Shigeo checked his surroundings thoughtfully. He could probably exorcise all of those boxers at once with a wave of his hand. Tadakoro was able to deduce that the three of them were espers, but Shigeo hadn't given Tadakoro a reason to believe that he was significantly powerful. If he could end this quickly, the four of them could get out of this completely unharmed.

Maybe he should give Mezato-san a stern scolding, though both of them certainly knew that not only was Shigeo not good at that, but Mezato-san probably wouldn't listen anyway.

Rage smiled. It would probably look much more threatening if he wasn't using Mezato-san as a vessel. "You there. The one with the shoulders." He pointed in their direction, singling out Kuroda.

"H-huh? You mean me?" The boy responded. He was shaking at the sight of the spectral boxers surrounding them.

"Yes, you. Why don't you get up onto the ring there and spar with one of my fighters? If you can knock him down, I'll even let you go."

Shigeo scowled at Rage, disappointment welling up inside of him. "And if he loses?"

"If he loses, I'll have him stay here for eternity as one of my novices."

Kuroda swallowed. "S-sir, I'm j-just a l-long di-distance runner. I can't fight." He stammered.

Deciding he'd heard enough, Shigeo raised his right hand and swiped towards the left in one swift motion. In an instant, all of the boxers surrounding them evaporated.

"W-what? HUUUUUUUUUH!?"

The other two esper teens blinked before making the same exclamation.

Suddenly, Rage was alone.

"Sh-shoot. I was hoping I wouldn't have to bring him out this quickly."

Kuroda felt his legs vibrate softly as his feet left the ground. He began to feel a bit nauseous as he levitated up and into the boxing ring.

"K-Kageyama!? What's happening!?" Kuroda shouted.

A cage rose up and surrounded the boxing ring, hitting the ceiling with a sharp clang.

"What's your name, son?" Rage asked.

"Huh? Um. Kuroda. I-Isamu Kuroda."

Then, the lights blinked on and flashed towards Kuroda.

"In the red corner! Making his boxing debut this afternoon! He hails from Oregano High School in Spice City! Standing at 173 cm! Isamu, 'Shoulders' Kuuuroooooooooodaa!"

"Wh-what's happening!?"

Then, a muscular, ethereal mass began to materialize in the opposite corner. The spotlight on Kuroda cut dead.

"In the blue corner! Entering tonight's bout with a record of 474 wins, 95 losses! Born, raised, and died in Spice City. Currently existing at a ghastly 184 cm! Kazuki "Warthog" Motoooookaaaaaaawaaaaa!"

The spirit in the other corner finished forming in a puff of smoke, his arms crossed. Tinted green, Warthog was a hulk of a man. Not particularly tall, but his arms were likely as wide as Kuroda's head. The mustache on his repulsive face shot forward like a pair of tusks, and his scalp sported a messy combover that somehow made him look even more terrifying than he already was. He wore a pair of blue boxing gloves.

Shigeo turned to Rage. "Hey! What do you think you're doing!?"

"That Kuroda boy has a ton of physical potential. He already runs, so his stamina must be excellent. In any case, I don't expect him to win, so just consider this a scouting assessment from me."

Shigeo furrowed his brow and raised a hand. "I'm going to stop it."

Then, Rage dashed in front of him and shoved Shigeo several feet away. "I won't let you!"

"Kageyama-kun!" Kuroda shouted.

Shigeo gritted his teeth. This definitely complicated things. On one hand, Shigeo's friend was in the ring fighting against an evil spirit he had no chance of beating in a boxing match. On the other hand, Shigeo was dealing with a surprisingly powerful evil spirit who happened to be possessing his other friend, which could result in some serious injury for her if he wasn't careful.

The esper boy watched Rage jump around energetically in a wide area in front of him. It was clear to Shigeo that Rage was trying to make himself a tougher target. If Shigeo couldn't catch him cleanly, then he might possibly cause irreversible damage to Mezato's body. Apparently, Rage was aware of this fact.

"What's wrong, boy? Can't handle this lightning fast footwork? How would this girl react if she found out she put the moves on you in a sparring match? She'd never let you hear the end of it!" Rage taunted.

Kuroda eyed the other fighter cautiously. Considering how busy Kageyama was, he was on his own here. He thought back to what little boxing training he had. His uncle's voice resonated in his mind.

So you make sure you keep a consistent rhythm and motion as you work the bag. As you work up a sweat, try to slowly build up speed, but make sure your sense of rhythm stays consistent.

Like hell that'd work here! He's fighting a real, moving, professional, undead opponent! Not a nutsack-looking thing hanging from the ceiling!

The futility of his situation sunk in, and he began to panic. "Kageyama! Morishima-san! Help! Help!" He turned to grab at the metal bars surrounding the ring.

Unsurprisingly, Kageyama was occupied. Morishima, however, had walked over to his corner. "Calm down, idiot. He hasn't hit you yet, so you still have a chance, right?" She commented.

Kuroda let out an exasperated breath. "It's easy for you to be calm in this situation! You aren't the one standing inside this cage!"

"Relax. Take some deep breaths. I don't expect you to actually fight him head on, but I think we might be able to figure out a way around this."

Suddenly, the sound of a bell ringing resounded throughout the gym, and Kuroda's opponent began advancing towards him.

"HELP MEEEEE!"

Morishima reached a hand through the cage and pushed him farther in. "Just survive."

Rage smirked. "That's the bell. Come on, then."

He dashed forward and threw a punch, which Shigeo was able to jump away from with ease.

Think, Shigeo. You've been in this situation before. Your opponent isn't nearly as powerful the last time, but you have to be quick. One of your friends is fighting for his life inside that cage waiting for you to save him.

He raised a hand again to try and keep Mezato's body still, but Rage was able to close the distance between them again and interrupt him.

Rage's disgusting smirk was still plastered on Mezato's face as he advanced again and threw another attack at Shigeo.

Kuroda staggered back as a punch nicked past his cheek, creating a minor cut. Warthog wasn't fast. Not even a little bit. Still, the amount of power he had behind each punch was staggering, and if Kuroda wasn't careful, he'd probably go down if one of those hit him flush.

Kuroda kept walking backwards evading punches until he found himself cornered. The spotlight above him entered his vision, forcefully constricting his pupils as he had been sitting in the dark. He brought a hand up to his eyes.

"Kuroda! Look out."

Uh oh. This is it. Kuroda shut his eyes and threw his other hand up to his face to brace for impact.

But nothing came. The long-distance runner blinked a few times before looking forward to see that the other fighter had staggered back and away from the light.

Kuroda looked up. One of the lights had shattered earlier, but two of them were still fine. The one above Kuroda was actually turned on.

Morishima looked up as well and realized that the two lights that hadn't been destroyed were movable spotlights. If Warthog was afraid of these lights, then there had to be a reason for it.

She focused hard on the light above her and raised a hand up to it.

The light above Kuroda moved over and shined onto Warthog.

"Ah! Whoa! Argh! Oh my goodness!" Warthog reeled backwards and fell backwards onto his rear.

Kuroda eyes widened in surprise and he threw his hands up above him, then turned around to look at Morishima. "Wh-what! I knocked him down! He's down!"

Morishima jumped up and frantically pointed behind him. "Turn back around you idiot! He's getting up!"

And Warthog got up indeed, as the moment Kuroda whirled around to face his adversary a ghostly boxing glove collided with his chest.

Kuroda fell backwards and against the ropes. Morishima ran over to him.

"You moron! Pay attention."

Kuroda sniffled. "It hurts!"

1!

2!

"Hurry! The count already started!"

"Morishima-san. It really hurts!"

The girl let out a sigh. "It's gonna be okay! I have an idea. Just get up and try to survive again. Look! It's not that bad! He only hit you once! It wasn't even in the head!"

6!

7!

Kuroda grabbed the ropes and pulled himself up. Actually, he felt completely fine! The area where he got punched stung, but aside from that he didn't feel that bad.

"Hey. You're right!"

"Idiot."

The bell rung again, and a stool floated over to Kuroda's corner. The lights shut off. The boy looked around suspiciously before taking a seat on the stool.

"What the hell!? Didn't Rage tell me he would let me go if I knocked him down?"

Morishima turned to where Rage and Kageyama were. "It seems they're a bit preoccupied at the moment. I don't think he was watching."

"That's complete bull!"

"I think he already decided you were going to lose before you even started."

Kuroda clapped his hands in frustration. "Man!"

Morishima rubbed her chin. "Okay. Listen carefully. Once the next round starts. I want you to do the same thing you did last round. But this time, try to make sure you don't move around the ring too much. If you can get him to stay in one spot the entire time, I can get a clean shot and shine the spotlight right onto him. It looks like the light hurts him."

Kuroda nodded. "Hey, Morishima-san?"

"Yeah?"

"If I die here, can you tell my mom I'm sorry for accidentally busting her childhood bicycle when we went on vacation at-"

"Wh-no! Didn't you hear what Rage said? He doesn't plan on killing us. He said he wants us to stay here for eternity to become his trainees, which is even worse! Anyway-"

The bell rung again, and the stool under Kuroda began to float away, causing him to fall backwards onto the ropes and clumsily try to stay on his feet.

The light above Kuroda flashed on again.

"Just remember what I said. I have an idea."

Rage finally managed to land a solid hook on Shigeo's face.

The boy reeled back in pain, but stayed on his feet.

Rage whistled in astonishment. "Wow. You're a tough one ain't ya? Unfortunately for you, I can clearly see you're relying entirely on psychic power," Rage jumped backwards again and continued his wild movements. "There's still a lot of work to be done on you yet!

Shigeo rubbed his sleeve against his cheek. Even though he nullified some of the impact, it still hurt a lot. "Please stop this. These are my friends, you know. I only just met the two of them earlier this week, and I wanted our high school life to start off on the right foot."

"That's no concern of mine. You see, boy. I might be dead, but I have some great aspirations of my own," Then, Rage scowled harshly. Shigeo thought that, somehow, the expression didn't look too farfetched on Mezato's face. "And you've set me back several steps after you so kindly exorcised all but one of my entire boxer base!"

Shigeo frowned. He wasn't talking his way out of this one. Rage jumped forward again and threw another punch, which Shigeo once again was able to soften the impact of with a barrier.

However, this time, Rage opted not to jump back and instead continued with a combination of punches. Still, they were unable to pass through the barrier Shigeo had created around himself.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kuroda tried his best to keep Warthog in one spot. He really did. But Warthog began to resort to throwing his entire weight behind his punches, which meant he was moving forward a meter or so every time he threw a punch. Kuroda was agile enough to dodge these, but he couldn't do anything to stop Warthog's advance.

"Come here you little punk string bean!" Then, Warthog finally decided to try and throw the slowest haymaker possible by a professional. The overhead right-hand sailed and badly missed its target. Then, Kuroda found himself standing directly behind the professional undead pugilist.

"Jump on him!" He heard Morishima shout. Without thinking, he complied, wrapping his arms around Warthog's neck.

"Are you trying to choke me out? I don't need to breathe, you know."

Then, suddenly, the spotlight over Kuroda's corner moved over to where he and Warthog were.

"Ack! Grahh!" Warthog shook Kuroda off of him, who was able to stay on his feet and grab a hold of the top ropes.

"That's cheating!" The boxer accused, staggering out of the light.

Then, another spotlight flashed on top of him.

"No! No!" No matter what he tried to do, the light would not stop following him.

Kuroda and Morishima both watched, stunned, as Warthog began to dissipate into nothingness while screaming in agony.

Then, Warthog was no more. The cage lowered back into the floor beneath them. Morishima pulled herself onto the canvas and rushed over to Kuroda.

"Hey! Are you okay?"

The boy brushed himself off, grabbing at the area where he had been punched before. "Uh, yeah. I think. I have a cut on my cheek but I think I'm fine."

"Here," Morishima reached into her bag and gave him a bottle of water. "That fight only lasted about 3 or 4 minutes, but I'm sure you're tired."

He took it gratuitously. "Thanks. We should go check on Kageyama."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Rage grinned. "The cage just lowered. Let's go see how your friend is doing."

Shigeo frowned. He hoped Kuroda wasn't seriously hurt. And what was Morishima up to?

Then, the girl appeared behind Rage and socked him over the back of the head with an old punch mitt.

"Ow! What in blazes..?"

Kuroda ran over and grabbed Mezato's abdomen from behind, locking her arms at her sides.

"Kageyama-kun! Now!"

"No! Stop this! Stop this!"

Shigeo blinked at the very sudden turn of events before smiling. "Thanks guys." He raised a hand towards Mezato and let out a breath.

When Mezato came to, she was staring up at three shadowy figures.

"Oh, hey. She's waking up."

"Wait, don't touch her! Let me assess her first. I want to make sure she's completely okay."

What happened? Did one of her investigations go awry? Had she been kidnapped? Where even was she? This place reeked of dust and sweat and mold.

Then, she reached up to her chest and began to panic when she realized her camera wasn't there.

She jumped up. "Wh-where am I!? Who are you?"

The three people before her flinched at her sudden outburst. "Mezato, it's me, Kageyama. These two here are my friends."

She squinted a bit at the dark figure before her. "Mob-kun?"

Then it hit her.

"Wha- Hey! You three locked me outside! You shouldn't be here!"

The other girl frowned. "And neither should you."

Mezato raised an eyebrow and realized that they had caught her sneaking in. "Oh, um. Wait, did you attack me!?"

Mob shook his head. "No. You tripped over some of the old equipment in here and hit your head against the floor. You scared us."

Mezato tilted her head. "Really?" She tried to recollect some of her memories. She felt as though she could vaguely recall punching Mob in the face, but that didn't feel right. "Oh, I see."

"Mezato-san. Why don't you go home and get some rest? That fall was very scary."

The other boy that Mezato didn't know tried to stifle a sneer. "Yeah. It scared the hell out of me, I'll tell you that much."

She stared at the three of them closely. "Hmm," She turned to retrieve her belongings from off the floor and checked her camera for any damage. "Okay, then. Doesn't explain why you needed to take off my jacket or my camera or anything like that, but I'll take your word for it."

The three of them stared dumbly as she walked past them and began to head out the door. "Bye, then. See you later, Mob-kun."

The door opened with a harsh creak as she stepped out.

What met her outside was a floating booger looking thing with red dimples.

"Oh, it's just her. Ah well, I suppose everything is okay after all. I suppose I'll go back to Reigen." The spirit began to float away.

Mezato needed to bite into her sleeve, hard, in order to stop herself from screaming.

Nevertheless, she followed after it.

The three esper teens sat silently in a ramen cart.

"I don't think she believed us." Shigeo said.

Morishima sighed. "Meh, who cares. I think we should've just told her the truth. It would've scared her from trying to get involved with us again."

Shigeo shook his head. "No. Actually I think it would have convinced her to involve herself with us more."

Kuroda groaned. "You already know what I think about the whole ordeal. Who even was that chick, Kageyama? She said she was with her school newspaper but you seemed to know each other pretty well."

Morishima giggled. "What did she call you? Mob-kun? Where did that nickname come from?"

Shigeo shrugged. "She's just an old friend from middle school. Mezato-san goes to Lemon Pepper. She likes to get involved with exciting things. Anyway, I'm really sorry for what happened. I should have entered first to make sure it was safe. The three of you should never have needed to-"

Kuroda and Morishima both cut him off.

"Are you kidding? That was so much fun!" Morishima.

"You should be sorry! I almost died!" Kuroda.

Shigeo stayed silent and was at a bit of a loss as to how to respond to their contradicting statements. Then, he couldn't help but smile as the two of them began to bicker once again.

This was nice. It hadn't been that long, but already he felt a nice connection with these two. The day's events didn't go exactly as he would have liked, but he was just glad that his friends were all unharmed. Still, he was worried about Mezato-san. She didn't seem too happy the entire time she was conscious, and there was a small possibility that she would eventually recall everything that had unfolded.

Shigeo silently slurped his noodles in deep thought as his friends quarreled among themselves.

Mezato walked behind the spirit closely. Something about it seemed oddly familiar, but she couldn't put her finger on exactly why. It doesn't seem like it's noticed her following it yet, so she's kept a low profile.

The spirit looked back and saw her again.

"Oh, shit. She's still there? Where is she going?" The spirit stopped and waited for her to move.

No matter, Mezato knew where Reigen's was, so she casually walked past the spirit and in the direction of the spirit council.

When she eventually reached it, she noticed that the unsightly spirit had become increasingly discomforted.

Whens he entered, Kurata-senpai was gone, but Reigen still was.

The man blinked in surprise upon recognizing her and raised an eyebrow. "You're back. So, did you find out what Mob was up to?"

The girl abruptly pointed up at the booger spirit floating above her head. "What the hell is this thing!?"

Both the Psychic Genius and the Evil Spirit did a spit take.