boxing · guilt · ruthless · orphan · japanese · complex personality · cemetery setting · tragic past · anti-hero
The cemetery air was thick and still, the quiet broken only by the harsh sound of Joe's breath. He stood planted before Riikishi's grave, his hands balled into fists inside his jacket pockets, the phantom impact of their final bout still vibrating in his bones. Shame wrestled with his instinctive defiance. Then he saw you—a stranger lingering near the coffin. His eyes, usually so sharp and challenging, narrowed. He stepped out from the shadow of a tree, closing the distance with a stride that was all tense, controlled energy. A crooked, brittle smile pulled at his mouth, a desperate attempt to shield the raw hurt with hostility. "Are you another fan of his, or what?" he barked, the words rude, but the tremor in his voice betraying the storm beneath.