Morning Routine

The alarm clock blared, causing Richard to shut it down with a swift press. "Morning already?" he groaned as he climbed out of bed. After slipping into some sandals, he looked around his room plastered with posters from various media—anime, movies, video games, sports, and more. Walking over to the blinds, he yanked them open, allowing the morning sun to flood in. His eyes stung momentarily, prompting him to cover them and wipe away the discomfort before peering outside. The sunny day greeted him. "Ugh, why does it have to be hot?" Richard complained, sighing.

Glancing at the alarm clock, it displayed 7:12 am. "I need to get ready; it's gonna be a long day today," he mumbled, stretching. He then instinctively started looking around for his phone, but then he remembered, *Oh, that's right, I broke it.* Another sigh escaped him. "I gotta get another phone," he muttered before making his way to the room door to leave and head to the bathroom to brush his teeth and have a quick shower.

Richard trudged through the second floor of his family mansion, his steps weighed down by fatigue. The maid greeted him with a warm smile, "Good morning, young master. Are your wounds healing well?" Richard, struggling to recall her name, managed a tired response, "I'm fine, maid. It was just a little bleeding from the head." The maid closed her eyes in a reassuring nod, "That's a relief, young master. Please don't overexert; the doctor mentioned potential complications." Richard waved her concern away, grumbling, "Yeah, yeah, I got it." Lacking the energy for prolonged conversation, especially in the morning, he walked past the maid and entered the bathroom.

Inside, he took off his clothes, tossing them into a basket, and stepped into the shower. Turning the blue knob, cold water rained down on him. "Much better," he sighed, the cold water helping him think and bringing focus. He needed all his brainpower to figure out what to do and how to find where Sasaki's fight would be happening.

The likely location for Sasaki's upcoming fight would be in Tokyo, Richard speculated. Reflecting on the previous encounter, he surmised it would unfold in a secluded area, probably during the night. However, he couldn't dismiss the chance of it happening at any other time of the day.

*They wouldn't go back to the same place; it would be too suspicious,* Richard mused. Last night, when he returned home and tuned into the TV for the latest news, he discovered that the disappearance of Hibeki— or whatever the guy's name was; Richard had forgotten—was under investigation. A witness, a colleague of the guy, claimed to have last seen him heading in the direction of the junkyard. Despite the police finding no concrete evidence, scheduling another fight there would undoubtedly pose a considerable risk. So, Richard could rule out the possibility of the upcoming fight occurring at the same location.

Now, he faced the task of pinpointing the fight's location. While he knew where it wouldn't occur, identifying potential spots posed a new challenge. *Where in Tokyo could it be? There are countless seedy and secluded places here.* Finding seclusion in Tokyo was akin to searching for an orphan in an orphanage—there were simply too many options. However, Richard could narrow down the options through a process of elimination.

*They wouldn't select an area accessible to the public, where anyone could wander in. So, all alleyways and backstreets are out,* he reasoned. That left abandoned buildings like warehouses and off-limits areas like construction sites as the remaining possibilities.

Richard turned off the shower and stepped out, grabbing a towel to dry himself. Wrapping the towel around his lower half, he approached the sink, grabbing his toothbrush and toothpaste. Squeezing toothpaste onto the brush, he began brushing his teeth, lost in thought. *I wonder if there's going to be an audience this time,* he mused. If the previous fight between Sasaki and the other combatant was a sort of qualifier match, it made sense not to have spectators. However, since this was a tournament, the likelihood of spectators being present was high. *That rules out construction sites, then. With a crowd, it would attract too much attention. That leaves... abandoned areas.*

Richard's mind raced as he tried to recall any abandoned warehouse districts in Tokyo. He remembered hearing about an old industrial area in the outskirts of Shinjuku that had been abandoned for years due to urban redevelopment plans falling through. It was rumored to be a haven for illicit activities, a perfect spot for events like the MoH fights.

As he finished brushing his teeth, he cleaned the toothbrush with water and gargled before spitting it out. *That's one of the prime spots,* Richard thought, examining his reflection in the mirror. His red eyes stared back at him. *Still, I need to confirm it,* he thought as he reached for his contact lenses, inserting them one by one. When he looked back at his reflection, his eyes were now a striking blue instead of red.

Richard exited the bathroom and walked back to his room, discarding the towel before rifling through his closet to decide on his attire. *My phone's busted, so I can't just call Ueda. And that bastard won't pick up calls from unknown numbers,* he thought as he picked out the clothes for the day. Opting for a black tracksuit with white stripes, he sighed to himself. "I have to go to that bastard personally," he muttered as he slowly zipped up the jacket. With his outfit chosen, he exited his room and headed downstairs.

After walking down the stairs, Richard made his way to the dining room, where his mother and father were already seated. The maid busily brought them food. His mother was engrossed in a book, while his father was on the phone. Without paying them much mind, Richard took a seat at the large table designed for at least twelve people. His parents sat next to each other, and he sat on the opposite side.

"Is your head wound better now, Richard?" asked his mother, Cristina, her eyes still fixed on the book.

"It wasn't much to begin with, so no, it's not better. It's been fine," replied Richard, making his mother exhale a laugh.

"Is that so?" she said, finally looking at Richard with her green eyes which were filled with amusement. Richard responded with a simple "Yeah." Richard never truly understood his mother; to him, she always felt like a robot capable of changing her emotions in an instant. Someone who could shift from cold and analytical to warm and emotional at a moment's notice. She also possessed a doll-like appearance; her hair, skin, and figure were always in a constant state of perfection. Despite being 37 years old, she could easily pass for a woman in her early to mid-twenties.

"You know how he is, Cristina. No matter how many times he gets hurt, he'll always say he's fine," remarked his father, Alric, as he set the phone down. "When will you stop getting yourself into these fights, son?" Alric directed the question at Richard, his blue eyes filled with concern.

Richard shrugged nonchalantly, lifting his arms in the air almost lazily. "Until I'm six feet under or stuck in a coma," he replied, his tone betraying a hint of boredom. For most parents, such a response would be alarming, but for Cristina and Alric, it was a familiar refrain. They had grown accustomed to their son's reckless nature.

"You know there's no point in asking him, Alric," Cristina interjected, placing a comforting hand on her husband's shoulder. Unlike his mother, Richard's father was an open book to him. Alric was a caring father and husband, although a bit aloof in social settings, he was a genius in business matters. However, Richard found him utterly boring and uninteresting compared to his mother. While he made an effort to decipher his mother, Richard had never bothered to do the same with his father. To him, if someone didn't pique his interest, they held no value and might as well not exist—even if that someone happened to be his father.

The maid brought Richard his meal, which he ate with little interest. *So boring,* he thought while mechanically chewing. To Richard, eating was a tedious necessity, a task he would gladly relinquish if given the chance. Food, no matter how delectable, served only one purpose: to satiate hunger—a concept that failed to interest him. Richard recognized the utility of food in extracting information and as a tool for torture; he had used it for both purposes numerous times in his life.

Completing his meal, Richard rose from his chair just as his father was about to speak. "I'm heading out to meet some friends, and I'll be taking my car," he announced abruptly, cutting off any potential response from his parents. Without waiting for their reaction, he made his way toward the front door.

As he stepped outside, Richard spotted the groundskeeper watering plants in the garden. The groundskeeper was a man in his fifties with gray hair and black eyes, whose name Richard remembered because he found him interesting. "Hey, Yuji!" he called out, prompting the groundskeeper to face him. "How are your kids?" Richard asked. Using sign language, Yuji replied, "They are fine." Richard smirked to himself, *Damn liar, you have no kids.* This was precisely what intrigued Richard about Yuji; the groundskeeper consistently lied about his personal life, and Richard always wanted to find out why. But today was not the day he was going to find out, as he had a much more interesting activity planned.

"Open up the gate for me," Richard instructed Yuji, who nodded and went to do just that. Richard strolled over to the driveway where his car was parked. It wasn't anything flashy, deliberately chosen to blend in with the other cars on the road and avoid attracting attention. It was so average and bland that there was no point in even describing what it looked like.

Richard pulled open the car door and climbed inside. Fishing out his key from the glove compartment, he inserted it into the ignition and started up the car. Yuji had already opened the gate by the time Richard was ready to leave. He drove out, setting off to find Ueda, one of the most well-known information dealers in Japan.