"Delta Base to Raven Wing. Do you copy? Over."
"Raven Wing here. Go ahead, Delta."
"We've got a breach on the perimeter. Intel retrieval is in progress—casualties are heavy. I repeat, heavy. Tactical evac has failed. Extraction Route Charlie is our only remaining option. Alpha Zero-One is still inside the red zone. Can you confirm? Over."
"Confirmed. Alpha Zero-One is still active. We're not pulling out without him. Initiating recon data upload to Intelligence Hub. Stand by. Out."
The comm line cut to silence, the final click echoing through the static like the sound of a closing door.
---
---
Whup-whup-whup.
The sound of helicopter blades slicing the air. Fading fast.
Then—gunfire. A torrent. No rhythm, no restraint. Just chaos, screaming through steel barrels.
---
Chik-chik.
The sharp metallic snap of the rifle being chambered sliced through the silence like a warning bell. Daisuke's breath came in shallow clouds, misting the air in the dying light of dusk. The cold bit into his skin, but it wasn't what made his hands tremble.
It was fear.
It was guilt.
It was knowing what came next.
His eyes flicked to Reiji—wide, desperate, searching for something, anything, that could stop time.
"DAISUKE!!"
The scream tore across the field.
BANG.
A burst of light.
Then, nothing but white.
-----
"No matter what happens..."
Reiji's voice was barely a breath, a fragile promise spoken into the quiet. His lips brushed against her hair as he pulled her closer beneath the silk sheets, holding her like the world was ending.
Emilia Kaede trembled in his arms, her breath catching against his neck like the beginning of a sob she refused to let fall. The room was still, suspended in the kind of silence that knew loss before it arrived.
"...I'll come back to you. Even if it costs me everything."
She didn't answer.
She couldn't.
Her fingers clenched against his chest, clutching fabric and flesh like she could anchor him here—keep him from being taken by the war, the mission, the fate neither of them could outrun.
Tears welled, but didn't fall.
Not yet.
Her heart had memorized that vow long before he ever spoke it aloud.
And that was the cruelest part.
Because deep down, she already knew—
Some promises aren't made to be kept.
-----
"MEDIC! MEDIC!!"
The scream tore across the battlefield, raw and cracking with desperation. Boots slammed into the frozen earth, pounding like war drums, like a heart racing toward collapse.
"Hey! HEY! Stay with me—Reiji!! REIJI!! Don't you dare close your eyes!"
His voice shattered against the wind. Panic. Rage. Helplessness. It all bled into every word.
Reiji's world tilted sideways. Muffled cries rang in his ears like they were underwater. His vision—splintered. Shapes blurred. Lights flickered.
Snowflakes fell like ash.
And the snow—white, endless snow—was painted with blood.
His blood.
Crimson spread like a wound across the world.
"Come on! COME ON!!" Someone was sobbing now. Maybe it was Daisuke. Maybe it was all of them.
And then—
"ARATA!!!"
Time ruptured.
His hand slipped free.
The silver ring, once wrapped around his finger like a promise, like a future—
—fell.
Tumbling through the frozen air, slow, weightless, cruelly graceful.
It caught the last dying glint of sunlight—
—and hit the ground with a sound too soft for how loud the pain was.
It rolled.
Spun.
Stopped.
Painted in red.
And that tiny, broken circle gleamed in the snow like a tombstone.
-----
Flash.
Flowers.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
---
Fractured shadows.
Voices that shouldn't be here.
A face—familiar but wrong.
Half-lit. Half-forgotten.
"Damn it, Reiji..."
Static warping the air, sharp as glass.
"You weren't supposed to go first."
"I-I'm sorry... I didn't know... I didn't know it would end like this... I swear to you, I'll protect her. I'll protect Emilia, for you. At all costs."
---
Glitch.
A jolt.
He's speaking again.
Or is he?
It's all starting to blur.
"Brought you flowers, man. Thought they might... light up the room."
"I miss you, Reiji... God, I—I just—"
"You always carried us through. Always led the way. Now what? What am I supposed to do now? Crawl? Crawl through this broken place, pretending I've got any strength left?"
Breathing shallow.
The world flickering like a dying bulb.
"She... she doesn't say it, but I can see it in her eyes. She still asks for you. It's like... her silence? It's louder than anything. I can't even tell her... that it's gonna be okay."
"Please, Reiji. I don't know how much longer I can lie to her. I don't know what to say to make this right."
---
Crackle.
The air thickens.
A tremor beneath every word.
"You promised her, Reiji. You promised you'd come back. So why the hell... why the hell am I the one left holding onto your word?"
"I can't keep doing this, Reiji. I can't keep pretending everything is fine."
A breath broken in the dark.
"You have no idea what it feels like every time she asks for you... asking if you're coming back. Asking me... 'When?' When, Daisuke? When?"
---
Thump.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
"I talk to your grave that doesn't exist."
"I scream at skies that don't hear me. That don't care."
Hands trembling, clenched around nothing.
"And still, every damn time... I come here... hoping. Hoping that you'll just... wake up and squeeze my hand back."
"Come back, Reiji. Come back to me. To us."
---
Silence.
But silence is just another sound now.
A scream that doesn't make a sound.
---
"You bastard..."
Broken, but not hate.
Not hate, no. Just... pure, aching longing.
"I need you to wake up, Reiji. Not for her. Not for this godforsaken mission. For me."
---
A pause.
Not emptiness.
But the kind of waiting that feels like drowning.
Then—
A breath. Too tight. Too fragile.
"I'm getting you out of here, Reiji!"
"You're not staying in this... this place. Not like this. Wake up!"
A last, desperate plea—
"Please! Please, wake up!"
---
Then...
A whisper. So quiet, it might've been a thought lost to the wind.
"Find the door, Reiji. Wherever you are. Tear it off its hinges if you have to. Get out of there. Get back to us. We need you."
---
"I can't leave you here, man. I just... I can't. It's too dangerous. But I... I can't let you stay like this!"
"I can't..."
A sob caught in the throat.
"Please! Wake up. Wake up for her, for me, for all of us!"
"I'll protect her. I promised you. I'll keep her safe, just like I promised!"
"You're alive, Reiji. I know you are! You can't leave us now. We're still here. We're still waiting!"
---
A flash of White
"No matter what happens..."
Her voice, soft. Safe.
He held her again. A dream. A lie. A promise.
"...I'll come back to you. Even if it costs me everything."
BOOM!
---
Reiji Arata gasped.
Air surged into his lungs like wildfire—raw, blistering, unforgiving. His chest seized. His ribs strained. Every breath carved through him like a knife.
Cold sweat clung to his skin, soaking the sheets, slicking his back. He turned instinctively—disoriented, suffocating.
Then he fell.
Crash.
The floor rose to meet him with brutal indifference. No lights. No voices. No comfort. Only darkness. Only the pounding of his heart, frantic and primal, thundering in the silence.
He lay still.
Eyes wide.
Frozen.
The world felt unreal—distant, detached.
Like waking up in someone else's nightmare.
A flicker of motion.
His hand reached out, trembling, fumbling for the IV pole beside the bed. Metal. Cold and unfamiliar. He gripped it with everything he had left. Pulled.
A strangled grunt escaped his lips as his arm gave out.
Thud.
He hit the ground again.
His body—foreign. Numb. Weak.
Muscles didn't obey.
Joints screamed in protest.
But surrender wasn't an option.
Teeth clenched, eyes burning, Reiji forced himself upright. Inch by inch. Breath by ragged breath. His knees buckled beneath him, legs trembling under the weight of his own shadow.
The IV line dragged behind him, swaying like a chain he hadn't yet broken.
And still—he stood.
Shaking.
Bleeding willpower.
But standing.
Not as the soldier he once was.
Not as the man the world remembered.
But as something new.
Someone clawing his way back from oblivion.
Because something was calling to him.
No—someone.
And he wasn't going to let the dark swallow him again.
He opened the door.
And the world on the other side felt… wrong.
Papers scattered like fallen feathers across the floor. Beds overturned. Medical tubes slithered across shattered tiles like veins torn from a corpse. The lights above flickered—dim, twitching—casting jagged shadows that twitched and breathed.
There were no voices.
No machines.
No warmth.
No life.
Reiji stumbled forward, his hand still clutching the doorframe as if the threshold itself might pull him back. With a grunt, he yanked the IV from his arm—a sting, a drop of blood, a single thread severed from whatever tether held him here.
Blood pattered against the vinyl.
His feet dragged.
Each step raw. Numb. Hollow.
The hallway stretched before him—cold, sterile, endless. The silence wasn't peace. It was pressure. Heavy. Suffocating. A silence that felt alive.
He limped forward, bare feet grazing the icy floor. The chill crawled up his spine like something sentient. Watching. Waiting.
And then he saw it.
The exit.
Or what was left of it.
A door, once an escape—now a tombstone.
Barricaded. Bolted. Brutal.
Dozens of planks nailed across the frame. Thick chains looped and twisted like steel serpents. Rusted padlocks, sealed shut. Unmoving. Final.
Reiji's hand hovered—hesitant. Desperate.
BAM.
The sound exploded through the hallway like a gunshot. He stumbled backward, fell hard against the wall.
Another bang.
Then—a growl.
Low. Guttural. Not human.
Something scraped. Clawed.
Hands. Two of them.
Pale. Blackened. Rotted.
Pushing through the gaps in the barricade.
Twisted fingers. Brittle nails. Bone and rot.
Reiji's breath caught in his throat. His body refused to move.
But his mind screamed.
He turned. Crawled. Staggered. Ran.
Down a side corridor, into the dark, past doors that led nowhere.
His chest heaved. His vision blurred.
Then—a red glow.
The emergency exit sign.
He grabbed the handle.
Darkness.
Empty.
Colder than death.
He fumbled in his pocket. Found a matchbook.
Tore one free. Struck it.
Light.
Flickering. Fragile. Dancing against the void.
Shadows recoiled.
But light dies quickly.
Darkness crept back in.
He struck another.
The hallway stretched on. Too long. Unnatural. The air turned thick. The walls seemed closer now, breathing with each step he took.
Every footfall echoed like thunder. Every breath a scream he couldn't release.
There was nothing ahead.
And yet—he felt eyes.
Watching. Hungering.
Then—a door. Steel. Heavy. Real.
He reached out, not knowing whether it led to salvation or something far worse.
But there was no going back.
Not anymore.
He opened the door.
**Light—**blinding, raw—poured in like judgment.
He raised an arm to shield his eyes, blinking against the sudden glare.
And then—
he saw them.
Bodies.
Dozens. No—hundreds.
Lined in rows, sheathed in plastic.
Limp outlines of the lost.
Some tagged. Others nameless.
All still.
All silent.
The world... was gone.
Reiji stepped out, the wind cutting through the thin hospital gown. His feet met cracked concrete. Ash clung to his soles.
He limped down the street, the IV wound still bleeding beneath his sleeve.
Burned-out tanks rested like fallen beasts.
Cars twisted into unrecognizable shapes.
A helicopter slumped sideways—its blades snapped like broken wings.
And still… no voices.
No cries.
No birds.
Just the hollow moan of the wind.
He staggered forward, chest tight, vision wavering.
"Emilia…"
He ran—desperation overriding pain.
Through the ghost of a park.
Past frozen swings that creaked without wind.
Slides rusted with ash.
The memory of laughter still clinging to the air like smoke.
Then—
A blur.
A shape—too still, too wrong.
He crept closer.
Collapsed.
A figure.
Once human—now unmade.
Its skin blackened, blistered, melting into the bones beneath.
The torso torn open, ribs like broken branches.
Spine gleaming wet.
Its mouth frozen in a silent scream.
It crawled—dragged itself forward with what was left of its hands.
Eyes missing.
But still, it saw him.
Reiji staggered backward, bile rising.
It reached.
He turned and ran.
His side ripped open—stitches tearing, blood blooming.
Pain seared through him like fire.
He didn't stop.
Couldn't.
He had to get to her.
To the house.
To Emilia.
He pounded on the door with trembling fists.
Unlocked.
He threw it open.
"EMILIA?!"
Only silence answered.
Room to room.
Breath to breath.
Nothing.
Then, in the kitchen.
A note.
Taped to the table.
Trembling fingers lifted it.
> Please be safe.
I miss you.
I love you so much.
His knees buckled.
The paper fell from his hands.
He screamed.
He sobbed.
He broke.
Collapsed on the floor, clutching his chest like it might hold together what was left.
The world had ended—and she was gone.
He stumbled to the yard.
Stared at the emptiness like it might speak.
Then—
a figure.
Far down the road.
Walking.
"Hey!" Reiji shouted, voice cracking. "Hey, wait!"
The man didn't turn.
Didn't slow.
His walk—wrong. Tilted. Jerky.
Reiji stepped back.
A whistle behind him.
He turned—
BOOM.
---
Black.
--