Something to be said about comfort

Angelo had a sneaking suspicion that something he'd said had pushed Masami towards this. Towards... having a fight. Why? He had no idea. What he'd said? Also no idea. It was like staring down at a massive arcane mechanism and having a button. All he knew was that pushing the button made a change, but he had no idea what.

He didn't get it. Not really.

But he'd waited for Masami just the same, sitting by the employee entrance. The fight had been good. It had given him a lot of insight into what Masami was or wasn't capable of. Normally he didn't have to try and figure it out, but Masami was an exception.

He was an exception in a lot of ways.

"I had an idiot friend who kept getting into fights," Jude explained. "Made it a habit of keeping up with who's on the schedule, even if I don't watch... well, almost any fights. Seeing your name was a bit of a surprise, but..."

Well, he couldn't help but feel somehow responsible. Maybe even guilty. But Masami looked happy. Relaxed. Like he'd just had a massage or something. Relaxed.

"Gave me a much better idea of your powers, too. Didn't realize you were that good, honestly." He'd had some idea, but not that extreme.

Angelo wasn't quite sure of that. Just from what he'd seen of Masami, he'd put Masami definitely in the top quarter of people on the island, which was fairly high praise considering the island had literal gods running around.

"Don't let me hold you up," Angelo said, falling in beside Masami as he went off to...

..Get his money?

So he'd bet on himself. Angelo was not a betting man by any possibly definition of the term, but he couldn't begrudge Masami for it either. It was a risky, stupid move, but the whole thing... well, Angelo couldn't help but feel that the whole thing had been a kind of last-ditch effort. Maybe he was still overly sensitive from Broen having left, but to him it felt the same.

"I got this for you," he said, holding up a small omamori--a little Japanese good luck charm--and offering it to Masami. "Think of it like a congratulations. ...You didn't do this fight because I made that comment about being comfortable in familiarity, did you?"

Okay, so he was really not good at not just blurting out what he wanted to ask. Even less with Masami.

Angelo had gone on a little expedition earlier that year, checking out the various churches and shrines that dotted the island. Most were fairly remote, away from the city to avoid inconveniencing anyone. The charm, of course, was from one of those, a little Shinto shrine set up on the east side of the island, out by the farms.

He'd made a trip back once he'd heard about Masami's fight. Even without the significance...

Well, it was still important.

"I'm not much of an ass kicker even in the best of circumstances," Angelo said with a small snort. "But I am happy to hear that. I guess you're still... uh, considering?"

He made a point of not peeking at the cheque, keeping his distance.

Training people. That was good, and Angelo nodded along.

"I mean, considering you spend a wild amount of time in the community center dispensing sage wisdom that people don't want to hear, I'd say yeah, you're pretty good at pushing other people."

He wasn't going to comment on the than I am myself. That wasn't his place.

"No longer selling corn dogs. Classy."

He paused for a moment, and then gave Masami a small smile.

"I just... wanted to wish you good luck. On all this stuff." He wasn't sure how many people Masami had coming out to see him, but he'd wanted to see the fight anyway, and why not?

"Keep the charm. Hopefully it's good for you."

He wasn't going to wait around, giving Masami a small nod and heading back towards the front of the stadium.