Jon Snowmantashi stands in the center of the ring with a two-hundred-and-thirty-pound man on his shoulder. This is a position that he has been in thousands of times before over the last couple of decades.
Nippon Joe: "Snowmantashi CYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYCLOOOOOOOOOOONE!!!!!"
Ryo Aki Wario Ryo: "YOU CANNOT RUUUUUUNN! YOU CANNOT ESCAPE! ITS KAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIJUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!"
He tosses the man out to free fall. After the sound of the man twice bouncing off the mat reaches him, turns around to drag him closer, hooks the leg, and hears the three smacks of the mat that declare his victory.
The bell rings, for the last time.
His last victim rolls out of the ring. The crowd unusually chant “KAIJU!”. There had always been a tendency to remain silent as they watched the man decimate heroes and enemies alike. After all, you don’t cheer for a natural disaster. But as the rumor mills had all but indicated, Jon Snowmantashi was wrestling his last match tonight. There had been no fanfare, nor a return to the major promotions of Japan where he’d made his mark in the past.
Genki Puro, a promotion primarily renowned for its outlandish matches, and bizarre comedy-centric shows, had hosted the supposed last match of Jon Snowmantashi. Opposite him was Ben Ken, a man who’d spent approximately a year trying to bait out the Kaiju with relentless attacks, countless rants, and confrontations backstage and on the streets. Snowmantashi had finally acquiesced. Despite Ben Ken’s vows to slay the monster, and a valiant effort (if not for the immense cowardice and scheming that accompanied it) later, he was now half-unconscious at ringside.
Ryo Aki Wario Ryo: “HE IS KAIJU! HE IS THE MOUNTAIN! HE IS THE FORCE OF NATURE! HE IS UNBEATABLE!”
Nippon Joe: “How special to have his last match here! In Genki Puro, the pinnacle of wrestling!”
Ryo Aki Wario Ryo: “FWA not good enough. SPJ not good enough. AOL not good enough. CDW not good enough. NWA:JP not good enough. No one good enough except for GENKI PUROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
Snowmantashi did not think much of the streamers that flew across the ring, or the portrait of his that was carried into it. Though he attempted to leave the ring in the unceremonious fashion he’d been known for here, he was not given the chance. The ramp to the ring, and eventually the ringside, was now cluttered with the dozens of wrestlers that he’d spent the past year bullying and disciplining in the company. Each had bruises that would forever remind them of their encounter with the Kaiju and how grateful they were to have survived it, but learned from it.
Ryo Aki Wario Ryo: “Look at that! Respect! That’s how we did it in my day. Beat respect into people.”
Nippon Joe: “And what about Ben Ken, Ryo Aki Wario Ryo? He doesn’t look like he’s learned respect.”
Ryo Aki Wario Ryo: “He gave up too quick to have enough of a beating for the lesson!”
Ben Ken slid back into the ring, microphone in hand and seemed furious at the others that had gathered and at Snowmantashi himself. A couple of months ago, he had convinced his peers that Snowmantashi deserved to suffer for how he had embarrassed the lot of them, particularly the young boys. But the result had turned his former charge against him. Without bringing the mic to his mouth, he berated them, and berated Snowmantashi, before turning to the portrait that had been placed down and kicking a hole through it.
Ryo Aki Wario Ryo: “NO RESPECT! KILL THAT MAN! DON’T LET HIM GET AWAY WITH THAT! KILL HIM! KILLLLLLL HIMMMMMMMMMMM!”
Nippon Joe: “Everyone is running in, even the young boys outside! Ben Ken is paying for the ultimate disrespect.”
The other young stars dove into the ring and mauled Ben Ken while Snowmantashi remained leaning against the corner, unable to resist the slightest of grins.
Ryo Aki Wario Ryo: “KILL HIM! KILL HIM! DON'T LET HIM GET AWAY! DIE BEN KEN! DIIIIIIIIIIIE!”
Ben Ken was accosted and assaulted all the way backstage with dozens of pursuers hoping to get a shot at the bastard. Snowmantashi chuckled to himself, before taking a look at the microphone on the mat. He sighed and grabbed it.
“What do I say? I’ve spent the last two decades, on the rare occasion that I would speak, speaking only of warnings of what’s to come. But what can I warn you about now? For once, the forecast may very well be clear.”
He frowns, then looks at the stage where the other wrestlers' had exited through, and throws a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it glance to where a daughter and a brother sit.
“But perhaps I’m wrong. Maybe it would be unkind and unwise for me not to warn you that there is more to come. Not from me, not directly, but from those who’ve inherited the will to give in to your instincts, to become one with the world, and emerge as a force of nature within this ring. Once, I believed I was the only one, but it was flawed logic. I will let you think on that.”
He takes a deep breath. For all his talk of being Kaiju, he was still a man in his 40s who’d wrestled for thirty-three minutes (an unfortunate portion of it being running after his opponent).
“There are others who can do it too. Who can become one with the world, and thus, become a force of nature, a warrior of the ring unlike any other. I’m happy with the world I’m leaving behind. I’m grateful for all the wars I’ve been through. I’m grateful for all the places I’ve been able to fight in. For the friends I’ve managed to make along the way, rare as they might’ve been, for the legends I climbed over, and for the rising stars I’ve stood above. Some people have claimed it can be lonely atop a mountain, but I’ve never felt that way. I’ve always felt like I was one with the mountain and one with everyone who attempted to climb it. And if they did not belong, I did what I often did, I sent them sprawling off. But to say it was lonely, that was never true.”
He walks around the ring a bit, rubbing his neck.
“Some people take a long time to be ready to say it’s over. Some change their minds. I’ve changed my mind a few times in the past. But with the ease of wrestling, it’s hard not to return. For me, what I most fear is having to learn to live again. When you give yourself up to your instincts, making decisions is something you don’t think about, it makes life easy. Beating the most vicious, dangerous, broken, clever, intelligent, and powerful humans across this planet, was never challenging. Even in those rare defeats, it was never challenging. I do not think I will ever find something as effortless, as natural, as wrestling was for me. Wrestling is like walking. One day, I never had to think twice about it again.”
He shrugs, mostly to himself.
“Making decisions, that’s something else. But you have to take the first step somewhere, and the first step I’m taking is saying this is it. This stage of my life is over. It’s time to begin a new journey. To find myself at the bottom of the mountain again, and to learn to become one with it once more.”
There’s a long pause, the fans giving Jon Snowmantashi a round of applause that quickly develops into a standing ovation.
Ryo Aki Wario Ryo: “Don't do it, Kaiju! Don't leave! You are one of a kind! Stay here! Please! DON'T GO, KAIJU!”
Nippon Joe: “Ah Ryo Aki Wario Ryo, sometimes we have to say goodbye, no? Wipe your tears, friend.”
Ryo Aki Wario Ryo: “There will never be anyone like him again, Joe. I can't stop the tears.”
We see the ring in wide shot, kaiju standing in the middle of it with his head bowed and a passive look on his face…
And then, inevitably…
Although it's not her home promotion or even one she's ever graced with her presence before, the crowd at Genki Pro know precisely who this interloper is. They do not want her here. Not now. Deafening boos ring out around the arena, the audience doubling down on this when Dreamer emerges through the curtain. She doesn't have her championship belt with her. Tonight isn't about that, of course. But there is a microphone in her hand.
Nippon Joe: “Is that who I think it is?”
Ryo Aki Wario Ryo: “We know who it is! It’s Michelle! It’s Dreamer! DREAMER! GO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOME! DO NOT RUIN THIS! PLEASE, GO HOOOOOOOOOOOOME! DREAMER!”
Michelle scans the rin, glancing briefly at the animated commentator pointing and gawking and shouting, and she decides to maintain her position on the stage. There is a healthy distance between her and her old foe. Her music fades and - with Snowmantashi staring up the ramp at her with dull passivity etched upon his face - she finally lifts the microphone to her lips.
"I can't believe that we are here, tulip."
She shakes her head, suggesting wistfulness.
"We have both come so far. At first, you were the Man-Baby. Then you were the Mountain. And now, finally, you are simply kaiju. At least to me. My perception of you has altered so much, oscillating wildly around a chaotic central point, and yet you truly haven't changed that much at all. Maybe I haven't, either. This story has been so long, and with so few chapters. And now? Now you believe it is time to close the book?"
The crowd's negativity has abated somewhat as she progresses, their curiosity piqued by the woman's preamble. We cut to Jon, who still looks somewhat bored by the interlude, and then to Makima (confused, a little annoyed) and Izaya (amused), before settling back on Dreamer.
"I fear a lack of progression, because although this setting is unfamiliar, I come here - over the sea in a terrifying metal box, such was the task's importance - to recite a familiar passage. To ask an already answered question."
Snowmantashi, of course, knows where this is going. But he at least lets her finish.
"But I am unhappy with that answer. I am unhappy with the two measly chapters in your book of which I am a supporting character. They had such promise, but for once I find their endings to be too sad. We have one more left in us, Jon."
For their many interactions over the seven years since they first met, it’s the first time she’s called him by his actual name. This doesn’t escape his attention, though fails to have any impact on his calm demeanour. Inside the ring, Snowmantashi lifts the microphone up to his lips.
“No.”
The simple utterance brings about a mixture of progressing emotions in Michelle: at first she looks a little confused, then she suppresses a flash of anger in favour of disappointment. Resolution takes over when she lifts the microphone back to her lips.
“I feel like you owe me this, kaiju. This dance was meant to have happened a long time ago. I don’t blame you for the capsizing of that particular ship, but I’d have hoped you would at least try to see this from another perspective than your own.”
Snowantashi says nothing. He stops short of shrugging, but it seems to be implied by the silence.
“I’m certain you know what time of year it is. The path... the road... the cul-de-sac... whatever you want to call it. Back in Business is on the horizon, an event at which I’ve never lost. I’m sure that, even after all this time, the opportunity to take this from me means something. So, how about it: Dreamer and kaiju, one last time, in Mexico City?”
Another lengthy silence, during which Snowmantashi continues to stare up the ramp. If you were unaware of the pair’s history and only watching as a casual fan, you would be forgiven for thinking that he had no idea who she was.
“No.”
Michelle cocks an eyebrow. It seems she is surprised by the refusal to engage and is momentarily flustered, pacing on the stage whilst weighing up her next move.
She senses the opportunity slipping away from her…
An opportunity that she has waited for forever. That has plagued her addled mind for about as long as she could remember. Since far before Lake Baikal, when she and the kaiju had first danced in New York City.
“I can’t give you much more than that…”
She pauses in her pacing. An idea. A dangerous one.
Jon has a knowing look about him. When Dreamer glances at the ring, he slowly nods his head.
“You want it all? You want everything that I am? Everything that I’ve built?”
It’s not exactly clear what it is that she thinks Snowmantashi wants.
“Okay. This is it, Jon. If you agree to this match, then you can go ahead and make Back in Business your last ever battle. And if I can’t beat you? If I can’t do what I’ve tried and failed to do twice before?”
One more pause. Second thoughts? No. She’s come too far…
“Then I’ll retire, too.”
…
…
Ryo Aki Wario Ryo: “OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH MYYYYYYY GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODNESS!!! DID YOU HEAR THAT, JOE?! JOE?! DID YOU HEAR? OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH MYYYYYYY GOOOOOOOOOOOOOODNESSSSSSSSSSSS!”
Shocked awe in the arena. Those in the ring with Snowmantashi stare at Dreamer with their mouths slightly agape. She is breathing heavily, the adrenaline pumping after this suggestion of a round of Russian Roulette.
Once more, the kaiju speaks…
“Okay.”
The crowd roars their approval, and - as the reality of what she’s just agreed to fully dawns on her - the last remaining colour is drawn from Michelle’s face. There is anxiety there… maybe even fear, too? It’s difficult to say whether that is fear of the man standing in the ring, or fear of the end.
She drops the microphone. Turns away. Walks back through the curtain.
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