Prologue

Boxing is a strange sport.

When stripped down to its bare essentials, it's basically two people beating the shit out of each other with weird oversized gloves, giving each other black eyes and broken noses until one of them is knocked down on the floor, unable to get up. By all means, it seems like an unnecessarily violent practice that people would look at with horror and revulsion.

But people, strange as they are, eat it all up.

They flock in millions, like seagulls to a dropped slice of bread, to lay spectacle to these bloody fights. They crowd stadiums and bunch up around sports bar TVs just to catch a glimpse of the next tooth those boxers knock out of each others' mouths.

And on those TVs, those matches seem to be all spontaneous glitz and glory, with two strong opponents fighting for fame, fortune, and honor under the shining bright spotlights and constant vigorous cheer of the crowd. But a boxing match is not something spawned from unknown magic. Instead, it's the product of a well oiled machine. And inside are many meticulously placed cogs, all working together to ensure the machine doesn't break down.

But who, exactly, are these cogs?

Although the average layman might say the two boxers are the important components, the truth is that there's much more to a match than the main attraction. In the background, announcers, referees, judges, promoters, trainers, cornermen, medics, cameramen, spotlight operators, and many other people work tirelessly to ensure that a match goes smoothly and its watchers are thoroughly entertained.

And, arguably, one of the most important workers are cutmen.

In the fleeting seconds between the chaotic rounds, a cutman's job is to temporarily alleviate a boxer's injuries before he went back in the ring and got his ass kicked all over again. This job is nothing to sneeze at. If a boxer got a bad enough cut on their face, the fight could be called off, and they could be left with a humiliating loss. That’s why cutmen need to act swiftly, efficiently, and professionally when treating a boxer's wounds.

Most cutmen are decent. They're able to get the job done okay enough that their boxer could still stay in the game. Others, however, like Stitch Duran and Chuck Bodak, were experts. Their skills in their profession cemented their names in boxing history.

However, there was one who rose far above the rest. An enigmatic figure who, in the short span of five years, propelled himself to the very top of his profession.

The Cutman.

The name was a tad unoriginal, but even still, it was cemented in the minds of almost everyone who knew about boxing. Because he was the one, the only, the cutman for the job.

Out of nowhere, armed with an enswell, a jar of petroleum jelly, and a shitton of cotton swabs, he emerged into the boxing world and astonished everyone in it. Every movement he made in the ring screamed "professional", from his serious appearance to the way he conducted himself to how, between every round, he utilized the few seconds he had to treat every cut or bruise the absolute best he could. All that helped him treat the various injuries of world-famous boxers, and sometimes, be the one thing saving them from a crushing defeat.

However, as spectacular as his workmanship in the ring was, it wasn't the only reason for his fame. He sported an iconic appearance that interested his fans.

For one, no matter the occasion, he always wore the same all-black outfit, save for his white medical gloves.

The baseball cap perched atop his head. The pair of almost opaque sunglasses that never betrayed what his eyes looked like, that he made a point to never take off. The t-shirt, with "CUTMAN" in big white letters, advertising just who he is, and the pair of pants below it. The sneakers, noticeably more worn-out than the rest of his outfit because of the countless matches they've seen. Even his mustache and beard, meticulously trimmed and groomed down to the smallest hair, matched his outfit's dark color palette.

All of that, juxtaposed with his chubby figure, the brown freckles lightly sprinkled across his face, and his curly ponytail with a curious white streak running down the front (if you looked hard enough), all made his appearance stick in a person's mind, for better or for worse.

Outside of aesthetics, The Cutman's personality was something to be observed by fans as well. Usually, inside the ring, he was a cool-headed and pragmatic man, oozing with competence and even authority at times. But sometimes, in interviews, moments outside matches, or otherwise, people saw rare glimpses of another side.

A slight smile covered by a hand. A witty wisecrack that left interviewers almost breathless from laughing. A fingernail being unconsciously chewed away at. An awkward verbal faux pas that temporarily made his cheeks redden from embarrassment.

These were fleeting moments, only a couple seconds long at most. Nevertheless, they were seen and pondered by others, who wondered if, outside of enswells and epinephrine, there was something else, something deeper to him that they haven't had the chance to see.

And there was no doubt that they hadn't seen him fully, because outside of his job, little to nothing was known about him. That was because he staunchly kept almost every aspect of his personal life behind closed doors. Almost nobody knew about his family, his love life, his hobbies, his birthday, or any other personal information like that. Even his real name was kept a secret, only being revealed to managers and promoters under an NDA. The closest people ever got to learning about him was when, in an interview, he offhandedly made a joke about him being 23 years old but not looking "a day over 65".

With that, everyone wondered what kind of life The Cutman lived outside of the ring and the persona he played.

Was he a tired college student, studying for some debt-collecting major and desperately trying to balance the matches he participated in with his rigorous classes and essays? Was he a skilled neurosurgeon, deftly using his hands to help countless others who weren't boxers? Was he a god-fearing, bible-obsessed Christian man with a housewife and five little blonde-haired, blue-eyed spawns running around? Was he secretly running an underground criminal organization, using his fame as a front to hide the murders and atrocities he's theoretically committed?

No matter how much people speculated, they'd most likely never get an answer. For the mysterious Cutman, famous as he was, still remained a complete stranger to the world.