Shadow World, Present

  The darkness stretches out in every direction.

  "It's so dark in here,” Niche says. He can’t tell which direction he’s facing. “My eyes aren't even adjusting."

  "Darker than I thought it would be," Raizen admits.

  Niche lights a small flame in his palm. It pushes back maybe three feet of darkness before the rest swallows it whole.

  "This doesn't even help that much."

  "You know you can illuminate your whole body. That's something you’re capable of, as a sun bearer."

  "You still haven't explained what ‘sun bearer’ means." Niche reaches into his coat pocket and pulls out the book. "But no. I'm not planning on exploring this place. I came here for a different reason."

  He holds the flame under the book, keeping it close until the heat loosens the pages and they start to unfold.

  "Day 14 of my cycle,” Niche begins reading. “I've discovered the truth about—"

  A portal tears open behind him.

  "You know," a man says, stepping through it, "this world is not your own shadow. It's the shadow of the world. Meaning anyone who can create a portal to this inverse world can access it."

  Niche turns around. "Who are you?"

  "Jupiter. But you can call me Boss. Everyone does."

  "I’m guessing you’re here for me. So what do you want?"

  "I want you to do the merging."

  "I don't know what that means."

  Boss looks at him for a second. "You really don't, do you?" He sighs. "Chances you agree anyway? Let's see... 43%?"

  Niche's head goes fuzzy.

  He bites his tongue hard. The pain snaps him out of it.

  Why did I just want to agree with this stranger?

  "Nice try," Niche says, not fully understanding what he's resisting.

  "You say that like you know what I'm doing." Boss tilts his head. "But you don't even know who you are, do you?"

  "I know enough."

  "Do you? Then why are you in my shadow realm, reading a dead man's book?"

  Niche glances at the book in his hands. "It's helping me remember—"

  "Remember what? How your father died?"

  "My father?" Something cold runs through Niche.

  "Oh, you don't remember that either?" Boss laughs. "This is even better than I thought."

  Niche launches fire into the darkness without thinking.

  "Probability your flames find their target in pitch darkness? Let me help…3%."

  The fire illuminates nothing and hits nothing.

  Niche launches another wave of flames, frustrated. "How are you this? What kind of power—"

  "Simple mathematics." Boss’ voice echoes. "Think of it like flipping a coin. Normally, fifty-fifty chance of heads or tails, right? Because in half the possible universes, it lands heads. Other half, tails."

  Niche tries to track the voice, shooting fire left. Nothing.

  "My ability?” Boss continues. “I multiply universes. Say there's a million universes where you hit me, million where you miss." A chuckle from the darkness. "I just make it a billion universes where you miss, keep the million where you hit. Now you've got one in a thousand odds instead of fifty-fifty."

  Another flame, another miss.

  The flames scatter uselessly. Niche tries to rush where Boss' voice came from. His foot catches on nothing and he falls face-first.

  "Chance of tripping?” Boss continues. “Always higher than people think."

  Niche gets up and shoots fire everywhere. Nothing.

  Boss’ voice comes from behind him. "You know what your problem is? You think power solves everything. But probability doesn't care how strong you are."

  Niche's next breath catches wrong. He starts choking on nothing.

  "Probability of spontaneous airway spasm? Small, but never zero."

  Gasping, Niche drops to his knees.

  How can I beat someone who controls probability itself?

  "The probability of you figuring this out?" Boss laughs. "Let me lower that for you—"

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  No. There has to be something in this book.

  Niche flips through the pages frantically. The words blur past. Sun cycles, merging, someone named Takeshi dying.

  Who's Takeshi? Why does this feel important?

  More pages.

  Wait. The sun bearer. That term keeps appearing. Raizen kept calling me that. Am I...?

  His hands shake.

  Seven days for what? And why can't I remember? This book feels like it's about me but it's about someone else entirely—

  He flips through more, but nothing else connects.

  Who am I? Am I Takeshi? No, he died. But then who—WHY CAN'T I REMEMBER?

  Something crawls across the page. Brown. Antennae twitching.

  A roach.

  Every muscle in Niche's body locks. Pure, primal terror floods through him, and with it, everything.

  His eyes roll to the back of his head. He's unconscious before his body has time to fall.

  Niche’s Head, Present

  The boy claws at the ground, fingernails breaking, blood trailing. Niche drags him forward by one leg, calm, methodical.

  It's not the surgical room this time. They're outside, walking along an empty road that stretches out further than it should. The sky is grey and low, snow coming down without any sun behind it. Everything is colorless.

  "Stop! Please!" the boy screams.

  "What I'm doing isn't what you think I'm doing." Niche doesn't look back.

  "You're dragging me to die!"

  "This is for your own good. You're overexaggerating this."

  The younger self sees the guillotine ahead, panic rising. "That will kill me!"

  "No. It won't." Niche's voice is patient, almost gentle. "You think it will. You’re certain. But the certainty is the lie."

  "The blade is right there!"

  "Yes. And the roaches were real too. But the death you're feeling? That's not real. That's your brain misfiring, telling you that existing is dying."

  The dragging continues. The younger self's terror peaks, absolute certainty of death flooding him.

  "This feeling," Niche says, "this complete conviction that you'll die if you don't fight – this is what I live with. The brain screaming 'death' when there's only life. I got over it, and I guess I’ll have to force you to as well."

  “But–”

  "But what? There's nothing left to say."

  Niche keeps dragging him forward.

  Shadow World, Present

  Niche's eyes roll back into place, shifting from black to red. The symbol flashes for a second before settling into that bright red pattern. Jupiter's eyes have been dimming for months. Next to Niche's now, they barely register.

  "You're awfully quiet," Jupiter taunts. "Probability of giving up? Rising nicely."

  Niche creates a small flame and stares at it.

  "The probability you defeat me?" Jupiter materializes right in front of him. "Zero. Absolute zero."

  Niche looks up. The corner of his mouth twitches.

  "You're right. I can't defeat you."

  He holds the flame up. Tiny, pathetic.

  The smirk spreads into a full grin. "But I don't need to beat you." The flame casts a shadow behind him. Small, but there. "I just need to leave."

  Jupiter’s eyes widen. "Wait—"

  Niche dives backward into his own shadow. The portal opens just long enough.

  Jupiter lunges forward.

  "The probability of light in absolute darkness? 0%.” Niche says before disappearing.

  The flame dies as Niche reaches the other side. His shadow vanishes.

  Jupiter stumbles to his feet, standing alone in absolute darkness. He pounds against the shadow barrier.

  "Okay. Temporary setback. I'll just multiply the probability of—"

  Jupiter thinks.

  "Fuck. Clever little bastard," Jupiter admits in the silence.

  He tries walking. Maybe there's an edge, a boundary, something. But there's no direction in nothing. No up or down. He could be walking in circles or standing still and there's no way to tell.

  Jupiter thinks,

  Residential District Streets, Present

  Niche bursts out of his shadow onto concrete, gasping. His shadow writhes beneath him, Jupiter pounding against it from inside.

  “You remembered just in time,” Raizen congratulates from the sword.

  "No." Niche stands, still shaking from having his memories return. "I tried to abandon everyone. I tried to forget."

  "Niche—"

  "I was a coward. I wanted to run away from what I did to Ryuga. From everything." His voice hardens. "Never again."

  BANG.

  Niche rolls left on instinct. The pavement besides his head explodes.

  "Noon on the seventh day." Neptune's voice calls out from somewhere above. "Time's up, sun bearer."

  Niche turns around, spotting Neptune on a rooftop across the street, holding some kind of modified rifle.

  In an ancient civilization, there used to be a spectacular recipe, Neptune thinks. They could make fire that lasts forever. It could burn on water and still wouldn't die. Some called this ‘unquenchable fire’ because it was petroleum based, making it notoriously difficult to put out.

  What the public doesn't know is that we've been able to concoct the recipe to destroy it. We put it in a weapon and called it Sunpiercer Type-Z. Classified as a prohibited weapon under all circumstances. Punishable by death if you're caught carrying one, Neptune thinks, lining up another shot. But who's going to punish US?

  Niche watches him aim.

  The old Niche would've launched himself up there. Burned the whole building. Proved he couldn't be stopped by bullets.

  Instead, he runs.

  "Coward!" Neptune's voice follows him. "Face your judgment!"

  Niche ducks into an alley. Another shot hits the wall behind him. He turns a corner, then another. His breath comes hard. Not from exhaustion, but from fighting his own instincts.

  Kill him. Show him what a sun bearer can do.

  Another shot. Close.

  Niche spots a sewer drain. He sends a flame at the cover, liquifying it. He drops in before it's even fully gone, landing in sewage and darkness. The smell hits him immediately.

  "You can't hide forever!" Neptune’s voice is muffled now. "The merging will happen at noon regardless! I’ll make sure of it!"

  Niche checks his phone. 11:58.

  He sloshes through the tunnels. Not running anymore. Just moving. Away from Neptune. Away from the rifle. Away from everything.

  11:59.

  Above ground, he hears Neptune laughing. "You think hiding underground will save you? The sun calls from everywhere!"

  12:00.

  A melody sounds in the distance, trumpets blaring. The harmony is wrong, played in an uncomfortable minor key that makes Niche’s skin tingle.

  His eyes dart to both ends of the sewer. Nobody. But someone's going to try to force the merging. He knows it.

  Then he feels it. A pull in the air, gentle but constant, like something is dragging him upward toward the sun. He didn't know it would start on its own. Neptune told him how this worked at the beginning of all this, but he can't remember any of it.

  I've been running this whole time. And all the running ever did was make things worse. Everything I've ever done has made things worse. Every decision. Every time I thought I knew better. All I do is ruin things, and then I have to live with the guilt of it after, and then I ruin more things trying to fix the first things I ruined.

  I'm done. I'm not doing things my own way anymore.

  He closes his eyes in the sewer darkness.

  I'm not going to hurt anyone else because I wanted to do my own thing.

  Niche hears a voice.

  He braces himself.

  "Finally learned restraint, have you?"

  Niche’s eyes open.