The way Miss Planner saw it, her two areas of greatest strength were managing employees and closing sales, and her two areas of greatest weakness were writing compelling copy for marketing campaigns and forming meaningful interpersonal relationships. She liked to think of things systematically, both in life and business. The core values of her career philosophy were consistency, scalability, and getting maximum results for minimum effort. And those were values the Knife Slaves didn't even pretend to care about anymore. Indeed, the insular and unruly organization that they operated seemed to be structured almost entirely around the idea of avoiding work whenever possible.

"So, let me get this straight," said Miss Planner. "The martial arts studios are franchises now? Does that mean you don't have any actual Knife Slaves giving lessons anymore?"

The silver-haired Knife Maniac sighed.

"I know. We used to have real, professional fighters running these schools. What happened was, back during the recession, when the Scissor Fiend was leading the way... a ton of little local gyms started going under, one after another, and the board decided we should try to salvage as many as we could. We hired a lot of the instructors from the failing locations as a cost-cutting measure. It turned out to be a really bad decision. They basically ended up taking over the whole training side of things because nobody else was making any money."

"Well, you're not teaching any real deadly killing techniques to anyone, so your cross-promotion strategy definitely isn't working," said Miss Planner with a shrug. "I mean, your customers aren't getting anything special. So your arena fighters aren't taking your classes. Why would they? You're running two disconnected operations here."

"Exactly! Our entire model is fundamentally flawed," moaned the Knife Maniac. "But we can't afford to lose our existing customer base, so the board has clung onto this idea that having lower standards than our competitors is the key to long term success."

"If we're just talking about the quality of the training... I took a class at one of your branches, myself."

That made the Knife Maniac pause. A smile grew on the edge of her lips. "You did? Which one? What did you think?"

"Oh, it was Coral City Combat Arts. With Coach Roman. I was surprised to discover he wasn't psychic in the slightest. But he had the kind of attitude I like... a real no-nonsense teacher, pushed me to my limits every single time I went in."

"Coach Roman! Yeah, he's one of the franchisees," said the Knife Maniac, laughing softly to herself. "He's really popular with young women and couples. I do wish he was a little more on board with the Knife Slaves' overall direction, though."

"He’s a nice guy. But his lessons mostly just consisted of making me run laps and do push ups. To tell you the truth, I don't feel like I'm any better at fighting now than I was the day I started with him.”

"Oh."

"Anyway... he’s a nice guy and all, I'm just saying, my experience there was a little underwhelming. And I can't imagine anyone who's serious about learning how to fight is going anywhere near a place like that."

The silver haired lady nodded in understanding, looking thoughtful. Miss Planner cleared her throat and straightened out the pile of expense reports she was holding in both hands before setting them aside on the corner of the desk.

"So what do you think we should do?" asked the Knife Maniac, her eyes narrowing slightly as her expression hardened.

"Slow down. We're not there yet," replied Miss Planner, tapping the side of her chin with her finger. "We should talk about things a little more first. I'm still trying to figure out the full scope of the issue. What can you tell me about the Knife Shadow? How's he running things? Is his leadership stable?"

"Unfortunately, no," said the Knife Maniac grimly. "I don't want to sound like a sore loser, but that man doesn't deserve to be in charge of a business like this, and nobody wants him there. Nobody except the Cursed Blade and his little band of flunkies."

"Really? I thought you wanted him there. That’s what you told me at the Spirit Life Day party.”

"I did. But that was before he started taking sides in all these stupid internal fights and making people compete for his approval. Generally treating the whole organization’s business interests like some game instead of the real thing. The board is actually really divided right now. Everyone’s jockeying for power. Lots of meetings and secret meetings and fighting and arguing.”

"Uh huh,” hummed Miss Planner, unfazed.

"I'm in the Shining Blade's group, myself... we're the pro-downsizing faction, you could say. We want to keep the traditions alive. Stick to our strengths, that sort of thing. The Cursed Blade's group is smaller, but more influential. They don't have much interest in changing anything.” The Knife Maniac scowled and turned away, shaking her arms angrily. "All they ever want to do is brag about their stupid secret techniques. As if the rest of us don't have any! My Maniac Style is like, a hundred times stronger than anything those idiots could ever come up with!"

The young woman’s face contorted into an expression of frustration and rage. This was clearly a sore subject for her. She bit her lip, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. When she spoke again, her voice was low and hoarse.

“Miss Planner, we’re few in number and we’re divided. But it’s not too late for us to change things. I want to save what we have left. The board won’t listen to me, but they will listen to you. They respect you. So, please. Help us.”

“Of course! That’s what I’m here for!” said Miss Planner, smiling sweetly. “Before I can do anything, though... I really do need a little more information to go off of. I want to know the number of clients you have currently, their demographics, and how much you’re charging for your services. We'll do a quick calculation and estimate your market potential with your current model... once we have some numbers under our belt, I’ll feel a lot more confident talking to the board.”

“Oh! Right... let's get you that data."

"Don't be so nervous. The Knife Slaves are going to be just fine. Trust me. They just need a little help figuring things out.”