Echo

As my eyes slowly adjusted and the blur faded, I got a clearer look at the figure hovering over me. And it definitely wasn't Thanaia.

"Aaaarg!" I shouted, scrambling backward.

"Arrg!" the figure screamed back, equally startled.

I shot up into a sitting position while the glowing form scrambled away from me, both of us staring at each other in mutual terror. My heart was hammering against my ribs as I tried to process what I was seeing.

It looked human, sort of.

Translucent, like looking at someone through frosted glass. Young, maybe around my age.

"W-Who are you?" I stammered.

"Why did you scare me like that?" the figure snapped, one translucent hand pressed against its chest as it breathed hard.

I just sat there frozen, my mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water. But no sound came out of it. 

My finger trembled as I pointed at the glowing apparition, my brain completely failing to process what I was seeing.

The figure caught sight of my pointing finger and immediately hugged itself protectively, shoulders hunching inward.

"A-Are the wolves gone?" it stammered, glancing around the cave with wide, terrified eyes. 

"Please tell me they're gone. I can still feel their—"

It shivered violently, unable to finish the sentence.

I was baffled. 

Not because there was a talking ghostly figure in front of me, well, honestly, after meeting a death goddess and getting chased by six-legged nightmare wolves, that barely registered on my weird-shit meter anymore. What threw me was everything else.

The figure's face... it looked exactly like mine. 

Same messy black hair, same dark eyes, same slightly crooked nose I'd broken falling off my bike when I was ten. 

Even the clothes were identical, the same ratty t-shirt and jeans I'd been wearing during my stream, down to the small tear in the knee.

It was like looking at myself in a funhouse mirror, except this version was see-through and glowing.

"Are you..." The words blurted out before I could stop them, puzzle pieces clicking together in my head.

But before I could finish the question, something appeared in the air between us.

A translucent blue window materialized in front of me, text scrolling across its surface like something straight out of an RPG.

{STATUS WINDOW}

Name: Kaito Kurokawa
Level: 1
Health: 100/100
Mana: 50/50
Stats:
STR: 10
AGI: 10
VIT: 10
LUK: 10
INT: 10
Free Stat Points: 0
Class: Tethered
Abilities:
Active: [LOCKED]
Passive: Death Echo, Mirror Step
Echo 1: Unnamed
Echo Stats:
Level: 1
STR: 8
AGI: 8
VIT: 8
LUK: 8
INT: 8
Energy: 20/20
Available Slots: 6

At the bottom of the window, a small message appeared in an elegant script...

"Try not to die again so soon."
-T

I stared at the floating display, my brain trying to process what I was seeing. It looked like every video game status screen I'd ever encountered, except this one was apparently mine. And that snarky little message at the bottom...

"Thanaia," I muttered under my breath. 

Even in whatever twisted isekai world she'd dumped me in, the goddess couldn't resist getting the last word.

The translucent figure – my "Echo," apparently – was staring at the same window with wide, confused eyes.

"What... what is this thing?" it asked, its voice a perfect mirror of my own.

I stared at the floating window, watching the blue text flicker in the dim cave light. 

'I died. I actually fucking died again.'

The thought hit me like a sledgehammer to the chest. 

Heart attack from exhaustion, just like Thanaia said. And been dumped into this nightmare world where cultists wanted to sacrifice me and giant wolves technically ate me.

My breathing got shallow.

'This isn't some cool adventure. I'm trapped here while Yuki...'

The image of my sister coming home from school, calling my name... It made my stomach lurch. She'd be alone. Completely alone. All those years of taking care of her, making sure she had food and clothes and help with homework, and now she'd wake up tomorrow in an empty apartment with no one.

'She's going to think I abandoned her.'

I pressed my palms against my temples, trying to stop the spiral of panic. 

My echo – this ghostly version of myself – was watching me with the exact expression I probably had when those wolves jumped me. Wide eyes, shallow breathing.

Get it together, Kaito.

I forced myself to take a deeper breath, then looked at my echo again. Then back at the status screen floating between us.

"What are my abilities?" I asked, partly to distract myself from the growing panic, partly because I actually needed to know. "Death Echo? Mirror Step?"

Just as the words escaped my mouth, the window in front of me shifted, the text rearranging itself to display new information.

{ABILITY DESCRIPTIONS}

[Death Echo (Passive)]
Upon death, creates an Echo of the user's consciousness and memories at the moment of demise. 

Mirror Step (Passive)
When fighting alongside an Echo, movements become perfectly synchronized. User and Echo can execute flawless combination attacks and coordinated maneuvers as if sharing a single mind. Effectiveness increases with Echo's energy level.

The translucent figure stepped closer, peering at the floating text with the same mixture of confusion and curiosity.

"So..." it said. "This thing created me when you died?"

I stared at the description, then at my ghostly doppelganger.

'It has my memories and personality from the moment of death.'

Which explained why it looked just as terrified and confused as I felt. It was me, but specifically the version of me that got mauled by nightmare wolves in a cave.

"Apparently," I muttered, still trying to wrap my head around it all. 

The Echo nodded slowly.

I stared at the floating window for a long minute, trying to process everything. Though the Echo beside me kept darting nervous glances around the cave, muttering under its breath.

"We should move," it whispered, voice tight with anxiety. "They could come back. The wolves, I mean. I think... I think I can still hear them somewhere."

Its translucent form kept shifting, like it couldn't stay still. 

Then a deep rumble echoed through the cave system.

I jerked upright, adrenaline spiking through my system. 

"Argh!"

The Echo let out a strangled scream and immediately dove behind me, pressing its face between my shoulder blades. I could feel the cold emanating from its ghostly form, like standing next to an open freezer.

"Let's get out! Let's get out NOW!" it shrieked, voice muffled against my back.

I held my breath, listening. The sound faded into silence, probably just rocks settling or water dripping somewhere deeper in the cave system. 

"It's fine," I breathed, though my heart was still hammering. "Nothing's there."

But the Echo was right.

We needed to get the hell out of this place before something else decided to make us dinner. I could think about status windows and magical abilities later. 

Right now, priority one was getting out of this nightmare cave.

I stood up, brushing dust off my jeans, and looked around for any hint of which direction might lead to an exit. "Come on. Let's find a way out of this shithole."

The Echo peeled itself away from my back, still glancing around nervously.

"Which way? I don't... I can't remember how we got here."

"We gotta make a way."

Then we started moving through the tunnels, me leading the way while my ghostly double walked behind me. Every few minutes, the Echo would let out a sharp gasp or grab at my arm.

"Not that way!" it would whisper urgently. "I hear something down there."

"Are you sure?"

"I... maybe? I don't know, it just feels wrong."

After what felt like hours of wandering through the maze-like cave system, following whatever passages felt less ominous and avoiding the ones that made my Echo panic, we finally saw it...

A faint glow of natural light filtering down from somewhere above.

"There," I pointed at the light. "That's got to be the way out."

The tunnel sloped upward, and with each step, the light grew stronger. 

Real sunlight, not the sickly glow of torches or ritual candles. By the time we reached the cave mouth, I was practically running toward it.

We stumbled out into daylight, and I had to shield my eyes against the sudden brightness. Fresh air hit my lungs, carrying the smell of grass and trees instead of damp stone and whatever the hell those cultists had been burning.

I was out. 

Finally fucking out of that cave.