Nozomi Tenma

The primary Supporting Protagonist of Strike it Rich. Nozomi was once a professional MMA Fighter who was about to make it into the Major Leagues until the discovery of a detached retina ended her career on the spot. Now 27 years old and unemployed after failing to make a living for herself as a street fighter, Nozomi creates the Valkyria Underground Fighting Organization alongside her longtime friends as brand new business venture. Be Careful What You Wish For: In order to encourage Valkyria's growth as an organization, Nozomi wanted to recruit a skilled and charismatic fighter instead of the local riffraff so they can have somebody in the ring that can consistently draw in big crowds. This led to Nozomi personally extending an invitation to Hina as Valkyria's first "real" fighter while chalking up all of the schoolgirl's massive red flags as just good marketing hooks. Now Nozomi is stuck with a Ax-Crazy Blood Knight who she has no choice but to appease for the sake of Valkyria's longevity as an organization...and for her own safety as each fighter she offers up to Hina is one less reason Hina has to try and force a rematch between herself and Nozomi. Blood Knight: It's subtle. But Nozomi does have a great amount of passion for combat sports and dedicated her life to being a professional MMA fighter since adolescence. Even after being diagnosed with a detached retina, Nozomi still persisted in fighting within the underground scene until she was effectively forced into retirement for simply being too boring to watch rather than lacking genuine talent. Then there's the heavy implication that for a split second, Nozomi was genuinely considering going through with Hina's demand for a rematch in Chapter 5 and was almost too willing to try and jump back into the ring when Valkyria was short of fighters to participate in the exhibition against Slaughter Colosseum in Chapter 20. But unlike Hina, Nozomi is mature enough to recognize that she is just not in any shape to trade blows with a monster of Hina's caliber, especially when she's too important as Valkyria's manager to risk it all trying to recapture her Glory Days. Boring, but Practical: Her fighting style often involves pinning the opponent, which can make matches last for over 40 minutes. Hardly anyone in the underground audience ever enjoyed that. Even Evil Has Standards: More like "Even Criminals Have Standards", since she's far from evil. At the end of the day, though, Nozomi is the brains behind an underground Blood Sport organization fueled by an illegal gambling racket that she created in collaboration with her best friends, who are a Dirty Cop and Yakuza respectively. Nevertheless, Nozomi is still completely horrified by Hina upon realizing the full extent of her madness and the chaos that the schoolgirl could potentially unleash if her demands aren't satisfied. Exhausted Eye Bags: Not an uncommon feature in most fighters, but it seems the stress that comes with having to skirt the lines in the world of underground fighting is clear on Nozomi's face. Lady Drunk: Whenever she's not "on the clock", Nozomi is usually seen cracking open a cold one or chugging a mug of beer, usually to either drown her sorrows or celebrate a big win for Valkyria. Supporting Protagonist: While most of the time spent in the early chapters is split between her, Hana, and Ichika relatively evenly, the three mostly take a backseat during Hina's fights, only providing commentary and background information on the fighters. Weak, but Skilled: Downplayed. Nozomi isn't weak, but she lacks the aggressive and explosive style underground fighting is known for, favoring a more technical approach that is much more common in standard professional fighting. Unsurprisingly, this makes her extremely unpopular among the crowd when she tries to use this same style in underground fighting.