Osaka, Japan
October 1, 2021
6:15 pm
A nondescript office building is hardly a place for something monumental in the world of women’s wrestling to occur. Don’t even mention some chaotic nonsense of a scramble to the top of some corporate tower or behind the scenes politicking to get one specific woman more opportunities. That kind of shit doesn’t fly with the women who are gathering somewhere in Japan’s second city. This is serious business and their gathering tonight is filled with a great purpose. Even if none of the women in the room so far have any kind of inkling as to why they’ve been summoned. All they knew was that they’d gotten a cryptic message from an unknown number.
‘It’s time. Meet me at this address on 1-October at 18:00. For your sake you’d better be there.’
Thus a real rogue’s gallery of the Japanese wrestling scene is gathered in what’s otherwise just some bland corporate meeting chamber. Sumire Natsu is there, garbed in tight black leather and absently tapping at her cell phone’s screen. Natsuko Tora is there, hair dyed red once again and toying with a chain she brought in with her. Andras Miyagi - or someone everyone assumes is her - is off in a corner, wearing a sweatshirt that’s oversized enough for her face to be obscured by its hood. Saki Kashima sits near Sumire Natsu, reading the screen of the other woman’s phone. At the front of the room is a horizontal bar that has a large amount of cloth wrapped around it. Nobody currently present knows or cares what the cloth might be. Some are even considering leaving since they’ve been here for a while.
Just as this thought crosses their minds, the door bursts open as if blown inward by a typhoon wind. All eyes drift - some in shock, some in apathy and one set in apparent madness - to the doorway as someone steps into the room. She wears a dapper white suit and holds a glass of some unknown amber colored beverage in her left hand. While her hair is black at the moment, everyone assembled knows precisely who this is. How could anyone possibly forget the woman they’d all looked up to as a leader at some point in the past?
“CAPTAIN?!” Saki asks in disbelief, pointing at the well dressed woman.
“Who the hell else could it be? It’s been far too long, Kashima-chan,” Kagetsu answers in her gruff, commanding voice.
Everyone at the table reacts a little bit differently to Kagetsu’s sudden arrival. Saki and Sumire are both shocked, alternatingly exchanging looks with each other and watching Kagetsu move to the front of the room. Natsuko’s eyebrows furrow in surprise as she waits to hear the reason they’ve all been summoned. Presumed Andras growls gutterally. Kagetsu stands before the rolled up cloth and takes in the view of her assembled cohorts. She knows each of these women well after leading them into battle many times over. It’s why she asked each one of them to be present at this all important meeting. With all the things that’ve changed in the landscape of wrestling, Kagetsu needs women she can trust.
The world’s premier promotion died with a whimper just under a year ago. While SGW had lived, a number of her contemporaries had gone over to work for the international promotion. Some of them women that Kagetsu otherwise would have been testing her mettle against or offering opportunities to. With the company’s death they’ve gone in different directions, as has the thing Kagetsu cared about the most. Her one true family in the business, the thing she’s given so many hours of blood, sweat and tears for. Oedo Tai. What she has gathered tonight is all that remains of that family, at least all that she’s deemed she can trust enough for what is to come.
“All right, let’s talk. I know you’re all wondering why I asked you to meet me here in this stuffy old place. And shouldn’t I be retired? Didn’t I leave to go enjoy myself away from the ring?” Kagetsu said, eying each woman one at a time to see if any had the faintest sliver of a notion. When none of them does, she lifts her glass up as if to make a toast, “Well lighten up, tonight we are celebrating!”
“Celebrating what? It better be good,” Natsuko rolls her eyes.
Kagetsu shoots a dirty look at Natsuko. She sets the glass down on the table and leans over it as her gaze intensifies. The corners of her lips curl up into an evil grin as she replies in a slightly mocking tone, “Oh, it’s good Tora-chan. Damn good. You of all people should be thankful that I’m including you in it.”
As Natusko looks away, Kagetsu stands up and motions to the assembled women, “All of us have fought together in a shit ton of battles. Waged war on our enemies. Did whatever it took to make sure that everyone knew our names and feared them. But where are we now? Does anyone really talk about any of you as much as they used to? Does anyone care what you’ve been up to in the past year? Huh?”
Crickets. No one dares to speak up to Kagetsu when she’s this impassioned. She shakes her head, arms folded over her chest as she poses the question, “Does anyone even know you exist anymore? And if not, why not?”
She lets it sink in for a few uncomfortable moments. When still no one gives her an answer she laughs coldly, “Okay, so lemme ask you this - how can we make sure people remember us, that they never forget us again?”
More awkward silence. Except for an incoherent muttering from the presumed Andras that might be nothing or might be some kind of evil incantation. Best to leave that alone. Kagestu waits patiently for them to come up with some kind of answer to her question. Natsuko shifts uncomfortably in her chair. Saki is lost in thought. It’s Sumire that finally seems to have an idea, as she hesitantly raises her hand. In response Kagetsu jabs her index finger toward her former minion.
“Yes! Natsu-san!” Kagetsu remarks, hoping that maybe she’s realized.
“We could...make a gravure book together?” Sumire asks, posing suggestively.
Everyone in the room shoots dirty looks at her in response. Kagetsu is so stupefied she buries her face in her left palm. Saki snickers at Sumire’s response, not quite loud enough to attract Kagetsu’s attention. Natsuko elbows Sumire in the side as if to let her know it was a really dumb suggestion. "Andras".. shouts something wicked sounding but unintelligible. In other words the usual. Seeing that she’s getting nowhere by leaving the group to its own devices, Kagetsu decides she’d better just get to the point. Before she can though, there’s an unexpected and unwelcome interjection from the doorway. Almost immediately Kagetsu regrets leaving the door open.
“Ooo, can I help? This looks fun!” a perky voice asks from the hallway.
Kagetsu turns to the doorway and groans, “Tam-san? Why are.. oh, by all means, go ahead. What’s your idea?”
Dressed in far too colorful of clothing to fit in with the group, Tam Nakano smiles and offers, “I think you all should smile more and wear brighter colors! I could cast a spell on you to transform you into happier people, it might help raise your spirits!”
Kagetsu scoffs at this and sarcastically motions to the center of the room, “Oh yeah, that sounds like a great idea. Go right ahead.”
Just as Tam starts to move toward the middle of the room, Kagetsu stands in her way and glares at her. Tam stands her ground but it’s clear that Kagetsu doesn’t actually intend for the magical girl to contribute to the goings on. After glaring daggers at each other for a few tense moments, Kagetsu shoves her back out the doorway and raises her fist as if to pound Tam’s face in. For her part Tam doesn’t recoil. She just stands on the other side of the doorway and pouts.
Kagetsu grabs the door and growls, “Unless you’re gonna wear black and bring Producer P back with you, stay out of our business!” As an exclamation to this she slams the door shut.
By this point she’s fuming at both the incompetence of her assembled team and the unexpected interruption from an uninvited ex-minion. For the first time all night everyone in the room has their full undivided attention on the woman who’s summoned them. Kagetsu once again looks each of them over while her thoughts reassemble themselves. Calm down, she tells herself. Despite how things have gone to this point these are still people she can inherently count on when they get serious about something. What they’ve lacked is a proper central figure, someone who can focus their many talents onto a single goal.
“No, it’s not a gravure video or becoming happy sparkly do-gooder friends. What’s gonna make us talked about, what’s gonna make us feared again is us working together like we used to. Ever since I left you all have been just wasting away your time while other people take over the world that used to be ours. What we need is..” Kagetsu explains as she walks to the rolled up cloth.
With a dramatic flourish she removes the clip holding the cloth in place. It unfurls downward, revealing itself to be a white banner with a swirling circle and blood splatter design in black at its center. Emblazoned on the center of this design are the kanji for ‘Oedo Tai’. No one dares to say anything in response but Natsuko at least seems rather surprised, judging by her facial expression. Kagetsu has guessed that it might be a bit confusing for them; Oedo Tai continued on after her retirement after all. It isn’t like it was just now being re-established.
“And I know what you’re thinking, ‘Captain, Oedo Tai is still alive!’ The way I see it though, it might as well be dead. When people talk about the scariest, toughest or best groups of Japanese women, what do they think of today? V.I.X.E.N. and Triple Tails maybe? You’re not even in the conversation anymore, and that’s an insult to everything we fought so hard to build,” she explains, the disgust clear in her dismissive gestures and the tone of her voice, “Oedo Tai is forgotten. The way it is now we might as well bury it. But we can do a hell of a lot better. And that is why I’m here telling you this right now.”
She produces a phone from one of her jacket pockets and remarks, “Because you’re all very lucky tonight. Tonight, Kagetsu is back to give Oedo Tai a new start. I left my comfortable, relaxing retirement to help you all because the one thing I care about the most is Oedo Tai’s success. All of you have been loyal to it, and that’s why I trust you. None of you has ever left Oedo Tai behind like our uninvited guest earlier or a dozen other unworthy women I can think of.”
A tense pause, followed by Kagetsu adding, “Together we’re going to put Oedo Tai back on top. Clearly you all need some direction, and that’s why I’m back. To steer you all in the right direction.”
She pounds a fist onto the table for emphasis, “And I’ve got just the opportunity to show the world that not only is the true Oedo Tai back, but what happens to people who leave it. Feast your eyes on this.”
“Jamie-san, Jamie-san, Jamie-san… thought she could do better than Oedo Tai. And right now? Yeah, I think she is in a better spot than we’re in. But that changes on Halloween, because for one night the top gaijin is getting a brutal lesson from her captain. That lesson’s gonna show everyone that Oedo Tai is back, and Oedo Tai is serious. After I’m done we’ll be ready to take on the world again. To dominate anyone and everyone whether it’s in Japan or on foreign soil,” Kagetsu remarked with that wicked grin returning to her face.
It is going to have to be one of her better performances to make up for how far Oedo Tai has fallen in her eyes. They are an afterthought under Natsuko’s leadership while those who’d betrayed the group were sitting pretty. For them to make the world fear their names, tremble at the sound of their song, she has to get back into the ring as their leader. Yet she knows that she can’t keep doing this forever. As tough as she is, there’s a lot of mileage on her body and she’s looking forward to going back to that relaxing retirement. So from where she stands, Kagetsu doesn’t have enough time to keep Oedo Tai going in that proper direction. Just enough to build them back up, make a statement in their name at the ghostly SGW show and then leave them in someone else’s hands.
Which brings her to the final thing she needs to discuss with them. One last bit of preparation for the future of Oedo Tai, both in Los Angeles and after SGW Kills. Oedo Tai’s future depends on having a real leader to take it to new heights in Kagetsu’s absence. Though she sees Natsuko as having potential, the time isn’t right for her to take control again. Natsuko’s recent tenure had just gotten them into this place to begin with. So Kagetsu has gone in a new direction, outside of Oedo Tai’s current or past members. With Act Yasukawa in the corner of Kairi Hojo, Kagetsu is generally dubious of past members’ likelihood to remain loyal to the group.
Her only choice in the end is to bring in someone with no history of joining and then leaving Oedo Tai. Someone she’s personally tested in battle many times and knows is thoroughly strong, determined and capable of leading a unit successfully. Despite their differences she’s a wrestler whom Kagetsu respects deeply and knows can perform at the level necessary for Oedo Tai’s next leader. A woman whose recent attempts to win the old way haven’t brought her the success she strives for. It’s a bombshell that not even the ladies of Oedo Tai could possibly fathom. After speaking with her, though, Kagetsu is convinced that she’s the only one who can effectively lead Oedo Tai into the future.
“I don’t have a lot of time left to do this damn stuff though. And I’m not going to do this alone; Natsu-san, Tora-san.. You’re coming with me to America. Oedo Tai’s showing up in force, even though I’m the only one fighting. On Halloween we’ll remind everyone who we really are. And after I’m done reminding Jamie-san about how much better she had it when she was in Oedo Tai, it’s gonna be time for us to move forward,” Kagetsu explains, “What I’m gonna do in Oedo Tai’s name is gonna kick the hornet’s nest. After this show, people are gonna be coming after us. They might be as relentless and vicious as we are. I might have one or two more good fights left in me, but you.. Oedo Tai deserves a captain who’s going to be around to lead it to those future victories. So.. I want you to meet her.”
The room goes silent in genuine sock as Kagetsu paces melodramatically, continuing to fill them in, “She’s tough, strong and gave me some of the most challenging battles I’ve ever fought. Everything I’ve ever seen her do makes me sure that she’s uniquely qualified to lead Oedo Tai in the chaos that’s going down after this phantom SGW thing. I know all of you are going to be confused by this. Trust me, I’m still kind of confused by this too. But I’ve talked to her a lot about where we are, and she’s ready to become one of us.”
Kagetsu lets it all sink in as her assembly of allies struggles to figure out who she has in mind. A couple of tense moments later, Kagetsu points to the suspected Andras Miyagi. To the astonishment of the three other women in the room, "Andras" stands up and moves to join Kagetsu at the front of the room. There's a suspenseful moment as they wonder if the captain has gone mental. A monster like the Baroness of Hell as the new leader? But it's far more unexpected than even that madness. When the woman flips her hood off, everyone room and immediately all of the women gasp or gawk at her sudden arrival. At her side Kagetsu laughs in grand amusement before placing a hand on her hand picked successor’s shoulder.
“Ladies, meet the next icon of Oedo Tai…” Kagetsu proclaims as she motions to the woman next to her.
“Mayu Iwatani,” the woman introduces herself; in place of her usual smile is a malevolent grin, “Nice to meet you.”
Before any of the other members can say anything, Kagetsu pumps her fist in the air, “With me dominating a traitor across the ocean, Natsu-san and Tora-san at my side.. And Iwatani-san conquering some of our old enemies here in Japan with Kashima-san and recruiting new members for our little family, ... even after this miserable shell of SGW nobody asked for is buried and forgotten... Oedo Tai will never die!”
Mayu pumps her fist in the air, “Oedo Tai will never die!”
Natsuko stands up and nods vehemently, “Oedo Tai will never die!”
Saki, then Sumire stand up and smile, “Oedo Tai will never die!"
Kagetsu beams at her team. This was more like it. Oedo Tai would never die.
