What's Wrong with Being a Tengu? What's So Bad About Being a Tengu? Senka vs Chi Chi

Sareee-ISM ​Chapter XI 8/24/06

Senka Akatsuki vs Chi Chi

MD: It's Chi Chi's world. Everyone else just lives in it. She moves in lockstep with society and society follows her lead. Fashion, pop music, social media. We live in an increasingly digital existence where style rules over substance, where influencer is not just a profession but a college degree, where we're judged by likes, reposts, followers. Reality is getting overtaken by the slick, sticky veneer of AI slop and aggregated information and Chi Chi is perfectly positioned to profit.

She comes out to the ring with Aqua's Barbie Girl blaring over the loudspeaker. She carries with her a handbag. She blows kisses to the crowd. She's carved her niche and created her following and is a potent force poised to disinfect professional wrestling of everything out of place and recreate it in her image.

Yet Senka exists.

Senka is the outer dark to Chi Chi's outer light (though maybe the inner light to her inner dark). Senka wrestles in her singlet, carrying the weight of generations of tradition before her. She charges forward. She kicks out. She never quits. She never stops. She is unrelenting, incessant. She's a storm. Depending on her opponent, maybe she's just a squall, but she's a force of nature nonetheless.

So she exists. Should that bother Chi Chi? Plenty exist beneath her. The majority exists beneath her. That's the point of the majority. They need to exist in order to serve as contrast that highlights her all the more. 

But Senka does not exist quietly. She could wear grey or brown and might blend in, might fit her station in life. She does not. She wears red. She walks with pride. She moves with determination. She will not be pushed aside. She will not be hidden away. She will show the world her merit and make the world remember her name. 

There is no room in Chi Chi's world for a Senka Akatsuki who doesn't know her place. She is a blemish that cannot be tolerated, a burr that must be yanked out, a lump that has to be stomped down. She is not just an imperfection, but is instead a celebration of imperfection. Chi Chi has pride. Chi Chi has determination. Chi Chi is a force. 

But Senka represents another path to success, one wreathed in substance instead of style. She is the exception who demands the world see her as exceptional. 

In the press conference leading up to this match, Chi Chi bemoaned Senka's pride, admonished her brazenness to wrestle in red, suggested she might prune the world of her, and most of all, named her as a Tengu. 

Instead of being properly chastised at the insult, one of the worst possible in Chi Chi's reality, Senka dared to take pride in it. What's wrong about being a Tengu? What's so bad about being a Tengu? 

Opposing forces, opposite poles. Neither could possibly suffer the existence of the other.

Fate (and very likely mirth, whether it be Sareee's or Chigusa's) put the two of them together, forced them to associate as a team against Spark Rush. At first opportunity, Senka kicked Chi Chi in the gut and slammed her onto their opponents. When Senka went to tag out, Chi Chi took the tag and then threw a punch for good measure. They were handedly defeated. A house divided can't stand against Spark Rush.

But that just positioned them, one week later, here against one another. 

At the bell, Chi Chi hung back in the corner, refusing to come meet Senka in the center. This was about pride. It was about a difference of lifestyles, of world views, of what the world should be. She'd hold her nose up and not give an inch. She demanded Senka come to her instead. Chi Chi might be bullheaded, but you can't outstubborn Senka. Senka dropped to the mat, sat cross-legged, and Chi Chi was forced to come to her. The first skirmish went to Senka.

After scrambling on the mat, Senka got the first real advantage as well, surviving a double wristlock to hit a few slams and lock in a crab. Her face, as always, was the portrait of effort and strain, but for a split second, it seemed like the tiniest of smiles flashed across it, a brief hint of joy for the damage she was doing to her opposite. 

Chi Chi honed in on the arm, turning a Senka fireman's carry into a flying Octopus Hold and then really sinking it in on a second attempt off the ropes. Senka survived it but came out damaged, clutching her arm and her side. With almost any other wrestler, you would want to see their offense hindered there. She shouldn't have been throwing a lariat with that arm, shouldn't have tried to use both arms to lock in a choke, or to hit multiple suplexes in a row. But, of course, that's exactly what she did. 

Unlike every other wrestler in the world, however, she made it work. It wasn't about fighting spirit or adrenaline. She emoted pain. She radiated pain. You could feel her pain burst from the screen, just as you had when she recoiled in the corner like a wounded animal. It was still there when she was on offense as well. It was pure stubbornness that made her use that arm despite the pain. How dare Chi Chi attack it? How dare Chi Chi think that it would stop her? That it would slow her down? There was a clear cost to Senka's offense, but it was a cost that she bore as opposed a cost that she ignored. 

Since she didn't ignore it, we could not ignore it either. Likely Chi Chi could not as well. Likely she was all the more frustrated and aggrieved because of it. Why couldn't Senka just stay down? Why couldn't Senka just shut up? Why couldn't Senka just go away? 

Of course, Chi Chi didn't go away either. She endured the choke and rolled to the floor putting them at another impasse. This time, she wouldn't give Senka what she wanted. This time she found it in herself to be the more stubborn of the two and forced an increasingly irate Senka to come after her. She was ready and fought her way back into the match by eating a headbutt and hitting an exploder off the apron to the floor. 

She couldn't put away Senka however. She couldn't keep up the pace, not with Senka constantly dragging her back down to her level. She threw kicks into Senka's face. Senka came back with lariats. Things devolved into wrestling's most basic form, headlocks. Senka strained to hang on while Chi Chi fought for a Saito Suplex. Chi Chi hit it but to no avail. Then when she tried to contain Senka with a headlock of her own, the strain was mirrored back the other direction. As time ticked down, Senka finally powered her over to hit a huge suplex, but the bell rang before she could full capitalize on it. 

The last minute of the match saw the two as truly mirrored images, two very different sides of what looked increasingly like the same coin. Chi Chi grabbed the mic post-match, spent, exhausted, and noted how disappointing and unsatisfying that was. Yet when Senka demanded more, Chi Chi slipped out of the ring and headed to the back. They traded insults one last time and our last image of the match was that of Senka rushing after her.

The world is a complicated place full of competing pressures. A wrestling ring has traditionally served  as a wonderful canvas on which to paint the clash of social and cultural differences. While on this night, the clash between these two primal forces proved woefully inconclusive, we were left with the promise of more battles to come. After all, the world simply isn't big enough for the two of them. 

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The Parable of the Warrior and the Mountain

Chris Hero vs. Senka WCPW 4/16/26 

Far away, across the sea, there lives a warrior in red. She is small of stature, young in the ways of battle. Yet in such a short time, she has made a fledgling name for herself. While yes, she is known for her great strength, it is not strength of body, but instead strength of will. She is the tip of the spear, a stalwart soul, stubborn, confident, determined, one that refuses to quit even in the face of good sense, of inevitability, of a doom far larger than her compact frame.

She is the student of a legend, and whether she knows it or not, possesses within her the spirit of devil and jaguar both, of the lost generation just before her mentor’s days of glory, when warriors would refuse to let their shoulders sit upon the ground for even a single moment. Likewise, she, knowing or not, channels the memory of the great cowboy, a mighty power focused into a body that can barely contain it: the rising tide of inevitable motion, the personification of striking again and again, pressing ever forward, refusing to be denied. 

One year ago, she traveled across that sea to present herself and prove her merit to the world at a tournament in a battleground full of them, a celebratory time when all of the great and meager warriors gather together. Fearlessly, she faced off against the greatest force of multiple generations, and not only lived to the tell the tale, but, through her refusal to quit, to stop, to stay down, showed all that witnessed it something they had not seen in many a year, something undeniably tangible, visceral, gripping, something real. 

In the year that followed she faced new challenges, grew in her strength and presence, became a champion, and even stared down quite possibly the greatest of her own age, the young warrior stymying and frustrating this great power through her pluck, her daring, her simple refusal to give up and give in. Another battle survived, and is that not the way of this warrior? Every battle survived, victory or vanquish, continues her journey, spurs her growth, makes her stronger. 

So here it was that she traveled once again to the gathering of the combatants, to where all the world’s warriors flock to prove their merit. Through fate and luck, she was to have a worthy foe before her, one that could meet her intensity, iron clashing with iron, strengthening them both. She would go to the mountain, would face a new rival, would grow stronger through combat. This was her path. 

Sometimes life decrees a different path. The rival could not compete. The warrior in red would face a mystery opponent instead. The opponent did not matter, however. The battle was everything.

She entered the arena to a hero’s welcome, one that must have surprised her, even with what she had endured in the last year. This was a foreign land, full of strangers, but they welcomed her back, chanted her name. She stood in the center, her color burning bright, ready for whatever life would throw her way. 

However, as music burst through the air, a tune familiar to the onlookers yet now rarely heard, a stark realization came over her. They had given her a hero’s welcome, but now they stood ready to welcome the Hero. She had not come to the mountain to battle. She had come to battle the mountain. 

The warrior may have been a powerful force contained in a small frame, but the mountain itself was a great force contained in a great frame. While it had been years since it battled regularly, it was still spoken of in whispers, still known to have an eye upon the world, a finger upon the pulse. It was said that one thunderous strike from it, stone crashing across bone, could shatter the resolve of even the strongest fighter. 

Like all young warriors worth witnessing, she ventured into the dark forest to become an adult, as she had many times before. This time, however, she found before her the tallest tree with the deepest roots, even if they had become gnarled with time.

The crowd broke into shocked cheering, surprised chanting, but the warrior stayed resolute. If the mountain had come to her, if she stood before the tallest tree, the two being the same great presence that would now be her opponent, she would climb it nonetheless, would reach its pinnacle and stomp it to dust. Or she would die trying. For who was she if not that?. 

Agitated, eager, chomping at the bits, she remained undaunted. An exhibition. Five minutes simply to survive; five minutes, perhaps, to triumph and bring honor to her name.

With the tolling of the bell, she rushed right in. The unassailable mountain, the tallest foreboding tree, was waiting. Its branches snatched at her wrist, grasped at her arm, twisting as if in a torrential wind. Once, twice, three, four times. Yet the warrior had just begun. She rolled and turned the grasp back upon itself. She reached up and over, wrapping her arm around it, encompassing the great force before her, trying to contain it beside her. With mirth, it hefted her up, placed her in the corner, punctuated the overwhelming show of power with a simple, demeaning pat upon the head. There, there, little warrior. 

Her response? With scream and focused fury, she charged headlong, slamming the full weight of her frame against it. It held still, mocked her. It brushed itself off, showing the crowd that there was no reason to worry, barely any reason to notice. Still the warrior came, crashing in again and again. She would not stop. It was not her way. For the first time, the mountain allowed a crack to form in its visage: annoyance, irritation, disbelief. 

Shoulder tackles turned to forearms. Somehow she moved it, a creaking, strained effort, but one that left a mark on the world nonetheless. And for her trouble? Now truly awoken, the tallest of trees (perhaps a sleeping dragon too?) allowed one root to rise high into the air. The warrior crashed into it, crumbling to the ground. Thus is the fate of all who show insolence. It lifted her up and chopped her down. It hammered down upon her back. The warrior recoiled, rolled, writhed. 

A chop, a hammer? These were not enough. The warrior was daring. The warrior had dared. Yet the only thought the mountain had was this: How dare she? There was no recourse but destruction, to crush down upon her with all of its weight. 

The warrior’s response should not have been possible. It defied physics, defied the natural rules of this world, but then there is one unnatural rule that conquers all others: with enough heart, anything is possible. The warrior channeled her great heart into her knees, putting them up to stave off the crushing force of the mountain. The impossible was made possible. Another crack formed, even at the cost of great damage to her own body.

The mountain staggered back. The warrior, once again, as she is, as she must be, charged forth, forcing herself onward despite the agony obvious in her movements, for what is pain in the face of growth and glory? She crashed into the shaken monolith three times, wielding naught but the weapon that is her own arm. To the witnesses, it felt like the tides of fate were turning just a bit more with every crash.

But there would not be a fourth time. The tallest of trees had staggered backwards. Now it staggered forward once more, branch extended so as to wrap around the warrior’s throat. Without mercy or remorse, it lifted her up, slammed her down. Nature was taking its course. Creaking bark gave way to solid, unyielding stone as tree became mountain and dropped all of its weight upon the warrior. This time, there would be no knees to save her. This time there would be nothing to save her. The impact was such that the mountain shook itself apart in its rage; it needed a moment to put itself back together. 

A moment was all the warrior required, though no one bearing witness could possibly yet know or understand. Just as the warrior’s breath had been squashed out of her, the crowd’s collective breath had been taken as well. A chilled silence had overtaken it. Little did those watching realize that their faith was about to be renewed. The mountain pressed down upon the warrior. The judge began to count. Three seconds was the difference between victory and defeat. Most escapes happened with just one second to go, desperate, fevered survival.

Instead, the warrior forced the mountain off of her after one paltry second. A grave, defiant insult. The crowd erupted in admiration of her strength, her will, her brazenness. Mainly however, it just erupted, feeling, not thinking, living in the moment through the warrior and her accomplishment. A pure and good thing in an age where such things are so very hard to come by.

The mountain, no longer just annoyed but now truly angered, fumed and seethed. With the explosive force of a volcano (erupting in its own way), it heaved her up and crushed her down upon the ground. And yet, once again, she refused to stay down for even one second. Finding new resolve in such defiance, she slapped downwards, rallying her strength. The witnesses chanted her name creating a self-perpetuating circuit of valorous energy. She threw powerful, unrestrained blows, not just stopping the mountain’s eruption, but somehow forcing it back again. Seeing new cracks, smelling blood drawn from stone, she charged forth, ever her way. But she ran into the storm itself. She ran into that fabled thunderclap, into the hardest of rock, and she crumbled once more. 

The true story of humanity is this: our efforts change the world around us. Trying matters. Caring matters. Persisting matters. The warrior’s efforts had changed the world, had chipped away at the impenetrable. The mountain, weakened, manifested once more as that tallest of trees. It wrapped its branches around her, meaning to toss her aside, to throw her into oblivion, into the forgotten annals of history. Its roots were strong, planted. Her heart was stronger. She rooted her own feet to the ground and buoyed by the witnesses, she channeled inner strength enough to reverse the effort, to uproot the tree itself, to create her own miracle and send it overhead and down to the ground. She uprooted the seated masses as well, their hands rising into the air in exultation as she attempted to pin her lofty opponent to the ground. 

With great effort, and not at all a sure thing, it shoved her off. A voice rang from the heavens. 30 seconds remained. The warrior attempted to press her assault, but lightning struck once more, and as the bell tolled again, a weakened warrior found herself driven head first into the ground, seemingly destroyed, yet somehow, still not defeated. The exhibition would instead end without a winner, a draw.

This satisfied no one. The mountain moved to slunk away from the battlefield, exuding unmistakable frustration at the warrior’s defiance, the onlookers’ adulation, and most of all, the simple fact that it had not been able to clearly win the day. The warrior dragged herself front and center in the middle of the battlefield and dropped to a bow, holding within it both respect and a demand. The onlookers? Those who bore witness let their thoughts be heard. They shared in the warrior’s demand. Five more minutes.

With pride bruised, a crowd to silence, and heavenly punishment still to mete out, the mountain agreed. Five more minutes. 

Given a second chance, the warrior, as is, was, and will ever be her want, rushed right in. She crashed hard into the mountain, fell, rose, and kept coming. She staggered it once more, loading that arm as the cowboy once did, a deadly weapon that no one and nothing can withstand. One that could topple even the mightiest tree. That did not mean she could hold it down, however.

She meant to toss it overhead once more, but her moment of advantage had passed. The roots were too strong, even for her heart. It wrenched her up and over instead. This did not mean something was not now and forever different in the world, however. Something had changed through her efforts. The cracks had shown and she had, perhaps, learned from the uprooting. 

The mountain went to drop her on her head once more, but she channeled all of her heart’s resolve into defying physics once more. Now, instead of moving the mountain, she made herself unmovable to it. It took all of its great strength and all of its learned technique to heft her up and plant her down. And then? After all that work? She would again not allow her shoulders to stay down for even one second.

Two familiar eruptions occurred in unison. The witnesses rose to their feet and the mountain spewed its lava, made all the worse by the onlookers’ deafening chants claiming it could not defeat her. Showing petulance beneath its stature, it pushed her to the ground, berated her, demanded to know who she thought she was, and even slapped at her face when she rose. But rise she did nonetheless. 

The warrior rose. She had withstood stone, wood, and thunder. Now she joined with the wind itself. She pulled inwards and exhaled outwards, letting loose a cry. It was heard not just by the onlookers and witnesses, not just by the mountain, not just by the gathering of warriors. The wind spread it to the four corners of this world. She shouted her name and it was heard by all, but the mountain heard it most of all.

SENKA

Thus named and thus known, the warrior continued to press forward, continued to strike, continued to channel the fire inside of her into external force, continued to defy all the natural laws of this world, continued to move the mountain. She could do nothing else but to be who and what she was, no matter the cost and no matter the consequence.

Tragically, she charged forth this last time only for the full brunt of that nature she fought so hard to defy to crash down upon her once and for all: one last rolling clasp of thunder, a lightning strike that would destroy any lesser warrior. And yet, despite that, as the mountain tried to lift her, to end this, to destroy her with finality, it found the task too monumental, the weight of her heart too massive to lift. It took two tries to accomplish it, but once accomplished, she moved no more. There were limitations to the human body, even when the human heart is boundless. The warrior defied nature and nature struck her down.

But even that was not the end of it, not in the face of the warrior’s great heart. She was one to squeeze victory out of every defeat. That was her way. That was, perhaps, her greatest strength. In the striving, in the questing, through the battle, she grew. And she gained. Confidence. Wisdom. Understanding. And perhaps, most of all, respect. 

The mountain raised her up, and then when the onlookers feared that it might strike her down anew, it instead shocked them all by looking eye to eye and sinking down to her level, beneath it, a bow of its own. The very landscape itself had shifted in regard for her bravery, her stubbornness, her resolve, her strength. She dropped down to meet it and the two figures took quiet, celebratory communion together in acknowledgement of the battle they had waged. For she may not have conquered the mountain, but she had done something just as meaningful; she had thawed its icy heart.

Emboldened by the battle, her journey would continue, perhaps an even greater victory just on the horizon. And as for the mountain? It would allow the sun to set upon it once again, waiting, just out of the reach of imagination, for the next challenger to dare attempt an ascent. 

But it would remember her name.

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