Rain fell hard
Tokyo was wet and impatient
Reiji stood at the edge of the rooftop
Eyes closed
Feeling the weight of the past weeks
Bangkok
Seoul
Two wins
Two ghosts added to his silent army
He hadn't told anyone
Not even Leo
Not even Mika
But inside
Something shifted
Each match stripped more of him away
He wasn't playing for joy
Not anymore
It was survival now
---
Saturday night
Next Shadowgate match
Shanghai
Abandoned Olympic warmup stadium
Opponent: Red Curtain
A group of former Chinese prodigies
Discarded for politics
Now savage
Precise
Angry
Reiji wore black again
No name
No color
Just that cold walk that was becoming too natural
---
Kickoff
Red Curtain didn't play football
They hunted
Boxed him in
One tackled late
Another went straight for his calf
But Reiji didn't dodge
He welcomed it
Eyes calm
Like he was learning
He played like a ghost
Passing to where players would be
Not where they were
His movement broke their shape
His touches made defenders trip over each other
By minute 40
It was 3–0
All orchestrated by him
No celebration
No smile
Even the crowd stopped cheering
They didn't understand what they were watching
Not just skill
But calculation
A playstyle stripped of emotion
Stripped of rhythm
It was… monstrous
---
Second half
Red Curtain tried harder
They pressed
They fouled
One even punched him off the ball
Reiji fell
Got up silently
Wiped his mouth
Passed to an empty corner
The ball curved on its own
Assist
Goal
He didn't even watch it go in
---
After the match
Red Curtain's captain approached
"You're not playing football anymore
You're doing surgery"
Reiji turned slowly
"Then bleed smarter"
---
Tokyo
Leo watched the match on a cracked stream site
Hand over his mouth
"That's not Reiji
That's something else bro"
---
Sunday morning
Coach Nakamura received a letter
Anonymous
Inside
A USB drive
Match footage from Shanghai
Label:
"How to kill a football genius"
He watched it
Twice
Then called Mika
"We need to talk
He's changing
And not for the better"
---
Meanwhile
Reiji walked through Shibuya
Crowd all around
But no one saw him
A girl dropped her phone
He picked it up
Handed it back
She looked into his eyes
And shivered
Not from fear
But because
She saw nothing in them