Chapter 2: Volume 1 - Prologue

Feeling a burning pain and shock, Yahiro fell on the sand smeared ground.

Fresh blood poured out of his lungs, spreading a vivid taste of death in his mouth.

He could hear the sound of wind. It was the sound of scorching air blowing through the gaps between the steel frames of the decaying buildings.

The season is summer.

It’s the fourth summer since that tragedy.

In this ruined city, there were no traces left of the people who lived here.

Only the voice of cicadas can be heard. They continue to make sounds without resting, announcing the arrival of night.

The fierce obsession with life and the vitality of their species. Even the terrain-altering dreadful attack, or the death of all the residents of the city, was probably not a big deal for those noisy insects.

It was truly moving, and unsightly.

Yahiro thinks that, staring at the evening sky through the cracked ceiling.

A scarlet afterglow that seemed to scorch the heavens.

The reason why the memory of four years ago came back, was probably due to seeing that red sky.

The crimson rain the poured like a mist that summer, dyeing the world in the color of flames.

What reflected in his eyes was a cluster of collapsed skyscrapers.

And then the wreckage. The ashen lump of iron that was once called a train, now twisted and crushed, to the point it stopped retaining its original form.

Bridges had fallen, roads had collapsed, and even the terrain had changed, making this city feel like an unfamiliar foreign country.

The rain still continues to pour. A red rain, just like rusting iron.

There’s nothing else that moves.

There’s no living thing left anywhere.

The few million people living in this city were eaten, and vanished, not even leaving behind a corpse.

The only thing left was the 13 years old Narusawa Yahiro, clutching both of his bloodstained hands.

“Su……i……!”

Yahiro’s scream echoes pointlessly in the ruined city filled with silence.

He still remembers the warmth of his little sister’s tiny hands.

And also the innocent smile from her childhood.

However, the figure of that sister had also disappeared. Leaving behind only the fresh blood dyeing Yahiro’s entire body.

“Where are you……Sui……!”

There was no response to his screams. Only the silent, fiercely blowing winds had gained momentum.

Yahiro emerged on a high ground after climbing up the stairs buried under rubble.

A broken city that resembled a poorly made diorama. The uninhabited ruins wet with the deep crimson rain

The flames bursting up all over the urban areas lit up the early morning sky like a sunset glow.

A 『calamity』 was flying in that sky.

A shadow so gigantic that it could cover his entire field of vision.

The rainbow-colored 『monster』 swam in the sea of clouds as if drawing a circle, lording over the surface.

“I’m glad……You were still alive, Nii-sama.”

He hears a clear voice with a hint of laughter.

Accompanied by the flying 『monster』 behind her, the girl silently looks down at the shivering Yahiro.

While bathing in the pouring deep crimson rain, Narusawa Sui smiles softly.

“Or else, were you unable to die?”

It doesn’t go away. He still can’t forget them.

Those clear eyes of hers that reflected the dying world.

And also the figure of the beautiful yet sinister dragon flying around behind her──

“……tch!”

It was only for an instance that his consciousness was clouded.

Waking up with an intense indignation, Yahiro leaps into the side as if rolling.

Right above his head, the fangs of a beast fiercely grazed him. They were the fangs of a Beast with a height nearing 3 metres.

The Beast crashes into the concrete wall with excess momentum.

Taking advantage of that gap, Yahiro picks up the fallen knife and fixes his posture.

His wounds were in such serious condition that it was laughable.

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One of his lungs was crushed, and his right scapula[1] was completely smashed up.

It was at the point where his right shoulder was barely attached to his body. 

A frail human’s body was in this state just by being lightly struck by a Beast’s forelimb. Even now, an intense pain that could burn the nerves, was continuing to assault Yahiro without pause.

The Beast turned toward Yahiro while gnawing the fragments of concrete.

A stench like that of burning sulfur irritates Yahiro’s nose.

It was a dog shaped Beast with a jet black body. If it were the bunch from the army who encountered it, they would’ve been overjoyed and given it over the top names like Black Dog or Hellhound.

However, Yahiro held no interest in the names of Beasts.

A Beast is a Beast. If it attacks, you just have to exterminate it.

The black Beast lowers its posture while breathing out a sulfur-stinking air.

A huge body rivaling that of a bison. A hound’s agility and intelligence. The Beast, whose astounding fighting ability is far removed from the natural providence, is not an opponent a flesh and blood human should oppose.

It seems like the lookouts who were accompanying Yahiro, were already either killed or ran away.

They were the guys who looked down on Yahiro in contempt without hiding it because he was Japanese. Even if they survived, he couldn’t count on their support.

Right now, Yahiro was injured so badly that it was a wonder he could still move, and the only weapon he had was a knife.

It won’t be a problem, he said while raising the ends of his lips.

Yahiro pressed the knife into his own wounds, and let the fresh blood cling to the blade.

The black Beast attacks Yahiro while howling.

At the same time, Yahiro too dashes towards the beast.

The two silhouettes intersect in the twilight.

The Beast tried to thrust his giant fangs into Yahiro’s left arm.

However, its attack came to a halt at that point.

Yahiro’s arms are stopping the Beast’s jaw that could easily bite through concrete. The fresh blood sticking to his skin hardened like an armor and defended him from the Beast’s fangs.

By that time, he had already switched the knife to his right hand.

“Come on, it’s time for revenge……!”

While whispering as if calling out to the bloodstained blade, Yahiru stabbed the knife into the Beast’s flank.

With a blade length just short of 15 centimetres, the knife was quite thin and unreliable compared to the huge body of the Beast. It could barely pierce through its tough skin when stabbed all the way to the base.

However, the result it had on the Beast’s body was dramatic. 

Cracks form all over the jet black body, with the wound gouged out by the knife as the center.

The cracks expanded all over the body of the Beast via its blood vessels. It was as if destruction itself was spreading instead of the poison mixed with the blood──

The Beast raised an anguished howl. A gleam of anger and hatred dwelled in the pair of eyes glaring at Yahiro.

However, its resistance only went that far.

The limbs covered in cracks could no longer support the huge jet black body, and broke like a brittle plaster figure.

Eventually, the Beast’s whole body breaks apart, and crumbles down in the spot after turning into ashes.

Yahiro stared at that with indifference. 

He put the knife which had served its purpose back into the sheath, and casually touched his right shoulder, which was covered in blood.

The crushed lung, smashed up shoulder, and the torn off right arm had already finished regenerating.

There were no scars left. The only signs of his injury left were the bloodstains on his ripped clothes.

A part of the arm that was almost torn off was still there, but it regenerated quickly.

But that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t have regenerated if the arm was completely gone.

Yahiro will not die. He cannot die.

Even if he gets an injury that can cause instant death, or loses more than half of his body, his cursed flesh won’t allow him to die, and will reconstruct all his internal organs and revive him.

That’s the reason why on that rainy day 4 years ago, Yahiro was the only survivor in that ruined city.

Yahiro exits the building after retrieving the intended item.

In the middle of twilight, what spread beyond the horizon was the abandoned, uninhabited ruined city.

A giant tower, which was smashed through the middle, was exposing its fossil-like pitiful figure.

It was the steel tower that was once known as the Tokyo Skytree.

The season is summer.

It is the fourth summer since the ethnic group of people known as Japanese ceased to exist.

Even now, Yahiro continues to wander around this city.

[1] One of a pair of triangular bones at the back of the shoulde

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