__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Erina Nakiri's eyes flickered in shock as she stared at Saeko Busujima.
She couldn't believe what she had just heard.
"What do you mean by that?" Erina demanded anxiously. "What's this nonsense about lives being cheap, monsters and zombies roaming around? What are you even talking about?"
Saeko's voice was calm, steady. "It's not nonsense. It's the truth—the future, as real as it gets."
Erina raised an eyebrow. "So you're saying… you can see the future?"
"No," Saeko corrected, her expression serious. "To be precise, I came back from the future. Just yesterday."
One Day Earlier
Tokonosu City, Fujimi Private Academy.
As the captain of the kendo club, Saeko Busujima followed her usual routine: staying after school, practicing with her blade, and guiding the juniors who looked up to her.
When training was done, she took a long shower, washing away sweat and fatigue, then left the school grounds.
On the way home, she felt it—faint, but unmistakable. Someone was following her.
Rather than fear, a strange thrill stirred inside her. She tightened her grip on the wooden sword in her hand and deliberately turned into a deserted side street.
No one noticed the flash in her eyes as she did so—excitement, exhilaration, and something darker. A bloodthirsty glint.
Moments later, another figure stepped into the narrow alley.
A weary, middle-aged man in business attire. A salaryman.
He'd been trailing her the whole way. And now, with no one around, he closed the distance in a rush.
Saeko stopped and turned, her eyes narrowing.
"Mister, why are you following me?"
The man didn't reply. His greedy gaze swept over her body, inch by inch.
The feeling that crept over Saeko was bizarre, unsettling.
It wasn't lust she sensed from him—it was hunger.
The way he looked at her… it wasn't the way a man looked at a beautiful woman. It was the way someone stared at a sizzling steak. At a roasted chicken, fresh out of the oven.
Not the gaze of a predator chasing desire.
The gaze of a human staring at food.
A chill ran down her spine. This man was different—completely different from the lecherous fools she'd brushed off before.
Without hesitation, she slid her wooden sword free and leveled it at him.
The man chuckled at the sight, his expression openly mocking.
Then he moved.
Fast.
"Too fast…" Saeko thought, startled. He wasn't just quick—his speed outstripped even professional sprinters. In the blink of an eye, he was right in front of her.
But her body reacted before her mind could. Muscle memory, honed through countless hours of kendo. Her wooden sword shot forward in a sharp thrust, aiming straight for his throat.
Crack!
The strike was perfect. The throat was the most fragile part of the human body. Even with just a wooden blade, a hit like that should have crushed it. It should have killed him instantly.
She normally wouldn't go this far—this was a civilized society, after all, and she wasn't about to throw away her future over some creep.
But something about this man… the pressure he gave off was suffocating, unlike anything she had ever felt. Her instincts screamed that holding back meant death. So she struck without hesitation.
And then, the impossible happened.
Her thrust landed squarely, yet… nothing.
The man's throat didn't shatter. He didn't even flinch. Instead, the wooden blade splintered against him, exploding into useless fragments.
His throat felt like iron.
And then his hand shot out, clamping around Saeko's neck, lifting her effortlessly into the air.
The first words he spoke were chilling.
"I'm going to eat you."
His jaws yawned open wide, and in the next instant, his teeth sank deep into her shoulder. Flesh tore away in one savage bite.
The agony was unbearable. Saeko screamed, a raw, piercing cry of pain.
But the man—the creature—looked euphoric, his eyes glowing blood-red as he devoured her.
And then, in that moment of terror, Saeko remembered.
There was an urban legend in Japan.
A legend of beings called ghouls. Monsters indistinguishable from humans, yet unable to consume ordinary food. Their only nourishment was one thing—human flesh.
Saeko had always dismissed it as a myth. But here it was. A ghoul, real and undeniable. And she was its prey.
She knew she would die here.
Die and be eaten alive.
Fear, panic, despair—they surged through her all at once, crushing her chest like a vice.
Her pupils shrank to pinpoints. Her mind reeled from the shock, her vision blurring.
And then, it came.
An illusion—or maybe something more.
Zombies. Endless hordes of zombies.
She saw Tokonosu City, just days later, drowning in a sea of the undead. Tokyo falling. All of Japan falling. Exorcists, onmyoji, even monsters themselves being consumed.
Demons turned into zombies, roaming the land. Civilization shattered, reduced to hell on earth.
She lived through it—again and again. Surviving, only to be broken down, until finally, she was torn apart by a monstrous zombie demon.
But when she opened her eyes again… she was back.
A smaller ghoul loomed over her, gnawing at her like a meal.
It wasn't unfamiliar.
She had lived this once already.
Last time, she had been saved—investigators hunting ghouls had driven the creature away and rushed her to a hospital. By sheer chance, she survived… and in doing so, missed the outbreak of the zombie crisis in Tokonosu.
But this time was different.
Saeko wasn't waiting for anyone to save her.
She had cut down countless zombie demons in that nightmare future. Compared to them, this little ghoul wasn't even worth mentioning.
Not even worth a breath.
And as she stared down the monster feasting on her, her eyes grew cold.
The ghoul suddenly froze, its feast interrupted.
"..."
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________