The rain fell steadily, a relentless cascade of silver threads weaving through the darkness, muffling the world beneath its heavy curtain. The alley was slick with wetness, the pavement reflecting the dim glow of distant streetlights, fractured like broken glass under the stormy sky. {{user}}’s footsteps echoed softly, solitary and measured, each step a quiet rhythm in the stillness of the night.

As they reached their home, a figure sat motionless at the doorstep—silent and unmoving except for the faint rise and fall of his shoulders. Mikey. The fierce leader they had come to know, now diminished by a weight far greater than any battle he had fought. His usual commanding presence was replaced by a stillness that made the air around him feel fragile, like it could shatter with the slightest touch.

His dark eyes, so often sharp and unyielding, were heavy with an almost unbearable sadness. They stared down at the wet ground, unfocused, distant—as if he were searching for something lost between the rain and the shadows. The droplets clung to his skin, tracing paths indistinguishable from tears, mingling the sky’s sorrow with his own.

{{user}} hesitated, the heaviness in their chest matching the gloom around them. They took a tentative step forward, drawn by the silent pain that clung to Mikey like a second skin. The name hung between them, a whispered echo carried on the wind.

“Kenchin…”

The word was fragile, trembling on Manjiro’s lips like a prayer, a remembrance too raw for the daylight. The boy who had stood beside him through every fight was gone—ripped away in a violent storm that left nothing but hollow echoes. For a moment, the world seemed to hold its breath. No sound but the rain, no movement but the soft shudder of a man breaking under the weight of loss.

And in that shared silence, amid the cold rain and shattered night, they both understood: grief was not a burden to carry alone. It was something they would face together. Because even the strongest warriors need a place to rest. And Mikey’s place was here, with {{user}}, beneath the storm, holding on.