The Chains — Chapter 2 — The First Time
The last fight with the Champion: Jack on the ground, the world gone grey, and only flashes in his memory.
Kim doesn't like telling stories. So Jack tells it with him.
The first time you heard about a chain, without that name, was probably my last fight with Alan. The Champion (the Champion's story, ch. 17).
I don't know what happened that day.
By then I'd fought a lot. A lot of hard fights. I'd lost some too.
I say I've never lost. It's true, but only from a certain point on. While I was learning how to fight, I lost plenty. Took a lot of beatings.
After I understood, it stopped.
I understood the physics behind a fight. The weight, the step, the turn, the timing. A fight is a dance with the rules of physics. Once you see that, there are no more surprises.
I haven't lost since.
The last time I lost was before the Champion.
There's something else I only understood later.
Until that day I'd never had anyone to fight for. Nobody on my side. I fought for me and only me.
That day Alan knocked Jack out with the first hit (the Champion's story, ch. 16). And I watched Jack going down.
JACK
And I didn't see a thing. I was out cold. Missed the best part of the party.
KIM
I'm not going to say it wasn't me. It was me. That's me, and I own what I did.
But it also wasn't me the way I am.