(Takashi's Isolated Survival)
Takashi Yamazaki opened his eyes to a world of absolute pandemonium. He was lying in the middle of what had been his high school, now a smoking, demolished landscape. The chaos was immediate and overwhelming: the sounds of survivors crying, the crackle of fires burning everywhere, and the frantic movement of terrified people running and struggling to escape the ruins. Takashi was in a state of profound shock, his brilliant, logical mind unable to immediately compute the scale of the horror.
"What the hell is all of this?" Takashi murmured, his voice hoarse. He tried to force the impossible reality into a logical framework. "Am I dreaming? No… This is solid. This is real! It's reality!" The sheer physical presence of the destruction, the heat, the stench, the overwhelming pressure of disaster, forced acceptance.
As Takashi tried to sit up and assess his surroundings, a blinding, searing pain ripped through his right hand. He looked down and immediately identified the source of the agony: a thick, jagged piece of metal rod—rebar—had been driven completely through the palm of his hand, pinning him to the wreckage.
"Aughhh!" he screamed, his breath hitching. "Damn! My hand! I need to pull it up as soon as possible!"
Survival overrode the pain reflex. Takashi gripped the rod with his uninjured left hand, gritting his teeth. He began the agonizing, friction-filled task of pulling his hand free from the impaling metal. The sound of tearing flesh was sickeningly loud in his own ears, and the pain was a white-hot, singular sensation that threatened to consume him. He continued to pull, his screaming a ragged, involuntary noise—"aughhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Aguhhhhhhh! Ahhhhhh!"—until his hand was finally separated from the rod.
His right hand was a ruin, bleeding profusely. With methodical urgency, Takashi tore a piece of his own clothes—a strip of his shirt—and quickly wrapped it around the deep, pumping wound, binding it tightly to stem the flow of blood.
Only then did he manage to stand, leaning heavily against a fractured column. The world swam for a moment, but his vision stabilized. He looked out at the scene of devastation, and his gaze was instantly drawn to the towering, grotesque shape of the creature that had landed near the school.
"Whaaat!" Takashi whispered, genuine intellectual astonishment momentarily replacing his terror. "I can't believe in my eyes. What is this creature? Is that a monster? Or a dragon?" He instantly began searching his memory, trying to classify the multi-headed, six-armed beast.
His logical assessment was quickly sidelined by his human concern. "And where are Nitsuki and Sami? Are they good? I hope so, they are!" The danger was too high to start searching now; the monstrous creature, still busy surveying the wreckage, posed an immediate, lethal threat. "Right now, I can't look for them. I need to escape from here first!"
A silent promise was made to his friends, a vow whispered in the chaos: "Nitsuki... Sami... Please stay alive."
Moving with the calculated stealth of a seasoned survivor, Takashi utilized the shadows and wreckage to hide his movements. He crept away from the center of the disaster, keeping his wounded hand tight against his body, and finally slipped away through the relative quiet of the school's back perimeter, disappearing into the chaotic, broken streets of Tokyo.
*Scene shifts to Nitsuki and Sami*
Nitsuki and Sami walked the ruined roads, every step cementing the scale of the apocalypse. The path was now a graveyard—cars smashed beyond recognition, the road surface fractured and stained crimson, and the still, heartbreaking forms of the dead lying everywhere. The air was a constant mix of smoke, dust, and metallic decay.
Sami looked around at the horrific tableau, her expression a mix of sorrow and mounting anger. "How brutally they got killed! Ahh, why is this all happening?"
Nitsuki, having already processed the ultimate grief of his own family's loss, was now functioning on pure, cold necessity. "I don't know," he said, his voice flat. "But we have to survive through all this. And we must find the answers to every question." The survival instinct had transformed into a drive for answers, a demand for accountability.
They continued their desolate walk until Sami suddenly froze. Her eyes locked onto something ahead, and her body tensed with immediate dread. Nitsuki followed her gaze, his heart sinking with profound recognition of the impending disaster.
They had reached her neighborhood. Half of Sami's house had been completely vaporized, demolished by a precise, devastating force. The other half was a hollow shell, broken and ruined.
"No way..." Nitsuki whispered, the devastation mirroring his own.
Sami didn't hesitate. She ran, sprinting toward the wreckage of her home, Nitsuki trailing close behind. She plunged into the ruin, navigating the shattered remains of her life. In the smoldering debris and active flames, she saw the tragic, final sight of her father: his body, half-burned, lay lifelessly in the wreckage.
Nitsuki arrived right behind her, his own devastation reignited by her loss. He stared at the scene, his features contorting in a shared, profound sorrow.
Sami stood frozen over her father's body, her eyes streaming with tears, yet her face remained eerily silent, controlled by a terrible shock. "So, this is the reality," she whispered, the words barely audible. "My father is dead."
Her gaze then fell to another spot in the ruined yard. The horror intensified, becoming grotesquely absolute. She saw her mother's severed head resting on the cracked earth, and the rest of her body scattered brutally around it.
At that sight, Sami's control fractured completely. She collapsed to the ground, a silent, violent trembling seizing her entire body. Nitsuki was there instantly. Seeing her absolute breakdown, he immediately went to her, sinking down in front of her, and pulled her into a tight, protective embrace.
"Cry. Cry as much as you want," Nitsuki commanded gently, offering the only solace he could.
Sami sobbed uncontrollably, the grief a raw, agonizing sound muffled against his shoulder. "It's hard to accept that," she choked out.
Nitsuki held her until her racking sobs subsided, his own earlier grief making him the perfect anchor. He pulled back slightly, looking her in the eyes, his determination absolute.
"Sami," he said, his voice firm and steady. "For them, let's survive. Let's find all the mystery behind all of these things. That is the only thing we can do for them now."
Sami slowly calmed, standing up. She was still trembling, but the familiar strength returned to her gaze, now focused and hardened by a new, shared purpose. "Yeah," she agreed, taking a shaky breath. "You might be right... Nitsuki, Let's solve it together!"
Nitsuki took a deep, deliberate breath, the cold air filling his lungs. "Sure... At first, let's go and find Takashi. He's the only one left."
"I really hope that he is alive," Sami said, the hope tenuous but necessary.
They stepped out of the ruins of Sami's house, their faces set against the desolate, red-tinged sky. As they began walking, they spotted a figure—a lone, surviving person—a little distance away.
"Look at there," Nitsuki murmured, pointing. "Isn't there someone?"
Sami squinted. "Yeah, maybe. Let's check it out."
They moved forward cautiously, hoping to find another survivor, a source of information. But as they approached, a colossal shadow began to emerge and rapidly grow behind the lone figure. The shadow was immense, moving with silent, predatory speed. Nitsuki and Sami stopped, transfixed with rising horror. As the shadow took shape, they recognized the terrifying silhouette: it was yet another one of the weird, dragon-like creatures—a Soul Reaper.
"Wait, wait..." Nitsuki whispered, his previous terror flooding back. "Another one!"
The creature locked its glowing eyes onto the nearby person. The victim, spotting the monster at the last possible moment, began screaming, their mind snapping under the pressure of the overwhelming terror. As they screamed, Nitsuki and Sami witnessed the impossible, dreadful mechanism of the creature: the person's essence, their soul, was pulled out as a faint, wispy light from their eyes and absorbed directly into the creature's gaping maw. Drained of life and consciousness, the body slumped. The Soul Reaper then casually lifted its massive foot and crushed the person's head, a sickening sound of finality.
The creature's gaze then rotated, its yellow eyes instantly fixing on the two witnesses—Nitsuki and Sami.
Nitsuki looked at Sami, the knowledge of their imminent, terrifying doom flooding his mind.
"We f**ked up!" he exclaimed, the terror sharp and undeniable.