One Year

[Charlotte Shimizu]

The scene opens with a view of a clear sky, a stone obelisk with Japanese writing and Charlotte in a surprising return to her white kosode and pale blue hakama, but now with her beaded haori. Her hair, mostly loose but for her beaded and feathered braids hanging around her face, is whipped by a strong wind as she gazes out into the endless blue expanse.

“Just over a year ago, I’d just quit Neo-Honshu.”

Charlotte turns to the camera finally, brushing the long locks back from her face.

“I was waiting out my non-compete time in Sapporo and getting everything sorted to repatriate home. I didn’t know what I’d be doin’ once I landed in Tulsa. I didn’t know how long it would be before I could bring Rini over. I had a vague idea of workin’ the local circuits, hopin’ for a break. It was gonna be a lot of seein’ how things played out, adjustin’ those half-formed plans on the fly. I had enough saved up to keep me afloat for a while. I wasn’t worried. There were a lot of unknowns, but I knew one thing… My time living in Japan was up.

“Well… I came home, only to find that my little sister had turned into my manager, and she’d already nailed down a contract for me. No prizes for guessin’ where I went, but it was pretty much exactly how I expected the start of my new career to go; several losses, a surprise win, and several months of tellin’ myself that at least I could be myself; at least I was gettin’ chances I never woulda gotten before. Everyone knows when things turned around and took off like a rocket. Ain’t no reason to go over it again.”

Charlotte smiles wryly, almost embarrassed.

“Some have seen the surface and thought it was an act - Yeah I’m lookin’ at you Vivi… Spoiler alert folks, this is me; Charlotte Shimizu, the girl from the rez, Shinto Priestess, the wrestler with No Damned Brakes, last year’s Breakout Star and this year’s Iron Maiden and Heiress to the Throne. Everything you see in the ring is everything you’ll get outside it… Well… Mostly. Unless you get in on a pick-up game of some sport with me, I ain’t likely to go plowin’ into folks.

“There’ve been some who saw parts of the whole… Knight knew the pressure I’d been under working in Japan; Everstone could see the darkness inside me that’s just waiting for me to lose my grip on it, and lemme tell ya… Some of these people don’t make it easy for me to keep my temper. I can’t forget Stepanov. Not because she was my first win here, but because she saw the drive; that I wasn’t here for sympathy votes or a handout. Girlie, if you watchin’ this, I still owe you a drink.

“Itami had it right that I’m out to prove to everyone that I belong at the top of any card… Not gonna lie and say that I don’t wanna rub it in Neo-Honshu’s face while I’m at it. I’m only human and I ain’t perfect.”

The wind blows a lock of hair across Charlotte’s face. Her sheepish smile turns confident as she brushes it back behind her ear with one finger.

“And what have I proven? It turns out, a helluva lot more than what I was planning on provin’. I wanted to prove I was worth a shot and ho’ boy, did I get a shot. I got a shot at the Invictus title and made Knight work every second to keep that belt. I kicked off the Iron Maiden with Homie and I fuckin’ won. That got me the shot at Fenix the first time and it was forty two minutes and twenty-seven seconds of absolute glory.

“Sure I didn’t win in Rome. Maybe I was more concerned about knocking The Murder’s pedestal out from under them. Maybe I got thrown off my game because of what happened at the end of that match. Don’t matter really. Point is, I didn’t win then. Losses happen. I ain’t about to let it get to me… I didn’t need to go out and sell my soul to management over it. I didn’t throw a fit. I walked backstage and said ‘Get Good, Charlie’, and went back to training.

“It didn’t bother me all through Heiress to the Throne and I tore through everyone that came at me. Now I’m the first woman in Imperial’s records to be both Iron Maiden and Heiress to the Throne in the same year, resulting in probably the most badass hashtag outside of popular tv fandoms.

“I ain’t lettin’ Jennie’s games get to me either. She wanna use her status as Sacrifice GM to get Medical to start waving warning flags, it just tells me she knows she’s at the end of her rope. Or maybe she was dumb while still being an active competitor and had an ‘oh shit, I’m late’ moment.”

Charlotte shrugs carelessly, clearly indicating how much the truth of the situation matters.

“All that matters is that the match is still on, and the world will watch the Genie and the Iron Hawk go another round. I could say something about how it was almost mine back in June, but almost ain’t a score. Instead I’ll just address something you said before, Fenix… Have I been paying enough attention?”

Charlotte pauses as though attempting to let the Champion respond, head cocked slightly to one side while a wry smile twists her lips.

“Is that why you runnin’ scared now, Jennie? Because I am paying attention. You know that it was only a flip of the coin that let you retain the title in Rome. You know I had your number even then. Is that why you tried to get me to think of anyone but you?

“Sweetheart… You’ve gone and made the worst mistake you possibly could; you let me see that you know. You’ve shown me your doubt, that achilles heel any sportsman wants to exploit.

“You know I can hang with the best and make ‘em work for every inch. You know every defeat made me better. I can tangle with the best technicians in the biz and put them in my rear-view. You know even flyin’ won’t get you away from me fast enough. I can take every hit thrown at me and still come back for another go… And you told me that you know.”

Her smile turns nearly feral, showing her teeth.

“Know what else that tells me, Jen? It tells me that you know your time as Champion is nearing its end, just like I knew I had to leave Japan a year ago. But we gonna do this right… Just like how I left Japan, we gonna do everything by the book; dot all the ‘i’s, cross all the ‘t’s… and leave it all in the ring.”

Charlotte takes a moment to run a reverent hand along the stone monument before returning her attention to the camera.

“What was it that you said the last time? Oh right.”

Charlotte grins broadly as she approaches the camera.

“See ya Sunday -”

Though her mouth moves, there’s no sound for the last word. Her hand comes up and covers the camera lens. The feed cuts. It’s later released in both Cherokee and Japanese, and all are missing the last word.