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[hr][right][color=gray]Mods, Asura is pickleposting in the time-bar again.[/color][/right][hr]Still conscious. Wow. Kanna might have lost that bet, all things considered. Shiori usually wasn’t one to wait, and honestly she’d prepared herself to bob and weave and just talk through the pain if it came to it. 

Okay, still alive—capitalize. 

[color=92278f]“Shiori, if I wanted to blackmail you, I wouldn’t have kept the original photos off the school computers. Got those right here,”[/color] she slowly reached into her pocket and retrieved a flash drive, dangling it in front of Shiori before tossing it into the grass near Totsuka. [color=92278f]“I got nothin’ on you. And as fun as it would be to spend the rest of the year dodging beatings, I don’t [i]want[/i] anything on you. All I want is a good story, and right now, that’s you two. Well, more him than you. Not that you aren’t interesting, but—okay, never mind, not the point.”[/color]

She pointed to Totsuka. [color=92278f]“You and slugger over there are in the public eye now, and we can stand here debating who put you there and who deserved what, but none of that matters, and no matter how hard you hit me, I’m sorry, even [i]I[/i] can’t change that now. What I [i]can[/i] do is try and help ease things along until the next big story breaks. But, you don’t want that either—wanna know why? [i]Opportunity[/i].”[/color] She grinned, but figured waiting to see if they caught on would likely just lead to her getting her face cracked in. 

[color=92278f]“Look at it this way: things started…bad. And yeah, maybe you guys don’t have the best reputation right now—or, like, worse than before. But what if we could turn that around? What if we could spin this whole unfortunate accident into a win for everyone? Boxing club, right? Been on the downswing a while, and your only decent fighter is on his way out the door. But here you are,”[/color] she looked back over to Totsuka. [color=92278f]“Big ass motherfucker with a strong arm and a lot of attitude, dropped in out of nowhere. What else is that but a [i]miracle[/i]? You know what people love more than villains? [i]Redemptions.[/i] Now I’m not saying you guys put on your Sunday best and sing Hail Mary’s or whatever, but, I mean, you’re already stuck in that club. If you actually put some effort into it, you could mop the floor with just about any asshole dumb enough to get in the ring with you. You could drag the Utusbyo boxing club out of obscurity and into [i]greatness[/i], and if that doesn’t get the public back on your side, nothing will.”[/color]

She looked back to Shiori, who Kanna felt pretty confident in saying wanted out of this town more than most. [color=92278f]“And think for a minute about how good it’d look on a transcript, being the manager of a team like that. It might not be a full-ride, but I bet that looks pretty shiny to the college admissions boards.”[/color]

[color=92278f]“Look, Totsuka, I don’t really know you. But Shiori, I’m genuinely sorry you got caught up in this the way you did. So while I get the desire to just take the [i]easy[/i] way and kick my teeth in and call it a day, I am imploring you to take this olive branch and let me make this up to you in a way we can [i]all[/i] benefit from.”[/color]