Post by Yuriko Toyama on Apr 11, 2022 12:38:02 GMT -5
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---| Public Execution 2022 |---
---| Gatekeeper Championship |---
Lightning Blue
Yuriko Toyama
強さ
"Strength"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---| KENJI |---
---| Paths Walked Before |---
The scene opens with the sound of boots stamping on the ground, the creaking of a wrestling ring as the calling out of a sequence. The banner of Tetran Kai across the wall in a well-furnished gym.
Trainer: "Leapfrog!"
"Switchback! Waistlock, to the ropes".
"armdrag, armdrag, dropkick".
Their training partner is the much smaller frame of Yuriko Toyama, dressed in a baggy neon blue hoodie and shorts. Despite her size, is keeping up well with the break-neck pace of the session. However, she starts to enter a more heated state, working faster than even her athletic form can handle. She starts to lay in her forearm strikes more, perhaps a little too much for a simple drill exercise. She goes for a hurricanrana too quickly, the coach catching her and placing her back to her feet with a stern look on his face.
TRAINER: "Yuriko! You're going too fast for your own good. Take a breath, this isn't a sprint".
YURIKO: "...I'm sorry".
TRAINER: "I think that'll be it for today. You're distracted. Take a rest, clear your head, and we can continue tomorrow".
YURIKO: "...Bu-".
Before she could protest, the coach had already given her the knowing glare that it was indeed over for the day. Whether she liked it or not. The look to hit the bricks. Her shoulders deflated to a slump before moping to the corner and rolling underneath the ropes. Wiping the sweat off her face with a towel, she sits there with her feet dangling off the ring apron. A small moment to herself, stuck in the moment that was, and the moments that are yet to come, all playing on her mind.
However, her glum spirit was soon lifted by the entrance of a very familiar face into the Tetran Kai gym. Wearing a smart blue suit, with small details of white and gold on the accents, was her brother, Kenji. Her eyes widen as she immediately runs over to give her brother the biggest hug she could, almost tearing up in the process. Kenji warmly hugs her back.
YURIKO: "Kenji-oniisan!"
KENJI: "Hey, Yuri! I've missed you so much".
She eventually pulls away from the hug, the dejectedness of her day instantly gone, and the lonely nights in a foreign country feeling so far away with finally seeing her best friend again.
KENJI: "What's wrong? You didn't look to happy before just now".
YURIKO: "Doesn't matter now. I feel better seeing a friendly face around for once".
The scene cuts to the two siblings sat down in the booth of a retro 50s diner. Yuriko sat with the most audaciously large milkshake, that looked like diabetes in a glass. Her brother with a simple black coffee, and the pot left on the table for more refills.
KENJI: "That bad, huh?"
YURIKO: "No, not really. I have been enjoying myself here in America. But I don't know, it all felt easier to understand before then. I haven't felt like that after a match before. I kind of want to feel that rush again, but more. Being on the cusp of winning something so meaningful....it's different..."
KENJI listens to his sister intently, a small sip from his coffee, careful not to burn his mouth with the cheap, overly roasted gritty caffeine. He speaks with a world-weariness, but maintaining a bright smile for his much more wide-eyed sister.
KENJI: "It's something that was bound to happen at some point. And you won't find anyone that hasn't been in the ring that can really relate to that feeling. I get it. Even after all this time out of the ring, I can still wake up sometimes and want that buzz down my neck again. That's what being a contender is, Yuri. It's a good thing...."
His face tightens slightly. A subtle tick, but it doesn't escape Yuriko's attention as she recoils from just how overwhelmingly sweet and sickly the milkshake is.
YURIKO: "I was kind of expecting some kind of warning about moving ahead into a championship match".
KENJI: "Yuri...I don't want to see you hold yourself back. So it is a good thing..... It only starts to turn sour of you let that consume you. You're such a bright light in the wrestling world. And I don't just say that as your brother, it's true. And even if they say you're not cut out for this because of it...they're wrong. I don't want you to lose that".
YURIKO: "I don't want to lose that either!"
KENJI: "But....it's always the bigger hill to climb going in. There will be so many that try to overtake you with other means. They'll have it in their mind to only win, no matter the cost to themselves, or others. And beyond weapons or blood, they have it in within them. Wanting it too much".
YURIKO: "....That's a good lesson to hear. But....I don't think I want to just be here for fun anymore. Sure, I want to do my best and live the life I wanted. But after last time, I think I want to be a champion. I do. I know you came here to support me, and I'll always be grateful for that.....this is a journey I'll be walking. Even if it's where you've walked before, it's my path, and I want to be stronger now".
"I think I can be the winner, and keep true to myself at the same time. I can't look back at myself and say that I didn't try. I want to try and be the best of both worlds".
KENJI smiles again before another gulp from his coffee. Paining him to say the actual reason he showed up at the Tetran Kai headquarters unannounced to his own sister. He had told himself that it was for Yuriko, but the powers that be had other plans for his excursion back to America. Nonetheless, he smiles back.
KENJI: "I'll be cheering you all the way, Yuri".
"Nobody can keep a Toyama down".
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---| YURIKO |---
---| Elements of Attrition |---
YURIKO: "It's almost time...butterflies in my stomach...."
"It's not that winning hasn't been so close before, or that I haven't fought for it that much before....But something about that match...I can't stop thinking about it. What could have been, if I had only been a little faster...."
---| Public Execution 2022 |---
---| Gatekeeper Championship |---
Lightning Blue
Yuriko Toyama
強さ
"Strength"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---| KENJI |---
---| Paths Walked Before |---
The scene opens with the sound of boots stamping on the ground, the creaking of a wrestling ring as the calling out of a sequence. The banner of Tetran Kai across the wall in a well-furnished gym.
Trainer: "Leapfrog!"
"Switchback! Waistlock, to the ropes".
"armdrag, armdrag, dropkick".
Their training partner is the much smaller frame of Yuriko Toyama, dressed in a baggy neon blue hoodie and shorts. Despite her size, is keeping up well with the break-neck pace of the session. However, she starts to enter a more heated state, working faster than even her athletic form can handle. She starts to lay in her forearm strikes more, perhaps a little too much for a simple drill exercise. She goes for a hurricanrana too quickly, the coach catching her and placing her back to her feet with a stern look on his face.
TRAINER: "Yuriko! You're going too fast for your own good. Take a breath, this isn't a sprint".
YURIKO: "...I'm sorry".
TRAINER: "I think that'll be it for today. You're distracted. Take a rest, clear your head, and we can continue tomorrow".
YURIKO: "...Bu-".
Before she could protest, the coach had already given her the knowing glare that it was indeed over for the day. Whether she liked it or not. The look to hit the bricks. Her shoulders deflated to a slump before moping to the corner and rolling underneath the ropes. Wiping the sweat off her face with a towel, she sits there with her feet dangling off the ring apron. A small moment to herself, stuck in the moment that was, and the moments that are yet to come, all playing on her mind.
However, her glum spirit was soon lifted by the entrance of a very familiar face into the Tetran Kai gym. Wearing a smart blue suit, with small details of white and gold on the accents, was her brother, Kenji. Her eyes widen as she immediately runs over to give her brother the biggest hug she could, almost tearing up in the process. Kenji warmly hugs her back.
YURIKO: "Kenji-oniisan!"
KENJI: "Hey, Yuri! I've missed you so much".
She eventually pulls away from the hug, the dejectedness of her day instantly gone, and the lonely nights in a foreign country feeling so far away with finally seeing her best friend again.
KENJI: "What's wrong? You didn't look to happy before just now".
YURIKO: "Doesn't matter now. I feel better seeing a friendly face around for once".
The scene cuts to the two siblings sat down in the booth of a retro 50s diner. Yuriko sat with the most audaciously large milkshake, that looked like diabetes in a glass. Her brother with a simple black coffee, and the pot left on the table for more refills.
KENJI: "That bad, huh?"
YURIKO: "No, not really. I have been enjoying myself here in America. But I don't know, it all felt easier to understand before then. I haven't felt like that after a match before. I kind of want to feel that rush again, but more. Being on the cusp of winning something so meaningful....it's different..."
KENJI listens to his sister intently, a small sip from his coffee, careful not to burn his mouth with the cheap, overly roasted gritty caffeine. He speaks with a world-weariness, but maintaining a bright smile for his much more wide-eyed sister.
KENJI: "It's something that was bound to happen at some point. And you won't find anyone that hasn't been in the ring that can really relate to that feeling. I get it. Even after all this time out of the ring, I can still wake up sometimes and want that buzz down my neck again. That's what being a contender is, Yuri. It's a good thing...."
His face tightens slightly. A subtle tick, but it doesn't escape Yuriko's attention as she recoils from just how overwhelmingly sweet and sickly the milkshake is.
YURIKO: "I was kind of expecting some kind of warning about moving ahead into a championship match".
KENJI: "Yuri...I don't want to see you hold yourself back. So it is a good thing..... It only starts to turn sour of you let that consume you. You're such a bright light in the wrestling world. And I don't just say that as your brother, it's true. And even if they say you're not cut out for this because of it...they're wrong. I don't want you to lose that".
YURIKO: "I don't want to lose that either!"
KENJI: "But....it's always the bigger hill to climb going in. There will be so many that try to overtake you with other means. They'll have it in their mind to only win, no matter the cost to themselves, or others. And beyond weapons or blood, they have it in within them. Wanting it too much".
YURIKO: "....That's a good lesson to hear. But....I don't think I want to just be here for fun anymore. Sure, I want to do my best and live the life I wanted. But after last time, I think I want to be a champion. I do. I know you came here to support me, and I'll always be grateful for that.....this is a journey I'll be walking. Even if it's where you've walked before, it's my path, and I want to be stronger now".
"I think I can be the winner, and keep true to myself at the same time. I can't look back at myself and say that I didn't try. I want to try and be the best of both worlds".
KENJI smiles again before another gulp from his coffee. Paining him to say the actual reason he showed up at the Tetran Kai headquarters unannounced to his own sister. He had told himself that it was for Yuriko, but the powers that be had other plans for his excursion back to America. Nonetheless, he smiles back.
KENJI: "I'll be cheering you all the way, Yuri".
"Nobody can keep a Toyama down".
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---| YURIKO |---
---| Elements of Attrition |---
YURIKO: "It's almost time...butterflies in my stomach...."
"It's not that winning hasn't been so close before, or that I haven't fought for it that much before....But something about that match...I can't stop thinking about it. What could have been, if I had only been a little faster...."
"But now it's different. The chances I could take aren't there anymore. It's not a safety net. Just him, and only one path to be the victor, in his own battlefield. For as much as I want to win, Hyde has the advantage. That title, it's his until someone, anyone, is able to beat him for it. But, whenever the championship hangs in the balance, he is as unstoppable as the very best. Even compared to the strongest wrestlers on the posters and T-shirts....after being able to walk away with the belt after last time, that takes someone more..."
"More than what I can be overnight..."
"I feel...outclassed".
"I suppose that I am outclassed here..."
"I mean, look at what Hyde has achieved with his fighting spirit so far. Then look at me....One win to my name. Winning came close this time, but it's felt so far away ever since that very first match on Fallout. I can work harder than ever before, but that feeling will still be there....that winning for me, is climbing a mountain by itself, let alone to dream about calling myself a champion".
"It was never my goal in coming to America to be sitting on top of the mountain. Not really. I just wanted to explore this weird world of wrestling, because I love it. For the simple pleasure of it, and the pain too. That's what we all should really be here for. More than anything else".
"Sadly, it isn't want we're all here to do. Some want to be rich, and others want to win more than anything else in the world. Some just want to inflict pain in anyway they can. The man I'm gonna be facing definitely fits into the last of those. He's dangerous, and I saw it first-hand. I saw it when I thought I had won the title, but it was him who won the honour of raising it that night".
"Someone who to me, in that moment, was unbeatable. By the smallest of margins, but unbeatable".
"But....that shouldn't be a reason to stop. Or to quit. To be the very best, I have to face anyone, and everyone head on. My brother taught me that much, even if it feels like you don't stand a chance against them. Wrestlers who fight for less than the love of we do, they can quit, and walk away....I can't do that, and definitely not here".
"There is always one chance, even if it's small. So small that nobody thinks it to matter. An opponent can be the mightiest of them all, but that chance will always be there".
"Henry Lee Hyde became the Gatekeeper Champion because he never gives up. He simply doesn't . To be that unrelenting in offense, is something that I can only aspire to. It's where he finds his strength. And I might not be as scary as he is, or as aggressive as he is, or as successful....but...."
"I have that fighting spirit too!".
"You've defended that title before against people greater than me, but not against someone quite like me! You can batter and bruise me, even break me, hat isn't going to stop me from getting up and trying again. And as much as you try to bruteforce your way to the top like every other challenge, it won't work this time. I've finally had a taste of what a hardcore match is like, but now you'll be able to test just how much punishment you can dish out into someone that refuses to take no for an answer! This is my chance to evolve beyond what I thought was possible for myself, expand further than the deathmatch...but into more...."
"Everyone has fallen to the sheer power of Henry Lee Hyde...."
"But I can't be kept down. You won't stop me, Gatekeeper!".
"I want to be strong like you, in my own way".
"It's the one edge I have going into this match over you. The biggest match I've ever had. The will to get back up, that is what's within me. That's in my soul, and no amount of death put upon me will take that away! The resolve to take my next step on this journey, and beat the Gatekeeper guarding the mountain, it is in me, I know it is".
"My fighting soul will outlast anything, and everything you can throw at me".
"Out all your matches in Project: Honor so far, and all of your victories, I want to make sure this is THE ONE that you have to EARN the most".
"A test for you to kill the unkillable. And for me to slay the brave warrior...."
"If you win, you will have earned the night of Public Execution".
"If you lose, then I want you to see someone truly worthy of that victory too".
"Game on, champion".
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1,894 Words]
"More than what I can be overnight..."
"I feel...outclassed".
"I suppose that I am outclassed here..."
"I mean, look at what Hyde has achieved with his fighting spirit so far. Then look at me....One win to my name. Winning came close this time, but it's felt so far away ever since that very first match on Fallout. I can work harder than ever before, but that feeling will still be there....that winning for me, is climbing a mountain by itself, let alone to dream about calling myself a champion".
"It was never my goal in coming to America to be sitting on top of the mountain. Not really. I just wanted to explore this weird world of wrestling, because I love it. For the simple pleasure of it, and the pain too. That's what we all should really be here for. More than anything else".
"Sadly, it isn't want we're all here to do. Some want to be rich, and others want to win more than anything else in the world. Some just want to inflict pain in anyway they can. The man I'm gonna be facing definitely fits into the last of those. He's dangerous, and I saw it first-hand. I saw it when I thought I had won the title, but it was him who won the honour of raising it that night".
"Someone who to me, in that moment, was unbeatable. By the smallest of margins, but unbeatable".
"But....that shouldn't be a reason to stop. Or to quit. To be the very best, I have to face anyone, and everyone head on. My brother taught me that much, even if it feels like you don't stand a chance against them. Wrestlers who fight for less than the love of we do, they can quit, and walk away....I can't do that, and definitely not here".
"There is always one chance, even if it's small. So small that nobody thinks it to matter. An opponent can be the mightiest of them all, but that chance will always be there".
"Henry Lee Hyde became the Gatekeeper Champion because he never gives up. He simply doesn't . To be that unrelenting in offense, is something that I can only aspire to. It's where he finds his strength. And I might not be as scary as he is, or as aggressive as he is, or as successful....but...."
"I have that fighting spirit too!".
"You've defended that title before against people greater than me, but not against someone quite like me! You can batter and bruise me, even break me, hat isn't going to stop me from getting up and trying again. And as much as you try to bruteforce your way to the top like every other challenge, it won't work this time. I've finally had a taste of what a hardcore match is like, but now you'll be able to test just how much punishment you can dish out into someone that refuses to take no for an answer! This is my chance to evolve beyond what I thought was possible for myself, expand further than the deathmatch...but into more...."
"Everyone has fallen to the sheer power of Henry Lee Hyde...."
"But I can't be kept down. You won't stop me, Gatekeeper!".
"I want to be strong like you, in my own way".
"It's the one edge I have going into this match over you. The biggest match I've ever had. The will to get back up, that is what's within me. That's in my soul, and no amount of death put upon me will take that away! The resolve to take my next step on this journey, and beat the Gatekeeper guarding the mountain, it is in me, I know it is".
"My fighting soul will outlast anything, and everything you can throw at me".
"Out all your matches in Project: Honor so far, and all of your victories, I want to make sure this is THE ONE that you have to EARN the most".
"A test for you to kill the unkillable. And for me to slay the brave warrior...."
"If you win, you will have earned the night of Public Execution".
"If you lose, then I want you to see someone truly worthy of that victory too".
"Game on, champion".
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[1,894 Words]