MAD BADDIE

Renji keeps his device steady until the contact card appears on Akuyaku’s screen. The family-history message remains saved, addressed to Renji, and ready to send.

They leave the community center and walk toward Hoshikawa Riverside. Evening light breaks across the water, while the academy and its watching students disappear behind the trees.

Renji walks beside Akuyaku without touching the phone or opening the draft. The river carries traffic noise away, leaving space for an answer that still has not been sent.

Akuyaku’s new phone vibrates. A direct message from Kaito appears: Come to Seishin Boxing Gym immediately. No explanation follows, and the urgent request sits above Renji’s contact.

Akuyaku leaves Hoshikawa Riverside behind and arrives at Seishin Boxing Gym.

Seishin Boxing Gym’s battered door swings open onto stale rubber, canvas, and fluorescent hum. Evening shadows stretch across the empty ring, but the lights are already on.

Renji follows Akuyaku inside, keeping his phone pocketed. Coach Daigo stands beside the ring, while Kaito waits near the far ropes with his hands wrapped and his expression unusually tense.

Kaito places a folded photocopy on the ring apron. Beneath a redacted tournament entry, one handwritten line remains visible: “Observe the son before selection.”

The unfinished reaction hangs over the ring. Renji leans toward the photocopy without touching it, while Daigo watches Akuyaku carefully for permission to continue.

Kaito turns the photocopy over. A faded date and the initials T.K. appear on the back, followed by a short notation about watching Akuyaku’s development.

Akuyaku folds the photocopy, keeps it in his hand, and turns toward the battered gym door. The fluorescent hum follows him across the empty ring.

Akuyaku steps outside without waiting for company. The evening air replaces the stale rubber smell, and the gym door closes behind him.

Inside the gym, Kaito points toward the photocopy’s faded date. Outside, Akuyaku walks alone into Hoshikawa’s deepening dusk, the old house now a concrete direction rather than a rumor.

The old Moriyama House remains ahead in Hoshikawa’s dusk, but the faded date on Kaito’s photocopy does not match any record from Akuyaku’s childhood.

Inside the gym, Kaito studies the photocopy again. The house loses its importance, while the words about observation and selection remain unchanged.

The correction travels through Kaito’s message and settles the question plainly: Moriyama House holds no established link to Akuyaku’s childhood. The watcher’s identity remains unknown.

Kaito receives the message inside the gym. He opens the school archive copy, compares dates, and searches the club’s older paper ledgers under the fluorescent hum.

The archive search returns a damaged access log. Several entries were removed, and the remaining record points to a temporary staff credential that expired years ago.

Kaito checks the damaged archive log against the surviving paper ledgers. A second layer of removal appears: the credential record was scraped away, and the physical sign-out sheet was deliberately cut from its binding.

As Kaito pulls the ledger free, its brittle binding tears across the remaining pages. One access date disappears beneath the split, leaving the archive damaged and costing them a piece of the evidence.

A faint scrape sounds beyond the gym office door. Daigo turns toward it, while Kaito closes the ledger and keeps the torn section beneath his hand.

The scrape comes again, followed by a careful shift of weight beyond the office door. A narrow shadow interrupts the light beneath it, proving someone is listening.

The shadow withdraws half a step, but does not leave. The office door remains shut, and no face or clothing is visible through the narrow gap.

A floorboard creaks outside. The listener remains close, separated by one door and the thin office wall, while the surviving records stay under Kaito’s hand.

Akuyaku raises two fingers toward Kaito, then angles himself toward the door’s narrow gap. Kaito understands and reaches for the handle without speaking.

The latch clicks. Akuyaku catches a partial glimpse of a dark sleeve, a gloved hand, and a slim figure turning away before the door opens fully.

Kaito pulls the door wide, but the corridor is empty. The listener has slipped beyond the office’s sightline, leaving no face, voice, or reliable identity.

A faint scrape marks the corridor floor where the figure moved away. The office door now stands open, exposing the archive room and making concealment impossible.