Good Bad Omens

[Vc0m]

"Alright...you've done this dozens of times before, today won't be any different!", Thirteen would cheer herself up as she stood in her gym attire, rainbow coloured sports top and white shorts in the middle of the LAW gym, as she eyed her potential first client in LAW - one Chika Igarashi.

Her usual plan to meet with high level wrestlers outside of the ring was simple - start up a chat, introduce herself, offer her services, and get a positive answer (""No"? What's that?", she would think to herself to a possibility of a failure)

It helped that Chika was on a machine she herself preferred to train on over anything else - treadmill. As a manager, one had to be quick on her feet to point out any potential foul play from her client's opponents.

Thirteen would carefully approach the treadmill next to Chika's, set it on a managable speed, and start running. After a minute or so, she turned towards Chika...

...and remembered the hardest part of her own plan - how to start the conversation and what to start it with.

This was the problem with her. How could she start a potential business partnership without sounding like a complete weirdo?

2 more minutes past as she tried to think of a conversation subject...and Chika's machine turned off, as the Raven Knight turned to leave:

"O-oh! Please wait u-----AAAAH!"

For a split second, Thirteen had forgotten that she was on a treadmill, and as she tried to step off of it as if it they were steps, her other leg pulled her towards the edge of the machine. As she was dropped off the treadmill, she painfully impacted her rear on the gym floor. Right before pain had hit her, the blonde had finally realized what those magnetic buttons that turned off the machine when it was pulled off was.

She groaned in pain as people turned at her to check what happened, her face reddening in embarrassment...as the right person was the one to approach and help her:

"<Oh no!>, are you alright, Ms.? Can you stand?"

"Jackpot!", Thirteen thought to herself, and almost smiled, before the pain in her leg and rear let themselves known as she tried to get up:

"Ow, ow...I don't think I...give me a moment..."

She tried again, slower this time. Her left leg felt slightly painful to put her weight on, and she saw a bruise form on her knee, likely forming from her fall. Her backside was fine though.

"I think I am fine..."

Regardless, Chika helped her to nearby bench, as the onlookers returned to their respective training.

"Hmmm...you wanted to talk to someone?", Chika would ask:

"Hm...? Oh yes! Sorry! Hello! I am Thirteen, nice to meet you, Ms. Igarashi!", she outstretched her hand to Chika, who, confused, shook it.

"Oh...um...pleasure is all mine...I don't think you are a wrestler for LAW. I checked a lot of the profiles, but I don't think I saw the name...or rather a number on the roster list?"

"Nope! Not a wrestler, but a manager! And I am here to you with an offer!", she proudly proclaimed, much to the confusion from the Japanese woman:

"Um...aren't you gonna ask what the offer is...?"

"Hm...what is the offe---"

"Would you like me to be your manager?", she didn't wait for Chika's question.

At this point, Chika, too confused about what was happening, shook her head:

"<Wait wait wait.> Slow down, ms. I don't know what any of that entails...could you start from the beginning? What does you being my manager entail?"

Thirteen breathed in, calming herself, and slowly explaining:

"So, let's go with the short version: Managers can help you in two ways. Outside of the ring, they can manage all the paperwork and emails. Getting you matches, and good matches at that, negotiating contracts at certain times, that sort of thing. Basically, I am your time-saver. Inside of the ring...well, aren't you sick of being on the opposite end of an opponent cheating, be it they themselves cheat or their own manager? I don't interfere in matches, but I can help counteract this sort of thing in the ring."

"That's...basically what I am offering. What do you say?"

Chika sat and tried to run what the blonde woman said over in her head:

"And do you think I need you because I am incapable of doing those things?", she asked, with a slightly offended, angry tone. Thirteen got slightly worried. One wrong word, and Chika would simply walk away. She had to choose her next words carefully:

"W-well...no. You absolutely can. But how many times did you miss an email for a potential match, only for it to be given to someone else? How many times did you lose out on free time when you had to deal with a contract dispute of some kind? How many times did you fall victim to a cheap shot from your opponents?"

"Look...I won't beat around the bush. LAW gave me your profile. I know you have a daughter, and as a parent, you want to spend more time with her...but as a wrestler, you have a very limited time as is. What I want to do is free it up a little. And if you say yes, you aren't losing anything! LAW pays me from their books as long as wrestlers I manage do well...and I am good at choosing women who become world champions. What do you say?"

Chika was still in deep thought, but much less confrontational looking than before...

"Well...it's worth a sho----"

"YES! Brilliant! Oh! Stay here!", Thirteen was talking and thinking a mile a minute once more, as she disappeared for 3 seconds, before appearing with papers in tow:

"Have a quick readthrough, and then sign he---oh! Pen!", she quickly said before disappearing again to grab a pen from her locker, as Chika giggled at the blonde woman's weird character. The coming months would be her most interesting in LAW yet, it seemed...