Breaking the Tension! Episode 1: The Takeuchi Siblings

Truth be told, Patty O' Malley - intrepid intercontinental interviewer - and  didn't much care for Japan.

The people all spoke Japanese, for one thing, which made sense, but even still? Annoying. The language came out like a bunch of blurbs to hear. Harsh on the tongue. She learned it! She put in the hours, took the classes, even spent a good bit of money on that stupid Rosetta Stone software that she swore up and down gave her laptop some kind virus. She still had some trouble with all the silly kanji, but, well, writing was what she had assistants for. Or just an assistant, in her case.

Speaking of whom, Patty and her assistant, Ran - jubilant junior journalist -  were on their way to the first interview, speeding down along the countryside road. Then again, 'speeding' might have been the best word for it - they were going a good five MPH below the speed limit...no, that would be KPH, wouldn't? Stupid metric system. It just felt like speeding, somehow, because she was still getting used to the fact that everyone in this crazy country drove on the wrong side of the road. Very disconcerting.

"Patty-san..." Ran started up, but Patty cut her off with a wag of the finger.

"Ah ah!" She shook her head, eyes straight on the road for the whole movement. The last thing she needed was to get in a car wreck on some backwater road in Japan in the afternoon. She was building a career here, she wouldn't let a little thing like traffic infractions slow her down. "What did we talk about? No -sans. Or -chans. Especially no -kuns." She reached over and gave Ran a little pat on the leg - she was such a young, impressionable thing, with her short blue skirt and her white shirt with the little heart in the middle and her brown hair that was actually a pretty bad dye job, but endearing all the same. She had a sweet, schoolgirl charm that Patty admired, the perfect companion to her own rigorous and world-weary style. Like a sidekick. The Robin to her Batman. The Bucky to her Captain America. The black guy to her John McClane. "Let's keep it simple, dear."

"Right. Ms. O' Malley..." Much better. "I've been thinking about the show. A little bit. And, well, a problem occurred to me the other night."

Patty groaned, knowing where this was going. "I told you, I'll learn Adobe Photoshop and we'll get a nice introduction down after we do the interview. We can fix it in post."

"No! No." She brought up the camera and started to fiddle with the setting a bit - there were close, now, only a few more minutes. "I was thinking, this show we're doing...people might say it's a Conway's Crib knockoff."

A long pause went through the van, only interrupted by the subtle hum of her finely tuned engine. American Made. "...what?"

"Conway's Crib."

"What about his crib? Who's Conway?"

"Conway's a wrestler, and she doesn't have a crib. I mean, she might, I don't know, but-"

"Conway? What kind of name is Conway for a girl? For anybody?"

"It's her last name, Kelly Conway. You've never heard of Kelly Conway?"

"Should I have?"

"Well, she's a wrestler and she was Entropy Champ, so-"

"But what about her crib?"

"Her crib?"

"You said she had a crib."

"What? No, I didn't. She could have a crib, but again, I don't-"

"So, what does this Kelly Conway and her non-existent crib have to do with us?"

"Nothing! It's just...she...gah." She groaned and ran her hand over her face, as if she could just wipe the exasperation away. "Conway's Crib was similar show Kelly Conway did, where she interviewed wrestlers on Friction." She snapped away the camera and made the final checks, loading all the proper files on and rebooting the data and whatever the heck she did. Technical stuff. "People might draw comparisons..."

"Let them." Patty waved it off as they turned onto a dirt road, leading to the mansion. Because really rich people always live in mansion in the forest with dirt roads leading to them. "This is completely different from whatever that was. Credentials. Skill. Integrity. We're bringing real, authentic journalism the brand. People can respect quality."

As if right on cue, Patty was introduced to quite a bit of quality all at once, as the path opened up to the Takeuchi estate - 'plush' didn't quite cut it. Her own house had been 'plush', before the scandal with her father started. This place was more allong the lines of 'extravagant'. On one side, a champion's pool, full length, with far more room that any family could ever use. On the other side, an expansive garden, with flowers and trees that Patty didn't even recognize with all her journalistic experience. And in the middle, a mansion that, frankly, bordered on the size of castle. "Establishing shot! Establishing shot!"

Ran snapped to attention and rolled down the window, getting a good angle on the mansion as they rolled along the driveway, zeroing in on some of the butlers and maids as they did their daily duties. Patty pulled the car over by the doorsteps and grabbed the microphone, hopping out and skipping over to the front of the mansion as fast as her heels could take her.

"Got a good angle?" She backed away as Ran lined up the shot, trying to get a good balance between her and the mansion proper, as much of both as she could in one shot. She gave herself one last look over, head to toe - her white heels were clean, her skirt was nice and bouncy, her hat was properly slanted to the side, giving her that hip, yet edgy modern look that would help court the teen demographic. She was ready for the limelight. Finally.

Ran got in place and nodded, holding up a few fingers as the countdown stared. 3...2...1...

"Greetings, wrestling fans the world over!" Patty winked at the camera and threw out a wave, greeting the throngs of potential fans who would be seeing this once it went viral. "I'm Patty O' Malley and this is first episode of Breaking the Tension, your first and only source for all the exclusives in Tension Pro. New matches, new rivalries, belt changes, tournaments, scandals - when the cameras go off, I go to work, getting you all the scoops."

She started to make her way up the stair, eyes steady on the camera, moving with practiced steps, The timing had to be perfect. "Today, we look at some of the rising talent in Tension Pro - many, many new names have emerged with the ranks lately, but two in particular are raising eyebrows. Fame. Fortune. Fashion. The Takeuchi siblings bring it all to our little organization. But who are they? What drove them from the lap of luxury to the hollowed ring?' She leaned in, like she was whispering a secret to her closest friend. "Today, we find out."

Patty rang the doorbell.

Meanwhile in the Takeuchi mansion, many of the maids and butlers were busy cleaning up various parts of the huge mansion. Maids dusting away,vacuuming and using various cleaning utensils to do their duty on floors,walls, hallway corners and so on. Butlers were suited up in black suits and white shirts with their shoes polished to perfection. It looked like one of those 5 star hotels where you could find someone always cleaning something and someone always there to assist you in any way possible. It was a huge house for sure, some of the caretakers there were actually been working at the mansion since before the two younger siblings were born so they at least trusted their housekeepers.

"Geoffrey, did you tidy up the tennis court? It needs to be chalked up,the lines smearing up and oh the ball launcher needs some fixing up to, I dunno check it out" Daisuke said as he took a sip of red wine from his glass while sitting on his leather couch watching highlights of the Brazil vs Chile world cup match on his samsung 75 inch tv. He wore a glossy maroon robe (looks expensive) with the initials D.T around the left chest area of the robe and flip flops on his feet."Also, tell the chef to make a dish of Venison meat...or Kobe beef" ,he said before switching through channels on the tv.

Ami, was in the west wing of the mansion. She was relaxing in her Jacuzzi, with various designer beauty products smothered around her face as she chattered away with some of her model friends on skype from a smart TV hanging around the wall facing the Jacuzzi. " *Giggle* Yeah....im well, its going good there actually. I just faced some macho-meat head Army dude and I totally beat him *laughs hysterically* before continuing on gossiping and bad mouthing other model rivals.

Kyle was in the main entrance hall way with a clipboard checklist in his hand as he flipped around the pages, "Ok, ok, bathrooms,hallways,rooms,west wing and east wings both done! pool cleaned up, tennis court repairs due....mmmm, cars fueled up,gardened watered and mmm yeah everything else seems to be in order. he said flipping more pages then grabbing his cellphone out of his pocket and checking his calendar for any events coming up for the model agency Ami is contracted to.

*Sound of a bell ring*

Usually it was one of the maids or butlers that answer the door but since Kyle was was in the main hallway he decided out of instinct to answer the door. " Huh? who could that be? I dont have any scheduled visits today on my pager"he said with a puzzled look on his face. It was interesting- who could it be?

He proceeded to the door and opened the hand crafted wooden double door entrance door, to see a young girl in a cute outfit....with a mic in her hand? she looked like she was in her 20's, Kyle was 28...no it could never work! he was 8 years older than he-WAIT WAIT. " Why am I even thinking about that? urgh..." he shook his head to get that out of his mind and looked on. He saw a....camera? a camera.....a mic......" OH NO,journalist? or just some weird nosy kid?". In any case he slowly asked her "Y-yes...Can I help you in any way?"

Some journalists believed that you should warn your interviewees ahead of time, let them get ready. That surprising them was a form of 'gotcha' journalism, wholly unethical. That it represented the sort of cheap tricks that were all too common in the mainstream media.

Some jouralists weren't Patty O' Malley.

As her father taught her, the best time to get them was with their pants and their backs turned, as he wrote in his landmark book: Get Them With Their Pants Down And Their Backs Turned (available on Amazon for 13.99 USD). People gave the best answers when things were raw and uncut. That's when the juiciest secrets slip. That's when careers are made.

She barged past...whoever that guy who answered the door was and made a beeline for the main attraction. "Daisuke Takeuchi!" She brought the microphone to his face and held it there, flashing her million dollar smile. "Up-and-coming Tension star, playboy, what girls want and guys want to be. Welcome!" She turned back to the camera and winked. "To Breaking the Tension!"

The spunky girl just barged in! She ignored Kyle and just walked up the main hall leading to the living room, more surprisingly she just walked upto Daisuke! Pointing that mic to his face with someone behind her with a camera.

Kyle looked on with his eyes wide opened as he tried to stop the girl from entering but she just sprinted past him before he could do so,"Um, miss- wait you" he said as he saw her walk away towards Daisuke.

Daisuke tool another sip of red wine before someone just barged upto him, welcoming him to some TV show! . He got startled as he spat/sprayed the wine out of his mouth as he got up from his crouch with a stunned and surprised look on his face.

"Who the heck are you? This is a private estate! No tresspa-, How did you even get in here? Breaking the tension? What the heck is that!." he looked around as he looked at the camera and then at Patty for some answers. Although the word tension, made him guess it had something to do with the Afw.

Patty initiative was rewarded when Daisuke spit out his wine - that would definitely get some good play on Youtube. Maybe even spawn some GIFs.

"Good question." She did a small curtsy, figuring she might as well get as much play out of the skirt as she possibly could. Ran back away from them, ignoring the door greeter as she went for the wide, swooping shot. "I'm-"

Patty was stopped for a moment as the vastness of the mansion took her off-guard. It was even more impressive from the inside, the sort of thing one only dreams about, or catches on reruns of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. Maybe MTV Cribs.

She was snapped back to attention by a whistle from Ran, and she quickly focused back on Daisuke. Nothing she couldn't fix with a well-timed transition shot. "I'm Patty O' Malley, and Breaking the Tension! is AFWs latest superstar show, finding the best and brightest in the brand and letting the fans get personal." She patted Daisuke on the shoulder and moved in, holding the microphone between them. "Daisuke Takeuchi, this is your time to shine."

Daisuke still couldn't quite get the deal on what was up? Is he being punked? Is it some important formal interview...more importantly is it LIVE!. He couldn't tarnish his image on tv, worse he didn't want to tarnish his family name. Daisuke gulped as his vision glanced right on the camera lens. He noticed Patty inspecting the mansion with awe until the cameragirl whistled her to get back to business.

Patty was a cute girl, the outfit was super cute as well but a cute girl plus a journalist always equals trouble. As she patted Daisukes shoulder he looked on to his shoulder with a frown. The spunky girl stepped in and forced a mic between those two, looks like Daisuke had no choice, he was trapped.

"Eh, I don't usually do unscheduled interviews but....Ok fine, whatever. I'll play along, so what do you wa t to know? "he said with a sigh.

Meanwhile, Ami came down to the living room from the left side of the grand stairs in her pink bathrobe with beauty products still masking her face. "ECK! A CAMERA!?!" She squealed as she quickly turned around and headed back up the the west wing to avoid her being caught like that on tv.

Patty had him in a corner now, and this when the best interviews came out, when the pressure was on. He could run away, force her out, but stars love the limelight. Drawn to it like moths to the flame. Patty knew well - with the cameras rolling he wouldn't risk the embarrassment.

He wisely acquiesced and allowed them entry, and Patty took a moment to line them up properly, starting to walk with Daisuke, giving the impression that he was leading them through the house. It was a little clunky, she had to admit, but nothing they couldn't fix in post.

Before she could start the interview proper, they caught a glimpse of Emi, seeing her in a more natural look than she'd ever shown elsewhere - perfect. Ran managed to get a good shot of her before she darted away, then focused back on the main attraction.

"There are many questions circulating, Daisuke." She began, nodding his way with a playful bounce of her pigtails. "People are curious about why you chose to join the AFW in the first place. You have money and fame, clearly, and those are typical reasons for joining the roster. What drew you in?"

Is this girl for real? for a young journalist,she seems quite calm and confident in conducting this interview. The two walk around the mansion and the camera getting a glimpse of Ami without her make up and beauty products stuffed on her face. A trickle of sweat drops down Daisuke's sideburns as he's a bit nervous not wanting to give out the wrong answers. He didnt have any choice did he? clearly this young girl was going to have her way, something that made Daisuke a bit pissed off in his mind.

Daisuke sighed and thought about what answer to give to her questions and after a moments pause he finally began to reply, " Well...umm Patty, its quite simple. I want to win! having that winning feeling sensation is like ecstasy to me,I have money and a little fame but nothing satisfies me more than a win in a wrestling match. It started out in my private college wrestling league. I loved the idea of beating the rest of the posers, it made me feel more powerful! The money helps though, I can pull a few strings and get some special favours if I need to *winks*.As for why the AFW? well the roster is quite interesting, people from all around the world come to this league and I can test my strength against wrestlers from all over the world. Also, intergender tussle's also interest me. A man in a ring against a woman going all out for the win, battle of the sexes? battle of egos? it always adds spice, leaving out all that henati and erotic crap- thats not wrestling" he explained as he brushed his hair back with his hand.Oh, can I get you anything? something to drink orrr" he said, looking to cut this interview short.

Ah, the competitive type. Patty knew that spirit well - her father had to climb over many bodies to reach his vaunted pedestal, and there were always those conspiring to knock him off, like little flies buzzing about, eager to dive in. It was all about striving and thriving, fighting to be the best, whether that was in wrestling or the brutal arena of broadcast television.

But enough of that!

Daisuke was quite verbose in his reply, almost as if he were trying to brush her off, overload her with information - it wouldn't work. She was far too keen for that, ready with a battery of questions, her natural journalistic instincts coming into play.

"No drink for me, thanks. We're good."

Ran peeked out from behind the camera. "I'm actually a little parched, I could-"

"We're good!" Ran couldn't drink, she needed both those hands for camera holding. Patty made the hard decision.

Patty turned on her heel, facing back to Daisuke with a coy look. "Ah, not a fan of hentai matches? That's bound to draw some criticism your way. Tension was originally called 'Sex Wars' for a reason, after all - this company is known for its more erotic fighting, and some say that, without it, the AFW would just be another run of the mill wrestling league. What would you say to comments like that? Are you limiting yourself in this company with such a stance?"

Patty is going to be distracted in any way, she was here for a reason and shes not going home without the full interview- NO DISTRACTIONS. Her camerawoman did seem a little interested in having a drink or two but Patty was quick to put words in her camerawoman's mouth and declined for her.

"Dammit! how the heck am I going to rid of this pesky little brat?" he thought to himself, rubbing his forehead but was quick to put up a forceful smile for the camera. The interview continued....

Daisuke nodded to the first part of her question, he was indeed aware of the "Sex-war" title that tension had before it was named to "Tension". It was the second part of the question that caught his attention- gave him a sudden jolt of realization as well!. She....was....RIGHT!. AFW's main attraction was indeed erotic and hentai wrestling, so if Daisuke wasnt going to compete in such matches, was he just a side-show bob? playing second fiddle of the wrestlers who do compete in these special matches?. He was quick to shake his head to clear those thoughts out of his mind and think of a way to get out of this mess- " I know, ill try to shift it on others!" he thought to himself.

" *ahem*cough*ahem* Well...I, I didnt mean it in that way. I would compete in such matches, its just I dont prefer them. I suppose my reason would be that I think hentai wrestling.....is just an excuse for sex. I can have sex with any girl I want anyways. Plus think about it in this way- what if I get paired against some nymphomaniac whos just looking to get some sex action? im sure the tension roster is full of such women who just want me- I wont give them the satisfaction. The same can be said of some hopeless loser males, who are just looking to get laid and use the hentai match as a cover up. Im a class above- not to say I wont deny a challenge, I guess that clears it up right? Its easier to ask the questions eh? whatabout you? aren't you in the roster but only conducts these...unannounced interviews" he said with his eyebrows raised.