Chapter 6.2: Shadow’s Whisper 

“You’re not real,” Kaiser hissed.

“No. Just the part of you you’ve never met,” the figure said. “The part that refuses to die.”

Rain pounded harder. Wind howled. The city disappeared behind a curtain of gray.

“You’re the voice I hear when I fight,” Kaiser said slowly.

The figure nodded. “I’ve always been there. Watching. Waiting. Whispering when no one else would.”

Silence.

Then—

“Nothing good will come from jumping.”

Kaiser laughed again—empty. “You think I don’t know that? My life’s still shi- if I stay.”

“No family. No future. I failed the semester, can’t even move forward. What’s left?” His voice cracked. “I’m just a broken thing with no place in the world.”

He dropped to his knees. Water pooled beneath him. His body shook as stormwater mixed with tears and snot.

“I’m nothing,” he whispered. “And I always will be nothing.”

A beat.

Then the figure chuckled, low and dry.“Are you sure about that?”

Kaiser looked up. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“You’re good at something.”

“Like what? Crying in the rain?”

“No,” the figure said. “Fighting.”

Kaiser blinked. “I’m not a fighter. I just get lucky.”

“Really?” the figure stepped forward. “How many fights have you lost?”

Kaiser opened his mouth to count… but nothing came.

None.

He’d never lost.

“…That doesn’t mean anything,” Kaiser muttered. “What am I supposed to do? Beat people up for fun?”

“No. You become a fighter. A real one.”

Kaiser scoffed. “Me? An MMA pro? That’s your master plan?”

“You’re a shark trying to hunt on land, Kaiser.”
“You belong to the ocean.”

The words echoed in his chest. Loud. True.

He stared. “You’re s-serious.”

“I am,” the figure said. “But only if you’re ready.”

“…There’s a catch,” Kaiser said quietly. “Isn’t there?”

The figure’s eyes glowed faint blue. His aura shimmered, faint but powerful.“Would you like to stand beside the greatest in the ring?”

Kaiser hesitated. “Yeah… If I can win—”

“That’s the problem,” the figure interrupted.
“I’m not asking you to stand beside them.”

He stepped closer, inches from Kaiser’s face.

“I’m telling you to stand above them.”

“Because no prodigy, no genius, no legend deserves the throne of victory—except you.”

The rain, the rooftop, the ledge—they all faded. Only the voice remained.

“You said you’re nothing,” the figure said.
“But everyone starts as nothing.
You just haven’t found the right area that makes you something.”

Kaiser’s breath slowed.

The figure raised a hand. Calm. Open. Waiting.

“So I’ll ask once:
Are you going to die chasing silence?
Or live to devour the best and take what’s yours?”

Kaiser stared at the hand.

And for the first time that night… he didn’t feel small.

He stood.

Wiped his face with one sleeve.

Turned toward the stairwell.

The figure tilted his head. “HUH- !?”