The stadium was dark in the moments anticipating the entrance of tonight's first Lioness. Her song centered a child's voice, singing non-lexical vocalizations over a sustained echo from a taiko drum. The traditional nature of the drum and the near-a capella nature of the choral music suggested a cool, historic mood with undercurrents of menace, like the ectoplasmic memories of a ghost streaming through the arena's vents.
Then, the electric guitar hit lie a thunderbolt, and a woman appeared in a burst of spotlight. She wore a wrestling outfit that amalgamated many styles. At root, it was a mere jumpsuit, but it had been modified to suggest a variety of false pieces — a kimono sash at the waist created the illusion of a black robe with the high collar of a Chinese qipao, which all matching black pants with a slit cut down the side. What the audience would in all likelihood find most striking, however, was the gleaming noh-inspired white mask she wore, which reflected the light like a star.
The Mask
The Outfit
The feeling of so many eyes on Yuri made her skin itch. She had already seen her friends Monika and Natsuki perform in their separate debuts, and she knew they were watching her today as well, but she had asked them to quietly take seats in the back: She had not wanted the additional stress of performing for them. However, she had begun to regret this decision. As she strode down the runway, endeavoring to capture the essence of a spirit evoked from a past century, the sense of an unfamiliar and possibly unfriendly audience on every side began to feel suffocating.
At last, she ascended into the ring, and her song reached a fever pitch. Had it been an error to choose an anime theme song for her entrance? The spirit of the piece had seemed perfectly evocative of her goals for her character at the time, but...now she wondered if it simply seemed a bit Otaku? But there were larger issues. It was time to...take off the mask.
This had been a point of discussion. Monika had insisted that wrestling with a mask would pose too many obstacles. It would limit her field of vision — and anyway, what would happen when her opponent, a "heel" as the fans called them, decided to attack her by stealing or soiling the mask? Really, though, it had been Sayori who sealed the deal. You gotta take it off Yuri! It's for the good of the team. You have a totally gorgeous face, you know, and we need that to show people what our team is all about! There were many questionable things about this line of reasoning, of course, but one simply did not say no to Sayori.
Standing in her ring corner, Yuri took a deep breath and lifte both hands to her mask. It's just like jumping into a swimming pool, Yuri. With one stroke, she tore the mask of her face, allowing her rich purple hair to flow free behind her as the light illuminated her stoic face. She stared into the crowd, worked her last nerve to keep her face flat, and turned slowly, ghost-like, to face her opponent's ramp.
