Kenta steps out sooner than anyone expects. The arena stirs at once, not with a roar, but with surprise. Heads turn mid-conversation. A ripple of motion spreads through the stands as people realize the next fighter is already walking in.

"Already?"

"That was quick."

A few cheers rise, scattered and polite, more acknowledgment than support. They fade almost as soon as they surface.

Kenta hasn't earned a crowd yet. His previous fights didn't leave marks deep enough to linger. No viral moment. No defining finish. Just solid performances that slipped past memory once the next bout began.

Even the Cruel King's Army hesitates.

Matsuda Kenji blinks, caught a half-beat behind the moment. He looks down at the long pole in his hands, the war banner meant for the main event, then shrugs and lifts it anyway.

Cloth unfurls above the seats.

"Give way for the Cruel King's Spear!" he shouts, voice booming more out of instinct than certainty.

"MO-RI-YA-MA!"

He repeats it, louder, stretching the syllables until his group finally catches on, voices joining unevenly.

"MO-RI-YA-MA!"

"MO-RI-YA-MA!"

The chant rolls, imperfect and late.

But Kenta doesn't react.

A few rows back from the aisle, Moriyama himself sits stiffly with his wife beside him. He keeps his eyes forward, posture rigid, arms crossed, detached.

Their younger son, Izumi, doesn't share the restraint.

His face lights up when he hears the name echo through the arena. He nudges his father's arm, barely able to contain himself.

"Dad," he whispers loudly, grinning. "They're calling your name!"

Moriyama clears his throat, eyes still fixed ahead. "They're not calling my name," he says flatly. "They're calling your brother's."

"I know," the boy says, already leaning forward.

He cups his hands around his mouth and shouts with everything he has.

"Nii-saaaan!"

"Kenta nii-saaaan!"

"Ganbatte yoooo!"

The call cuts clean through the noise. A few spectators nearby glance over. Someone smiles. Someone else chuckles softly.

Kenta hears it. But it reaches him like something remembered rather than something happening. To him, it's like a fragment of a dream he hasn't fully woken from.

His attention keeps narrowing. The aisle beneath his feet becomes the only thing that feels solid. Each step lands clearly. The rhythm of his walk syncing with the steady thud in his chest.

He reaches the ring steps and climbs without looking up. He slips through, and there, he feels all alone.

"This is Moriyama Kenta," one commentator fills in the moment, "coming off a close decision win over South Korea's Park Hyun-seok, close decision. But tonight's the real test."

"He'll need to show us something sharper here," says the other one. "A cleaner version of himself."

The words register, but they don't settle.

Kenta can hear them, just as he can hear the crowd. But none of it holds his attention. It all drifts at the edges, secondary to the simple grounding reality of his own breathing.

For the first time, he doesn't want to listen to anything else.

***

Meanwhile, in the red corner locker room, the air feels different.

Liam Kuroda moves in silence. Just him, and the soft whisper of feet sliding across the floor and the dull controlled thud of fists cutting through empty space.

He shadowboxes with economy, every motion clean, shoulders relaxed, hips turning with practiced restraint.

There's no flourish to it. No wasted effort. His form is sharp.

Masahiro Nishiyama stands a few steps back, eyes tracking every movement. His team is already dressed and ready, bags packed, wraps done. They're only waiting for the call from the staffer outside the door.

On the wooden bench near the wall, Hanazawa lies back under the glare of the overhead light. A doctor works on him quietly, checking swelling, dabbing at bruises, hands practiced and efficient.

"You better promise me, Coach," Hanazawa mutters, bitterness thick in his voice. "Give me a rematch against that fucking brat."

Masahiro doesn't even turn. His attention never leaves Liam.

"That doesn't matter anymore," he says flatly. Then, without looking away, chin lifts slightly toward Liam, he adds, "You see that? That's what you should do. Focus. Professionalism."

Meanwhile, Liam just keeps shadowboxing, as if Masahiro isn't talking about him.

"Listen, Liam. I don't care how confident you are," Masahiro continues, voice low but hard. "I don't care how big the gap is between you and your opponent. If you get a chance… break him. Don't play around like a fool."

Still, Liam says nothing. He shifts his weight, slips an imaginary jab, answers with a short, compact counter. His breathing remains even. There's no nod. No verbal acknowledgment.

Masahiro watches for another second, then exhales through his nose. The lack of response tells him everything he needs to know. Liam isn't the type who answers with words.

Across the room, Paulo Ramos and his team occupy the remaining space, sharing the locker room out of necessity rather than comfort.

They don't understand Masahiro's Japanese, but they don't need to. Their eyes keep drifting back to Liam.

Virgil Santos leans slightly toward Paulo and mutters under his breath in Filipino, "That's OPBF welterweight number six for you."

Paulo snorts softly, shaking his head as a crooked grin spreads across his face. "Feels weird," he admits quietly. "Having someone like him in the semifinal."

Virgil smirks. "Yeah," he says. "Me too."

Liam keeps shadowboxing, alone in his rhythm, untouched by the conversations orbiting him. And somehow, that's what makes the room feel tight.

***

Moments later, a knock comes at the door, not loud, but firm enough to cut through the quiet rhythm Liam has been maintaining.

A staffer slides the door open and bows slightly. "Liam Kuroda. It's your time."

Liam stops moving. He rolls his shoulders once, and then reaches for his robe.

Masahiro steps in close, adjusting the collar with practiced hands, checking the tape on his wrists one last time. There are no final speeches, no dramatic pauses.

Liam takes one last breath, steady, and then they move.

The corridor opens, and the arena spills into them all at once. The murmur swells as soon as he appears, a ripple spreading outward through the crowd.

Heads turn. Phones lift. Conversations pause mid-sentence.

The reaction isn't explosive like Ryoma's spectacular entrance. There's no chant rehearsed to perfection, no unified roar. But it's big, and respectful.

People recognize what they're looking at: a foreigner who stayed. A fighter who didn't drift through Japan, but settled into its grind, its gyms, its rankings.

KURO-ATSU!

KURO-ATSU!

KURO-ATSU!

The nickname leans toward black, even though Liam is Caucasian. It isn't about skin color. It's about the gravity he brings into the ring.

Kuroatsu: The Dark Pressure.

A few voices cut through in English. Others carry accents, Filipino, Korean, Australian, Malay, scattered pockets of sound that stand out against the Japanese cadence.

No. 3 in Japan. No. 6 in the OPBF.

Those numbers alone carry weight, even without theatrics.

Near the front row, his mother is already on her feet.

She is among a cluster of colleagues, most of them foreigners as well; faces bright, phones already out.

One of them leans close, whispering with a grin, "He's handsome. You sure that's a boxer's face?"

Liam's mother laughs softly and waves it off. "He just got lucky," she says. "Never really got hit there."

Then, after a beat, she adds with a sigh, "I hope he wins this one clean too. Otherwise, I'm going to be very busy at home."

Her friends laugh, but their eyes stay on Liam as he passes, something like awe settling in behind their smiles.

Up in the press rows, Sato watches him enter the ring and exhales slowly. "Hanazawa mentioned earlier that Nakahara actually put two million yen on the line for him. Makes you wonder what the old man offered to bring this guy on board."

Tanaka snorts. "Don't tell me he did the same thing. Betting on a nobody like Kenta? That'd be stupid."

Aki doesn't look away from the ring. "What if I told you," she says quietly, "that he did?"

Both men turn to her at the same time.

"No way."

"Seriously?"

Aki nods, her expression flat. "Three million yen guaranteed purse. Five million if Liam beats Kenta."

For a moment, neither of them speaks. Then Tanaka slowly shifts his gaze toward the blue corner, where Nakahara stands, calm as ever.

"…That old man's insane."

"What was he thinking?" Sato mutters, following Tanaka's gaze.

"He didn't have a choice," Aki says. "That's where they are right now. No one accepts their offers unless something big is on the line."

She pauses, then adds, "And Nakahara-san always offers fixed purses. That alone tells you everything. He's not chasing profit. He's gambling just to give his fighters a chance to climb."

Tanaka clicks his tongue. "That's reckless."

"That's conviction," Aki corrects. "If Ryoma's fights weren't always sold out, he'd be bleeding money just bringing in names like Liam and Paulo Ramos."

Down below, Liam reaches the ring steps and climbs through the ropes, unhurried.

And somewhere across the arena, unseen by him, Kenta is already waiting, heart steady, focus narrowed, the rhythm he found still stirring quietly beneath his skin.

The space between them tightens. Not with noise, but with consequence.

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