Promises to Keep in Heaven And Hell

Posts : 5 Join date : 2022-04-24

Diantha is sitting at a desk in her hotel room, a traditional Japanese setup of ink, parchment and brushes situated on the drab looking mahogany desk. She casually uses the brush, humming a soft tune to herself as she paints something. Lines with no meaning individually start to take the shape of kanji until she’s satisfied with what she’s done. With a smile she sets one piece to the side and begins working on another while speaking quietly.

Perfect.

I do a little calligraphy in my spare time. This is the Japanese kanji for the word “Heaven”. Heaven is different things to different people. A lot of civilizations and religions basically boil it down to human beings leaving this life and transitioning to a better, painless, blissful plane of existence. Obviously I haven’t died, but in some ways the professional wrestling ring is my version of heaven. As someone who has been an outcast all her life, the ring is one of the few places where I feel happy, safe and at home. It’s the place where I feel the most alive. For the longest time, I tried to hide some of the particulars of why the ring makes me feel so alive. For the longest while I talked about competition, competing for the fans! Competing for Championships and Glory! Everything was pure and innocent and beautiful…

But I was lying to myself. To all of you. To the wrestling world. I thrive on carnage. I do enjoy delivering pain and punishment to my opposition. Have you ever seen a bullfighter that knows what they are doing? Killing a bull isn’t just sadistic butchery to them. It’s graceful, artistic, and beautiful. It’s not something that everyone has the same eye of appreciation for, but if you’re willing to admire it, there’s a dark, horrifying beauty to it.

When I came to APEX, my first target was Azumi for one reason and one reason alone: she’s one of the greatest liars to ever live. She’s putting up a front, pretending to be someone who is not for your benefit, your acceptance. I’m not here just to simply break her. I’m here to expose her, to pull off the mask that she’s using to hide her true nature from you all, to reveal that ugly interior that’s hidden by an angelic, beautiful exterior.

Everything that I do has a purpose and it has a feeling. Every match that I take on is for a reason. Nothing that I do is just random, unbridled chaos. C, I can’t say I know much about you and your history in wrestling. I assume that’s by design. You won your match and I’ve had a chance to study you and figure out what you are all about. Honestly, the more I see, the more I am disgusted by you. It’s not that you don’t lack grace, talent, or athleticism. You have most of the physical attributes required to be a professional wrestler. You have a style that somewhat mirrors what I was taught. Honestly, in a different time you and I may have been on the same side instead of fighting in opposite corners.

But at this point in time? We are on opposite sides of a similar coin. Your aim is to bring honor and respect back to professional wrestling? So do I. I know that my methods may be cruel and unusual to you and to most people like you, but everything I do is to that end. Look around you. You see it? There are liars like Azumi Goto, pretenders, philanderers, liars. Women are meant to debase themselves in the ring instead of relying on their talent and talent alone. Weak, undeserving people get the opportunities that people who work so hard and for so long are denied. Am I supposed to sit down and allow these injustices? Would you allow them, C?

No. You would fight the good fight. Would you not agree that the difference between your purification and my purging is only a difference of degree, a difference of methods used? I respect the fact that you want to go about things a certain way…but I would appreciate a little more respect for the way I’ve decided to go about my business. People have portrayed me as the antagonist in all this, the evil no-good Diantha taking advantage of sweet, innocent Azumi, depriving her of a championship opportunity, ambushing her! I merely wanted to relay the message that I had arrived to collect on a debt that she’s owed for years now…with an exorbitant amount of interest tacked on.

You don’t know the real Azumi Goto, C. You don’t understand how her and her kabal of weak-minded people conspired to hold down talented wrestlers in Japan and the United States. You don’t know the suffering she’s put me and other women through. You don’t know the way that she behaves when cameras aren’t around. I do, and I’ve come to put a stop to all of that. But…You would be happy to know that I have no intention of simply treating you like another opponent just to take my frustrations out upon. Not in the slightest. You see, this match is a perfect way for me to demonstrate that my methods, my ambitions, and my willingness to go to extremes are superior to your judgemental ways and your somewhat rudimentary wrestling style.

I am the most complete wrestler in the world. My speed, power and technical ability are balanced. My aggression is unrivaled. My endurance is beyond reproach. And my ambitions burn brighter than the hottest stars in the universe. So, what are you going to do, C? Are you going to stand up to me, stop me, try to convince me in the error of my ways? That would be unwise. Very, very unwise.

Very soon, the people who bow mindlessly at the feet of false gods are going to start to wake up. They’re going to understand that everything that I’m doing is completely justified and that everything I plan to accomplish not just here but elsewhere will be for the benefit of professional wrestling. I’m not here on a mission simply for blood and platinum: I am here to strike blows so vicious that they rattle the very foundations of professional wrestling. No, no my dearest C, you are not the endgame of my long-planned vengeance.

But you will make a useful experiment. Goto intends to come at me with intent to kill, which is what I wanted in the first place. But I do need to make sure my claws are sharp before facing off with someone like here, shouldn’t I? Your body will make a unique canvas for me to display my messages. A young, interesting talent with so much to give…I’m sure someone like her will take notice. And she will not like what I spell out for her. I’m going to send you to a special place. A place that Azumi herself will be very familiar with soon enough.

Diantha goes quiet for a while, taking her time and finishing the second piece of parchment. This one has two kanji on it, something that’s a direct message to Azumi Goto, written in her native language.

Straight to hell.

I honestly wish we could have met in another time, at another place, C. I may have cared more about what you have to say, been willing to compromise on my beliefs and even followed you and your words perhaps. But now? You’re just an arrogant simpleton masquerading as a savior, and just as I plan to expose Azumi Goto, I will expose you for the entire world to see.

And there is not a fucking thing that you or anyone else can do about it.

And Azumi, the events that are going to transpire, they’re all your fault. Every person that I hurt, every dream that I shatter, every person that is put in my path until I’ve pounded you into nothingness…it’s all your fault. IF you were a person of actual honor, a person of integrity, a person who didn’t run when things were too tough for you to handle, I wouldn’t have to do what I’m doing now. We could have finished things in that place, and innocent people like this poor little creature known as C wouldn’t have to suffer for their sins. They wouldn't have to be exposed as wrestlers, as people! But you persisted. You hid.

And now C will have to pay the price for you…for now. Your time is coming soon enough, but for now, the blood of a saint will have to suffice until I get my hands on the sinner. Watch very closely as a batter C, humiliate C, and make him crawl back to England with his tail between his legs. His suffering will be mirrored by your own soon enough my old enemy.

These are not empty threats. They are promises to keep.

» CHAPTER 5: HELL IN THEIR HEARTS [KoTM part 1]