The sun bled into the sky like a dying god.
From the rooftop of School, Kanata Yukimura stood with a blood-streaked bat in one hand and ash coating his hair. His breath came slow, steady, but his eyes—his eyes were hollow.
Beside him, Mayumi Serizawa fell to her knees. Her once-immaculate uniform was ripped, her face streaked with grime and tears. The blood on her arms wasn't hers. Not all of it, at least.
She looked out across the city.
And she screamed.
"AAAAHHH!!!"
It echoed, lost in the smoke.
Below, the city of Shizuoka was burning.
Entire districts were crumbling under the weight of chaos. Skyscrapers flickered in flame like candles. Cars had piled into intersections in twisted wrecks. The smoke that curled from the ruins looked like a god's funeral pyre—black, rising endlessly into the orange sky.
It wasn't just their school.
It wasn't just the city.
"…It's the whole country," Kanata muttered.
Serizawa whipped her head toward him, her mascara running, her chest heaving. "This is your fault!"
Kanata turned, but said nothing.
She stood now, fists clenched. "Takeshi! Takeshi died because you just stood there! You—You hated him! You wanted him dead, didn't you?!"
Kanata's expression didn't change.
"You hated that I chose him. You hated that he had me when you couldn't even—"
"Stop." Kanata's voice was low. Sharp.
She faltered.
He turned to her, his eyes dark. "Maybe he was your boyfriend, Serizawa…"
A pause.
"...but first, he was my best friend."
The silence that followed crushed even the screams below.
Kanata dropped his bat beside the barricaded door. He grabbed the steel bench they'd jammed in place and slowly began to push it aside.
Serizawa watched him, confused.
"What are you doing?! You'll let them in!"
Kanata didn't stop. "They're not coming yet. Not from here."
He pointed skyward.
Far above the burning city, the sky rumbled.
A black military helicopter buzzed through the air, dipping in a sharp motion. Its silhouette was angular, unfamiliar—not JSDF.
"Helicopter…?" Serizawa blinked, her tears still clinging to her lashes. "We're saved…!"
"No," Kanata said, eyes narrowing.
The helicopter didn't stop.
Didn't descend.
It vanished into the smoky horizon.
Kanata clenched his jaw. "They weren't looking to help us."
Serizawa's throat tightened. "What… do you mean?"
"I mean," he muttered, "...this isn't just here. It's not just our school . Not just Shizuoka."
He looked down at the blazing neighborhoods, the people running, the monsters feasting.
"This is all of Japan. Maybe the whole world."
Serizawa backed away. "No… no, that's not true. This—this is just a nightmare—!"
Kanata said nothing.
Then Serizawa froze.
"My mother…" Her voice cracked. "She—she teaches at Misora Girls' School… if the outbreak reached that far—!"
She stumbled backward, shaking. "She's all I have…! I have to find her!"
Kanata looked down at his own hands. Blood clung to his fingertips like guilt.
Yuka.
His older sister.
His only living family.
She was a beat cop. Tough as nails. Smarter than him. Stronger. The only one who had raised him when their parents died in that train crash. The only one who had ever truly protected him.
Now, he didn't even know if she was alive.
His heart twisted.
"I have to find her," he said, more to himself than anyone.
Serizawa looked at him. "Yuka, right? Your sister?"
He nodded once. "She's a cop. If anyone's still alive out there, it's her."
Serizawa hugged herself. "So what now? We just… leave?"
Kanata looked out toward the stairwell, his eyes scanning for movement. "Staying here's not an option. We'll starve. Or they'll climb. Or worse."
"We don't have weapons—"
He picked up his bat again, testing the weight.
"I have this," he said. "And I've got resolve."
Serizawa looked at him with disbelief. "You think that's enough?"
Kanata smiled bitterly. "It has to be."
A sudden gust of wind swept across the rooftop, carrying with it the foul stench of burning flesh and gasoline. Somewhere, a siren screamed… and cut off halfway.
Kanata exhaled.
"We wait here," he said, pacing back toward the edge. "Just till the sun goes down. They're more active in daylight. Then we move."
"To where?"
"Misora Girls' School first," he said. "We find your mother. Then we search for my sister."
Serizawa blinked. "Why… why would you help me?"
Kanata turned toward her. "Because Takeshi asked me to."
She winced.
"…And because," he added, voice lowering, "you're not just some girl I once liked. You're a person. A survivor. And right now… that's rare."
They stood in silence, letting the weight of everything fall around them.
Far below, a massive explosion erupted near the train station.
The sky dimmed to deep crimson.
Kanata gripped the bat tighter, his knuckles white.
No matter what, he swore in that moment.
He'd tear through hell itself.
He would survive.
Not for glory.
Not for revenge.
But to protect the only family he had left.
And maybe…
…just maybe…
To find something worth living for in a world where the dead ruled the streets.
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To be continued