Scott

Biodata

Background / History

Scott’s wife left him because she could not tolerate his operation of the Fight Club, taking their child with her. She subsequently died in a traffic accident. After her death, Scott became more deranged and increasingly delighted in other families’ suffering 7.

His club exploited the Underworld’s poverty. Scott obtained child fighters from families unable to feed them and from children left homeless by mining accidents. He viewed Chu Mu’s reputation and talent as opportunities to sell tickets, reasoning that the boy’s death in the ring would at least generate profit 7.

Scott maintained his position through the secret backing of an Upper District noble, to whom he paid monthly tribute. In return, he arranged fights in which champions were threatened into losing to the noble, who killed his opponents even when they surrendered 16.

He was notorious throughout the Underworld for the numerous tragedies caused by his pursuit of profit. The narrative contrasts him with the Old Director, presenting the two as opposing moral extremes whose confrontation could affect the future of the Underworld 11.

Appearance

• Missing right eye: Chu Mu stabbed Scott’s right eye with Seele’s crude iron knife, pulled it out, and crushed it underfoot 7.
• Eye bandage: Scott wore a bandage after the injury, briefly removing it to display his wound during a call to his patron 8 16.
• Black eyepatch: By the time he arranged Kruzer’s match against his patron, Scott wore a black eyepatch 44.
• Aged neck: His neck is described as covered in shriveled skin during his death scene 45.
• Weary appearance: Dr. Juejue’s youthful, energetic appearance is later contrasted with Scott’s weary, lifeless appearance 164.
• Distinctive voice: His high, harsh voice is repeatedly compared to a duck’s squawking 7 11 14.

Personality

Scott combines greed with deliberate sadism. He does not merely accept suffering as a cost of business: he anticipates it with pleasure. When arranging a match between Chu Mu and Seele, he secretly intends to let only one survive and looks forward to the survivor’s devastation 7.

He rejects moral criticism by blaming the paying audience for sustaining his club. When Kruzer objects to killing a child, Scott fires him and uses his dismissal to threaten the remaining employees into obedience 8.

His confidence depends heavily on wealth, authority, and protection. He invokes powerful connections when challenged, but appeals to surveillance cameras and the Great Code when others threaten him. Faced with Chu Mu’s self-mutilation—and later his patron’s murder—Scott becomes terrified and desperate 12 14 15 45.

Even his apparent offer to surrender his wealth is deceptive: the safe he directs Chu Mu toward contains explosives rather than his savings. After believing himself spared, he plans to change his name, hide, and use his real savings to obtain another noble’s protection 45.

Abilities & Skills

Coercion and Match Manipulation

Scott controls fighters through their contracts, wages, and dependence on the club.

• Uses contracts to claim control over child fighters, including children unable to read their terms 7.
• Offers employees monetary bonuses for violence and threatens dismissal for disobedience 8.
• Engineers Kruzer’s championship streak to make him a prestigious opponent for his patron 44.
• Threatens fighters’ families to force them to lose fatal matches 44.

Political Leverage

Scott relies on his Upper District patron rather than demonstrated personal fighting strength.

• Invokes his connections to intimidate Natasha and threatens to have Oleg removed from his position 11 12.
• Keeps his patron’s identity secret because exposing their relationship could provoke impeachment proceedings against the noble 16.
• Cannot compel his patron to confront the Chief Stoker or permit an immediate attack on the Orphanage 16.

Deception and Traps

• Directs Chu Mu to an explosive-filled decoy safe while pretending to offer him all his money 45.
• Keeps his actual savings in a separate safe concealed within a sofa’s frame 45.

Equipment / Items

• Video communication device: A machine kept in his safe, fitted with a cathode-ray screen, bronze speakers, a camera, buttons, and an audio pickup; used to contact his patron 16.
• Child-fighter contracts: Signed or fingerprinted documents used to bind children to the club. Contracts signed by children under eight are declared invalid and burned 13 14.
• Concealed safe: Hidden behind the fabric covering a sofa’s back in the private room where his patron is killed 45.
• Explosive decoy safe: The safe whose location and combination Scott gives Chu Mu is packed with explosives that detonate when its door is opened. Its nature is discovered years later by an unlucky gang of thieves 45.
• IPC Credits: Blue cards containing his lifetime savings, intended to buy favor with Upper District nobles. Chu Mu takes them after killing him 45.

Relationships

• Chu Mu — Enemy and eventual killer. Scott attempts to recruit him, orders his fatal beating after losing an eye, and later plots revenge against him 7 8 16 45.
• Seele — Child fighter trapped by a contract she cannot read. Scott refuses to release her and proposes a lethal match against Chu Mu 7.
• Kruzer — Employee whom Scott fires for opposing Chu Mu’s beating. He later brings Kruzer back, arranges his championship wins, and threatens his family to force him into a fatal loss 8 44. Kruzer subsequently joins Wildfire and dies in the Fragmentum; his widow later recalls the night Scott dismissed him and his promise to protect their family 165.
• Unnamed Upper District noble — Secret patron and recipient of Scott’s tribute. Scott supplies him with victims disguised as competitive opponents 16 44 45.
• Oleg — Opposing security captain. Oleg intervenes to save Chu Mu and the children, seals the club, and challenges Scott’s demands 9 11.
• Old Director — Long-standing ideological opponent. Scott attempts to obtain her ancestral estate through compensation claims against the Rivet Town Orphanage 11 12.
• Natasha — Opponent who discovers Chu Mu’s harmful treatment and rejects Scott’s proposed settlement 12.
• Chief Stoker — Adjudicator who invalidates the children’s contracts and rejects most of Scott’s compensation claims 13 14.
• Dr. Juejue — Later owner of the Fight Club, who reopens it with Wildfire’s permission after Scott’s death and the club’s closure 164.
• Wife — Left him over his operation of the Fight Club; her subsequent death intensified his bitterness toward other families 7.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Child Fighters and the Fight Club Confrontation

Scott brings Chu Mu backstage while trying to recruit him, inadvertently allowing him to discover Seele among the child fighters. When Scott refuses to release her and proposes that the two friends fight each other, Chu Mu gouges out his right eye and stays behind to cover Seele’s escape 7.

Scott orders his enforcers to beat Chu Mu to death, offering each ten Winter City Shields for doing so slowly with their fists. Oleg’s arrival interrupts the beating, but Scott blocks Chu Mu’s transfer to a clinic and insists that the club’s doctor treat him for a fee 8 9.

The doctor applies medicinal oil that aggravates Chu Mu’s open wounds. Natasha identifies the damage, while Oleg suspects Scott ordered it. Scott denies responsibility and demands evidence 9 12.

Compensation Dispute

Scott demands that Chu Mu remove his own right eye and crush it underfoot. Chu Mu instead bites the removed eyeball off the knife, horrifying Scott. After regaining consciousness, Scott resolves to kill the boy before he can grow strong enough to threaten him 15 16.

Seele’s grief over Chu Mu’s sacrifice and her desire to gain enough strength to protect others lead to the awakening of her Path power during this confrontation 15.

His patron refuses to intervene against Oleg and the Chief Stoker. He also forbids Scott from touching the Orphanage until an important event there is concluded, promising that Scott may pursue revenge afterward 16.

Final Confrontation and Death

When the patron returns, Scott arranges for Five-Time Champion Kruzer to lose to him under threat of his family’s murder. Meanwhile, Chu Mu decides to kill Scott before leaving Jarilo, both to prevent further exploitation of children and to protect Seele from revenge 44.

Chu Mu kills the noble in the club’s upstairs private room. Scott unsuccessfully attempts to flee, then volunteers the location and combination of a safe, pretending to offer his money. Chu Mu distrusts the offer and does not open it. Believing Chu Mu has departed, Scott retrieves his savings from the actual safe concealed in the sofa to escape and seek another patron. Chu Mu cuts his throat before he can take the Credits, then empties the safe 45.

The safe Scott had directed Chu Mu toward is later revealed to contain explosives rigged to detonate when opened. A gang of thieves discovers the trap years afterward 45.

Aftermath and the Fight Club’s Reopening

After Scott’s death, Natasha recruits fighters from the Fight Club into Wildfire 112.

When Chu Mu later returns to Boulder Town, he finds the Fight Club still bustling despite Scott’s death. He reflects that killing Scott removed a menace but could not eliminate the demand for the club, which existed not only as a building but in the hearts of its spectators 163.

The new owner, Dr. Juejue, receives Chu Mu in the same upstairs private room where Scott was killed. He explains that he reopened the club with Wildfire’s permission after its closure deprived workers of their livelihood. Under the new rules, children may watch matches but are forbidden from entering the ring. The club is intended to give miners an outlet and reduce crime, although inadequate medical care still causes some fighters to die from their injuries 164.

Chu Mu also learns that Kruzer joined Wildfire and died in the Fragmentum six months before his visit. Kruzer’s widow receives a survivor’s allowance and sewing work from Wildfire, but remains deeply affected by her husband’s death and the memory of his dismissal for defending Chu Mu 165.

Notable Quotes

“In the ring, a six-year-old’s knife is the same as a twenty-six-year-old’s. Both can kill!” 7

“You die, or you and your family die together. Pick one.” 44