A Manager in a room full of Heels.

This was a long time coming.

Rhein had been on the AFW payroll for only a few weeks, and already she had dealt with a number of her client’s issues. She had to deal with the Nurse’s personal issues against a nemesis of hers, trying her best to patch up whatever relationship she could to ensure that Juno wouldn’t be so tunnel vision towards her. Following that was her tag team issue, where she had to find them a debut and get their characters out into the world. What came was a rather unexpected battle between them and a group of five, where in ger team put up a surprisingly goo fight and an even better show. The last thing she had done was set up a few matches for a couple of her clients, Harumi and Vespa. One was a common household match, but the other was a rare opportunity, a preliminary battle that had the chance to lead to a belt. Harumi was a little nervous at first, put it was Rhein’s guiding hand that pushed her into accepting.

Now it was finally time to do an action that needed to be done. It was time to gather all of her clients together and introduce herself. Normally it would have been the first thing Rhein would do, but this group wouldn’t be her usual clientele. These were the so called “Heels” underneath her watch. She had already dug deep into their profiles, and what was there was less than stellar.

Criminals, psychos, or a twisted mixture of the two was what made up the bulk of her villainous clients. It was a show of how lax this federations hiring practices really was. Half of these people should have been in a mental ward, much less have a license to get in a ring and bludgeon someone. Now Rhein had to work with them, try and fix them up so they were presentable to the public, and keep their violent impulses in check. No matter how Rhein looked at it, this would be an extremely difficult task. Still, it was her job to fix it, and that is what she would do. One way or another.

The meeting room was all set up and ready. Rhein had given all of her client’s ample notice and made sure to let them know attendance was mandatory. While it was possible some might still ignore her, she made sure to let them know it was in their best interest to go to the meeting if they wanted to keep their employment. If they took what she wrote in text as a threat, then so be it. She needed them all there.

After a brief review of what she wanted to say, Rhein finally walked through the meeting room door. It was a slight surprise to see that everyone she had sent the letter to had indeed arrived to the meeting as scheduled. On one hand, it meant they could be reasoned with on some level, but on the other, she still had to deal with all of them.

Unsurprisingly, everyone had already broken apart into their own little cliques, with some splitting into groups of two, maybe three. Quite a few had actually decided to stand alone, lurking in corners or messing around with whatever equipment was in the meeting room to kill time. Each one was in various states of dress between their ring attire and casual clothes. Perhaps it was a way to let the others know who they were. It certainly helped Rhein identify each person in the room.

“My, that might actually sound impressive…if you had only, y’know…won the match!”

The cool, regal tone dragged the manager’s Jade eyes over towards its owner. Two women, both with immaculate postures, seemed to be in the middle of an argument in the closest corner towards the door. It was telling that nobody else seemed to mind the slowly rising tones of each woman as they glared daggers into one another. The Nurse’s mask was a dead give away for one of the women, one of the most dangerous in her clientele, Juno Sawyer. The other one, the one with the regal sounding voice took Rhein a second to recall, but finally came up with the name Stella Rozino. From what she understood, she made a living off pushing people’s buttons and profiting off their mistakes.

“I’d say my attempt’s were much better then simply quitting in the middle of a match and running away with your tail between your legs!”

The biting tone only earned a soft giggle from Stella, the woman hiding her smile behind a soft hand that possessed pointed nails while her eyes looked at her blue haired cohort with a sense of pity and superiority. The look seemed to get the Nurse even more riled up.

“A smart woman knows when she is beat, and doesn’t stick around to be someone’s punching bag. Perhaps if you used my method more often, you wouldn’t always get knocked out by your pet boxer, would you?”

“I almost won the last fight, you one trick-“

“Alright you two, that’s enough of that.” Rhein walked towards the table in the middle of the room, making a point to drop her papers and files in a way that would cause a loud CLAP that cut through the thick atmosphere in the room. Rhein could feel the two angry women’s eyes on her, but didn’t bother to return their gaze. She wanted this over with as soon as possible.

“Alright everyone, lets get started. My name is Rhein Kazahana and as I’m sure you have figured out, I’m the woman who has been hired by the company to be your manager.”

A few scoffs filled the room, as well as some unhappy grunts, but nothing unexpected.

“I have been granted the rights to your contracts and can bend them however I see fit, so long as it is in the best interest of the company.  If you don’t enjoy my methods, then it sounds like your stuck. I don’t plan to be unfair, but I will not let your personal preferences stand in the way of progress towards my plans.” Rhein’s tone was even and professional. It was the best way to go, knowing that if she was foolish enough to show any quarter, there would be a number of individuals in the room that would pounce on the opportunity and rip her apart. Tough and firm from a position of power was her strategy. Judging by her audience’s attention, it seemed to be working. “Now then, why don’t we see who we are working with.”

A few people in the room shifted about, mumbling and cursing to themselves or their chat partner. A few of the people even came and sat at the table as Rhein sifted through the files, making a point to stay standing as her clients seemed to shuffle about in irritation.

“Well, why don’t we start with Drake and Stella.” Upon hearing their names, the two scoundrels seemed caste a glance towards each other. Both had a false smile on their lips, and a harsh look in their eyes. “Some issues I found that care holding you two back are relatively simple to fix. You both focus entirely on deceit and tricks in a fight. Besides that, despite your outlandish costumes, neither of you have any real knack to grab and hold the audience attention. I’ll be meeting with you two to try and discuss a few ideas that could help you two stand out a bit more from one another.”

The two simply chuckled, with Drake hiding his hands in his pockets. “Of course. I can’t wait to see what you come up with, Ms. Kazahana.”

“Next up, we Have Juno and Vespa.”

“For the Everlasting Glory of the Hive!”

“…Right. Well, both of you reportedly give off interesting performances that have awarded you decent fan bases, but you both need some victories if you are going to maintain them. Of course, we could try to brand you off as Jobber Heels, but I feel you two have some form of talents that would go to waste if we did that. For now, we will focus on growing your strengths and learning from your weakness.”

“Of course! We will grow ever stronger for the Queen! The Hive will be pleased with our progress, as will you. This I’m sure!”

“Hmph. Just because I struggle with one boxer hardly means I lose all of the time.”

“Struggle? Well now there’s a fine choice of words, Juno!”

“Shut your mouth before I break your snake jaw, Stella!”

“Oh dear, someone is acting tough, aren’t we?”

“Stella, stop harassing others. We aren’t finished, and your bickering is only dragging this out.” After a quick glance from the suited woman, Stella finally walked away towards her own corner, whispering along with Drake in some strange form of planning.
“Next is the P.D.S.M and Ruvik, wherein-“

“Hey, can we just cut the crap?” The voice that lashed out was loud, yet smooth, and clearly irritated. The owner behind it finally stepped out of the shadows, and while Rhein had been able to identify just about everyone instantly either by some article of clothing or who they were chatting with, she was actually at a loss for who this person was. She managed to snatch everyone’s attention towards her, which she seemed to enjoy at lest on some level.

This new person wore a suit similar Rhein’s, though its color was black as night and worn unbuttoned.  Rather than a green under shirt, this one wore a bright red one as if to intentionally clash with the rest of her look. Her long black hair and serpent like eyes made her look like some embodiment of some wicked devil…if the manager was being dramatic.

“We get it, your top dog and you need to wave your big dick around. Honestly, this whole thing is stupid and a waste of everyone’s time. If this was so important, why don’t you just send an email? At least then we wouldn’t have to be shoved into some stuffy room when I could be doing something else……or someone else~”

Ah, now Rhein recalled who this was. This must be Kuro Nazaki, the police trainee who was kicked out for being too cruel and unorthodox in her methods. She was something close to a sex fiend, always hungry to satiate her carnal desires, but the records also showed she had extensive combat training and a rather cruel personality at heart. Out of everyone here, she was probably the third or even second most dangerous of the lot.

“I did it this was so that if anyone has any questions or concerns, we can push past them right away. It would be a massive waste of my time if I had to explain it to you all individually and answer each question one at a time. Besides that, it gives us all a chance to know one another, as I may find it necessary to pair you up for bouts you may not be able to participate in individually.”

Kuro face split apart into a thin smile, already walking towards Rhein who stared dead on into her serpent eyes with a cold, professional look on her face.

“Oh, so you wanted to get to know each other? Well why didn’t you just say so?” Kuro’s tongue rolled out of her mouth, like some large alien worm it looked as if it was getting ready to probe about Rhein’s face, clearly wanting to make her uncomfortable.

“I don’t usually go for the library attendant look, but you got some nice boobs~” Kuro said in a cold whisper that could still be heard throughout the room. Somehow, she spoke just fine, even with her long tongue reaching for Rhein between her jaw. “I’ll be gentle the first few minutes, but then I-“

Before she could finish her sentence, a loud Crunch noise cracked through the room, followed by Kuro’s own howl of pain. Rhein’s expression hadn’t changed one bit, but the sole of her foot was now planted firmly in Kuro’s foot. The sudden defensive move caught the psychopath by complete surprise, but within seconds, those snake-like eyes glared a homicidal rage at the manager. The corrupt woman’s long arms already swinging a fist at Rhein’s face as fast as a whip.

“You fucking bitch!” was all she would get out before Rhein took action. The motion was quick, faster then most in the room could see, but within milliseconds the woman in green had stepped into the punches arc, sending a quick elbow into her foe’s chest before grabbing onto Kuro’s arm and tossing her over the managers shoulder.

The sound of a chair falling against the floor caught Rhein’s attention. Someone else was joining in the fray. The heavy footsteps were closing in quickly, but rather then meet whoever was attacking head on, Rhein instead went low, dropping down and moving to trip up the new assailant by giving them a swift kick to the ankles.

She wasn’t surprised to see Ruvik was the one who was attacking her. He was one of those twisted types that seemed to fight only to please his sister, Laura, who was cleverly hiding away in the crowd. The man stumbled after Rhein’s stopped his momentum suddenly, and actually collapsed right on top of Kuro, earning a hiss from the woman in black. Everyone seemed to find the fight between manager and clients amusing, the familiar snickers of Drake and Stella with the addition of Vespa, and the harsh, icy glare of the Nurse stabbing Rhein in the back. Only the two meek girls of the P.D.S.M seemed to shy away from the violence in the room.

“Rip that green hair out of your skull!”

The two assailants didn’t stay down for long, both already climbing to their feet and pushing to rush the Manager as quickly as possible. Kuro even pulled out a pair of handcuffs, apparently looking to restrain the naughty woman in green so that she could take her time exacting her revenge.

Kuro was the first to reach Rhein, who narrowly avoid a violent grab for her hair and returned with a palm strike that smashed into Kuro’s chin, shooting her head upwards and forcing her to stumble backwards. Ruvik rushed in quickly afterwards, but like a bull with a matador, Rhein let him run right past her, opting instead to use Kuro’s own cuff against her in a creative way. The manager hooked one wrist and locked it down tight, tugging the psychopath to insure she was still off balance. The second Ruvik rushed in to attack the manager a second time, Rhein took the chance to catch his wide swinging hook, and locked it down with the other side of the cuffs.

And just like that, the fight was over. Rhein quickly retreated as Kuro and Ruvik tried to tear themselves apart from each other, but couldn’t. Both of them began to thrash about, only to find themselves tangled up with one another, each one progressively attacking the other until it broke out into their own private brawl.

“Perhaps…this is enough for the day.” Was all Rhein could say, letting out a tired sigh and adjusting her glasses. “I’ll discuss this with you all later, and give you my notes. Until then you are all dismissed.”

No one left the room faster then Rhein, leaving the two crazy individuals to brawl against one another on the floor as everyone grumbled and moaned about the new setup. They were all working together now, and no one seemed pleased about that. What sort of turmoil would come from such a terrible group of crazies and criminals? Well, it was up to Rhein to decide that.

--

After about two hours, Kuro and Ruvik finally stopped hitting one another, fatigue setting into their aching muscles as they remained tethered to one another. Bruises had formed all over their bodies, and neither of them seemed to be in any hurry to move around soon. It was only when Laura stepped out from the shadows and looked down at her brother and the woman in the suit that either of them looked up at her with a tired look.

“So…where’s the key to the handcuffs anyway?”

“Its…in my pocket.”

“Okay. Which one? you got like, seven of them.”

“Back pocket…”

“…Which one?”

Irritation and pain finally cut the last of Kuro’s small amount of patience away, and finally she simply began to shout “LEFT CHEEK! LEFT CHEEK! LEFT CHEEK!”