bat! Maki exerts all of her strength to pull herself out of the way of the bat and just barely escapes.

<”49!”>

<”Good! Give me one more, Itoh-chan!”>

<”Isn’t this a bit over the top?”>

<”What did you just say, variety show girl?!”>

Maki clenches her teeth and pulls herself up just as Tam swings the bat toward the Fired Idol’s legs. This training is bullshit!

*****

Now on the ground, Maki has a lot to think about and not a lot of time to think about it. She’s got that tag team match against a pair of women who’re going to work well together in a few weeks. Against those two who’ve gotten famous internationally, she has to team with a snooty girl who barely acknowledges Maki’s greatness. But Maki’s going to show that poser Jinny just how much stronger she’s become! Two weeks of this hellish training down and Maki feels like maybe Tam isn’t quite as Crazy as originally thought. It feels like all the fear within Maki is being beaten out of her through her own efforts. There’s been actual progress.

Yet the torment continues. Another LINQ album blares in the background as Maki looks down at the floor, hands planted to either side like cement pillars. She lowers herself for another pushup, which allows her to get a very intimate view of the thumbtacks Tam spread out over the floor. Speaking of Tam, she shifts her weight on Maki’s back at this exact moment and almost causes Maki to fall face first into those tacks! Only Maki’s stubbornness and internal raging fire prevent the accident. For a moment she stares down at the glint of light from the tacks in front of her, her face contorted into a frown. Tam must have noticed, because she calls the Fired Idol out.

<”You’re an idol, aren’t you? Smile when you give me a push-up!”>

Thanks to years of practice, she’s able to force a smile onto her lips effortlessly and goes back to work. As she completes the push-up, then another and another, Maki’s eyes nearly bug out of her head. No way is she going to lose her twinstar title! No way is she going to let herself be weak and therefore prove Jinny’s point about her. At last she completes the final push-up of the set with an almighty shout.

“ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY, MOTHER FUCKER!!”

Tam gets off her back and Maki rolls to safety away from the tacks. Lying there on her back, breathing harder than she knew she could, Maki feels satisfaction. Those weren’t even as hard as they’d been the last ten times Tam had her do them! At this rate, she’s going to be unstoppable! Just then a one-eyed plush panda appears in her line of vision.

<”Good, you’re getting strong.”>

<”I’d better be after the hell I’ve been through.”>

<”Now let’s do the razor weights again.”>

Maki frowns and growls in a gutteral maner at the suggestion. She’s going to take this all out on Dakota, Sahsa and maybe even Jinny soon.

****

All of those weeks of barbed wire bat pull ups, thumb tack push-ups, razor weights and other hell have made Maki strong. Having survived all of those, built her strength and situational awareness up, she’s damn ready. Now comes the final piece before the war begins - shit talking. She stands in front of what looks like a tarp with the SGW logo hastily spray painted on it, and nods when Tam gives her the go ahead.

<”No introduction, because I don’t need one. Maki Itoh is a big name worldwide, bigger than Jinny whatever-her-name is. I’m stuck defending my Twinstar Championship with her, and I’ll carry the Fashion Idols to victory. Meanwhile she can just continue being the boring Mean Girl we’ve seen hundreds of times in this sport, and who’s so self-absorbed she doesn’t realize everyone else in this match is passing her by. Even the referee probably will!”>

She flips the bird to the camera, then continues.

<”Sasha is a very dangerous woman and her holds can make anyone tap out. Dakota is very very good at kicking. They’re huge stars internationally, and I’m sure that they work a hell of a lot better together than my ‘team’ will. This isn’t an uphill battle, it’s a war going uphill at 90 degrees! You’ve got all the motivation in the world to kick a lot of> ass <in that ring. Everyone’s telling me to just let go and vacate the title instead of going through with this crazy match.”

A pause, a sigh and she continues.

She grins and flips the bird.

“I’m Maki fucking Itoh, bitch.”