Kingdom Come X: Kagura (c) v ??? (EurAsian championship)

[Lee]

Not THE ??? but the winner of a battle royale...

(Kagura RPs here) Deadline Tuesday 15th October 11:59pm Eastern (No extensions)

[Lee]

Deadline extended for all matches to Saturday 19th 11:59pm Eastern

[Echelon]

Kagura reached into her pocket and fished out her cell phone with an annoyed look on her face. Kingdom Come was only days away at this point and she and Sasuke travelled to Rio de Janeiro to finish preparing for her match. She held the device to her face, growling as she half-spat into the receiver.

â??Yes?â?

She didnâ??t recognize the number, but these days no one bothered calling her. Every once in a while, a telemarketer would slip through and would receive a verbal thrashing, but otherwise her cellphone mostly collected dust. Her eyes widened in surprise for a split second as a voice answered her in her native tongue.

â??Kagura-san, we need to talkâ?¦â?

It was her great uncle, the current head of the Watarai family. Kaguraâ??s eyes began to twitch as she listened to the manâ??s verbal tirade. Her uncle was a traditionalist and super strict. He had never been a fan of her decision to become a wrestler, and often chastised her grandfather for supporting what he called â??her tomfoolery.â? For years he had remained passive, simply because she had gone to lengths not to make a fool of herself. Her grandfather had downplayed the incident with the book, the Yakuzaâ??s involvement, and her inherent possession, merely sweeping it underneath the rug as a character she had been playing.

The old man didnâ??t know anything about her drug use, or the injuries she sustained while on the road, and Kagura preferred to keep things that way. However, she couldnâ??t camouflage her recent behavior.

â??What is it, uncle? Did you and the rest of the family finally make your decision?â?

Kagura had been preparing for this. After having spoken to her grandfather after the incident following the destruction of the Eurasian title, in defeat he sorrowfully had to inform her that he couldnâ??t suppress this. The wrestling world was abuzz and the story had been picked up by major news sources.

â??Hai. Your actions have reflected poorly on the Watarai clan, and as a result we havenâ??t any desire to continue to claim you as one of our own.â?

Kagura sneered, â??So thatâ??s it huh, youâ??re kicking me out?â?

The connection cut in and out as the raven haired vixen heard what sounded like a sigh coming from the other line, â??Honestly, I was against this. You had such talent as a priestess that I thought for sure you would spend your life dedicated to the teachings. I was against your decision to become a wrestler because the sport of wrestling has always been clouded in acts of turpitude. We of the Watarai clan have a reputation to uphold. We cannot have such a prominent member of our family bringing such disgrace to our name. Your grandfather has told me everything. Please come home, Kagura. Retire. Prostrate yourself in front of the family and we will help you...â?

Her eyes flashed with fury, â??Help me? You want to help me, uncle? What could you possibly do or say to help me? You never supported me! Did you even care about my interests, my well-being, my happiness? Amaterasu forbid if I chose to take another path in life, to chase something I loved!â?

Silence. Several seconds passed before the old man on the other end responded. â??Your recent actions suggest otherwise. Do you even want to be on this path anymore?â?

With a primal shriek, Kagura grabbed the phone and slammed it onto the ground as hard as she could. She watched as the cover split into two as the phones battery separated itself from its confines. Kagura was so angry that she was shaking. That old fool! What could he possibly understand about her suffering? Nothing. Not a damn thing. She could hear it now, â??Kagura, forgive yourself. You tried your best and now let your anger go.â? No! How many times did she have to swallow her pride after failing time and time again?

As a child she had been taught to liberate her emotions and to not to let hatred consume her. Yet it had been her desire to compete and drive to win that allowed her to scrape together the pieces of her career after that crushing loss to Titus two years ago. Ironic that the thing which granted her the power to try again and again and let go of her hate, had been the very same thing which caused to her to hate everyone in the end. The desire to win was still the same. Only now deep down, Kagura knew she had nothing left to prove. Absolutely nothing. The hatred and resentment she felt was now being replaced by one of the most basic of human emotions: Envy.

Could she swallow her pride one last time and climb to the top once more? Could she win the world title for a third time? Did she have the will to prove once again how good she really was? Such trivial questions. At which point during the struggle to win, to be the best that one can be, to climb to new heights and achieve exploits that further deepens a legacy does one stop and say, â??Iâ??m content with what Iâ??ve done?â? In a competition there are always winners and losers. Losers get frustrated and quit before theyâ??ve even had the chance to succeed. Winners eventually get bored of success and quit before they taste the cold hand of defeat. After losing the world championship at Lethal Lottery Kagura believed she had her answer, but then she won the Eurasian title. Try as she might, she just couldnâ??t let go of her enviousness. Looking at Xander she just couldnâ??t help but picture herself in his shoes as this great conqueror meeting the challenge to turn back a demon of the past in Steven Holmes. His own competitive spirit allowing him to light a fire under himself and rescale that mountain with ferocity that hadnâ??t been seen in years.

Kaguraâ??s mind flashed back to the Gold Rush tournament as she recalled crawling her way to the top with such ambition and drive that it actually pained her to think about what came next after achieving her goal.

â??Itâ??s all a big joke!â? she shouted.

She turned as she heard footsteps approaching her from behind, â??What the fuck Kagura, did you break your phone?â?

Her onyx eyes glared at her manager as he inspected the broken pieces on the ground. â??Well Iâ??m not buying you a new one,â? he said, folding his arms. Kagura scoffed as she bent down and began gathering the plastic remains into her hands.

---

Later that evening to clear her head, Kagura decided to work on her stamina in the pool of a recreation center that WZCW had rented for the wrestlers to use. After changing, she climbed the ladder of the diving board and stared down into the clear waters below. She ran, jumped, and threw herself into the depths and propelled herself forward, swimming with as much power as she could muster. A few minutes later she began to slow down. After her set was finished, she drifted lazily in the water on her back. Putting the talk with her uncle into the back of her mind, she began to think about her match. Sheâ??d be defending the Eurasian title against an unknown opponent to be decided in a battle royal earlier on the show. A title match against a mystery opponent probably would have upset a few other people, but not her.

â??I didnâ??t even want this position,â? she mused. â??I gave everything I had to become world champion again and the only thing I gained was resentment. I canâ??t even be angry with myself because the struggle that I went through is still so fresh in my mind. I blame Vance Bateman for this. That bastard booked me into a corner. He told me that heâ??d make Kingdom Come worth my while but this wasnâ??t what I wanted. Was I supposed to say, â??thank you?â?? After he screwed me out of the world title in a match with near impossible odds. Hereâ??s a lesser title as a reward for putting up with my bullshit.â?

She ran both of her hands through her hair as stared up at the ceiling, â??Fuck this! I donâ??t know what Iâ??m supposed to do.â?

The battle royal included all the rookies and lower card preliminary workers who normally didnâ??t have the skill to succeed in the upper echelons of the division. This was their opportunity to grab the brass ring and further their careers. She couldnâ??t be mad at any of them who wanted to stick their necks out for the chance to fight her.

â??In fact, I envy them,â? Kagura thought. â??Here I am the champion and I donâ??t even care if I win or lose because Iâ??ve already lost everything that Iâ??ve worked so far for. I bet theyâ??re all saying the same things too, â??Kagura doesnâ??t deserve to be champion because reasons: she destroyed the title, she has no pride in her position, she underestimates the challenger, sheâ??s too hyper focused on revenge and hate.â?? Yeah, I suppose that I am, but so what?â?

Kagura rolled over and swam over to the edge of the pool and climbed up the ladder to get out. â??No one should have the audacity to point the finger at me and claim that I â??chose this positionâ?? because I beat Garth Black. Fuck yeah, I pinned Garth. I wasnâ??t going to lose to him again. Not willingly after that embarrassing loss from last year. Plus it was the Roulette Rounds. I had no idea who my opponent was going to be. I was preparing for Xander, but it happened to be Garth and I crushed him.â?

Not as if she had to rationalize any of this. Thatâ??s the reason that drove her to drop the title off that balcony in the first place. It had been her attempt to own this position but even then, that hadnâ??t worked. Kagura walked into the locker room, stripped off the clothes, and hopped into the shower. As she felt the hot water run over her body, she continued to ponder these last few weeks.

â??Even now, I donâ??t really care about the title. Nothingâ??s changed. I suppose that does make me a bad champion. Itâ??s true. I doubt Iâ??ll feel much of anything if I lose at Kingdom Come, because I have no idea where Iâ??m supposed to go from here. I feel like a beast lashing blindly out at everyone. Beasts donâ??t know the value of gold. Even if the centerplate on the Eurasian title belt doesnâ??t shine like the world titleâ??s itâ??s still gold. Dammit all! Itâ??s as if Iâ??m expected to carry the Eurasian championship with the same amount of pride as the world championship and I just canâ??t do that. No matter how I look at this, try to rationalize this situation, itâ??s nothing more than a fucking demotion to me.â?

Kagura stepped out of the shower and wrapped herself in a towel. She walked forward and began grooming herself in the mirror. As the steam began to dissipate, she caught her reflection in the mirror. The gaze on her face quite honestly shocked her. Her black eyes held such fury and disdain that she could hardly recognize herself. Kagura gasped and took a step backwards. Was this what she was now? She shuddered. For the first time since Lethal Lottery she felt something resembling shame. She gripped the sink so tightly that her knuckles went white.

â??Why now on that cusp of Kingdom Come do I find myself feeling this way? Win or lose, nothingâ??s going to change. Iâ??m still going to be wishing that it was me in the main event defending the world title. Iâ??m still going to feel like all my efforts to win Gold Rush were meaningless. Iâ??m still going to feel my competitive nature burning a hole through me that I just cannot fill.â?

Kagura looked back at the mirror and her face fell open in bewilderment. Her reflection had changed. She was looking at her old self from two years while she was chasing the Eurasian title. She looked so determined and confident; nothing like she did now. With a primal scream Kagura cocked her fist back and slammed it against the mirror, breaking it into pieces. As she watched the blood running from her hand, she finally realized something. Maybe all this time she was simply angry over the perception of the value she placed on her own career. The shame she felt had likely come from internally beating herself up over that loss at Lethal Lottery. It was a match anyone would have lost if placed in the same spot. She wasnâ??t expected to win and she hadnâ??t. Maybe that was the source of her resentment the whole time.

â??At this point, none of that matters,â? she blurted out washing her hand in the sink. â??Itâ??s too late to forgive myself. Even if I did and could let this all go it wouldnâ??t change anything. Iâ??ve got too much anger pent up in me now. At Kingdom Come, this wonâ??t be a simple title match with a belt on the line. Itâ??ll be a fight with careers on the line. The unlucky motherfucker that wins that battle royal might take this title from me, but I might take his skill to punch after I break his arms. I might take his power to stand when I break his legs. I might steal his ability to speak after I crush his throat. I might end his life after I stop his heart. Iâ??m coming with full force, and Iâ??m not stopping, even if the ref DQâ??s me.â?

She barred her teeth, like a monster baring its fangs. â??Whatever happens inside that ring, neither one of us will be the same again. Our blood will be on Batemanâ??s hands.â?