Ryoma's team doesn't stay in the city. Instead, they arrange a villa in the hillside area of Antipolo, where the roads gradually climb and the dense noise of Metro Manila softens into something distant and almost irrelevant. The air feels calmer, carrying a kind of stillness that makes it easier to focus.
The villa itself sits slightly removed from the main road, reached through a narrow uphill path that bends just enough to keep it out of sight from passing traffic. More importantly, there are no immediate neighbors close enough to create distractions, which makes the place ideal for a training camp that values privacy above all else.
Antonio Dizon, the liaison, steps out of the van and moves to the back to help unload their luggage. Once everything is set down, he turns toward Kurogane and begins speaking in the same measured tone he has maintained since earlier.
"You arrived five weeks before the fight," he says. "But as agreed, the promoter will only cover three weeks."
