We open on near complete darkness. A sliver of light cuts through it just enough to cast a moving shadow within. Without being able to ascertain the details, it's clearly someone with a small frame. She stands with her head hung in concentration. From the vague shapes the eye can make out, she's facing a corner of some kind.

???: <Survival. Something that plenty of people talk about. They brag about enduring the unendurable like it's no challenge. They get opportunities handed to them time after time and claim they climbed up to those heights on their own.>

The light drifts ever so slightly left, showing her ring gear in shades of purple, black and blue. Stylistically you could call it goth-punk.

???: <They know nothing about survival.>

A bit more light, now showing dark hair with navy highlights.

???: <A lot of the girls are going out there to fight for the title of Last Survivor. Maybe some of them have an idea what it really means to outlast insane challenges. Maybe not. But I can promise you none of them have outlasted the things I have.>

She turns her head ever so slightly, revealing a line of piercings in her ear.

???: <By any measure, I shouldn't even be here. Despite the fact that I loved wrestling and every last bit of me wanted to have crazy, happy fights in the ring, everyone said I was too small to make it. They sent me home from my first tryout because I just wasn't what they were looking for. Some girls would've quit. I took that as a challenge.>

By the motion of her outline, she seems to sigh.

???: <I wanted it so bad that I became a pop idol just to get my foot in the door. I kept on smiling through concerts when all I wanted was to spill blood. When I was overlooked, I found my people and shit for the stars. Every last one of them left me behind. But that just made me pick up a sword to fight the goddess of our sport. They hit me with what they thought were killing blows. Many times I lay there, face down in the muck, wondering if I should stop. Maybe I'd already hit my peak. But then this voice whispered to me. It said->

We see her hands, clad in leather driving gloves.

???: <Screw that.>

The hands clench into fists.

???: <Every time I got left behind or forgotten. Every time I got driven into the earth by the seemingly unstoppable pillars of wrestling. Every time these happened, I crawled out of the mud and despair to flip off fate itself. I made myself a champion twice. I got my deathmatches. I broke the mold and shattered the glass ceiling. And then lost it all. One dumb mistake and the company took everything away. They came crawling back on their hands and knees to beg me to return just months later, but I was done. I'd survived. But to continue surviving, I had to do what my friends had done before me - I had to leave the only home I ever knew.>

She starts to turn around, giving us a better look at her gear.

???: <Instead of sitting on my butt feeling sorry for myself, I went back to work. Training day in, day out for a year so no one could say I wasn't good enough. Every day I had my eyes set on one place. One ring where the top talent in the world of wrestling fight for glory. I had to go there, armed only with my will and skill, and shake the heavens so hard they rain blood.>

We finally see her youthful face, a wry grin spreading over her lips. It's here that keen eyed fans will recognize her as former Tokyo Joshi standout Hikari Noa.

Hikari: <I've lost everything more than once. Every time I come back stronger, better than before. Now I'm coming to EBWF to carve my name into history itself. That's who you're dealing with. A Princess of Death with nothing to lose and an appetite for regicide. Every so-called Queen who thinks she's destined to challenge for the top prize in wrestling is in for a bloody wakeup call.>

Hikari works a kink out of her neck.

Hikari: <You can't outlast someone whose whole career’s been built on surviving. I'm done being shut out of opportunities because I'm just not what some suits are looking for. I'm seizing my own destiny like I have my entire life. What better way than to show up where no one expected me, going toe to toe with the top names in wrestling, and kicking them off the mountain with unrestricted fury?>

She begins to step away from the corner, looking confident in every step.

Hikari: <Tonight's a warning shot for all of EBWF. I will take the place of the old queens. I will endure the unendurable until the final bell. And then? I fight my way through the champion to take my place at the top.>

She stops, looking down at her fists for a moment.

Hikari: <Tonight, no one will survive the debut of the Deathmatch Princess.>