Watanabe slowly opened his eyes, feeling as though he had just escaped from an endless nightmare. The blinding white neon light above him forced him to squint as he tried to adjust. Everything felt alien. His body felt light, with no pain or injuries from the rubble that had once crushed him. He struggled to remember, groping through a consciousness shattered by trauma. Occasionally, a faint rumbling sound reached his ears, like a murmur of conversations he couldn't quite grasp, echoing through the room.
Watanabe slowly turned his head to the side. In the all-white room, there were a few people he recognized and some who were unfamiliar. They all gazed in one direction, their eyes fixed on a large screen on the wall—something that seemed out of place in his time—a color monitor with sharp resolution, displaying an image he knew but felt disturbingly unreal.
Nagasaki.
The city that had been alive and breathing this morning was now reduced to burning ruins. Watanabe felt his heart pound as if stabbed by a thousand knives. The vivid devastation on the screen choked his breath, forcing him to swallow the bitter reality he never imagined. He wanted to look away, but his gaze was locked. Lifeless bodies, flattened buildings, and flames greedily licking the remains. All of it happened in silence, without the sounds of screams or cries, only raw destruction consuming everything.
"Watanabe... Watanabe..."
The voice was faint, calling his name repeatedly, trying to pierce through the horror that locked his mind. "Watanabe..." The call grew clearer, forcing him to turn. He saw a woman with a pale face, her eyes red from crying. Watanabe recognized her—Hitomi, his fellow researcher.
"Hitomi, are you okay?" he asked, his voice hoarse, filled with shock at seeing his colleague who also survived the hell they had just endured.
Hitomi nodded weakly, her face still shrouded in fear she couldn't shake. "I… I don't know, Watanabe. One moment I was in the lab… then everything went dark, and suddenly I'm here. What happened? Where are we now?" Hitomi asked with a confusion that was palpable, her eyes still trying to grasp the unfamiliar room.
Watanabe shook his head, searching for a logical answer, but everything felt like a nightmare he couldn't comprehend. He felt the wall behind him, cold and solid, both real and nonsensical. "I don't know either… all I remember is the explosion, and then…" Watanabe paused, glancing back at the screen showing the ruined Nagasaki. His heart sank again, realizing the reality they had just endured.
Suddenly, the sound of heavy, authoritative footsteps came from outside the room. The rhythmic clacking of shoes grew louder, adding an unavoidable tension to the atmosphere. All eyes turned toward the large door at the end of the room, which slowly began to open. The creaking of the hinges only added to the sense that this room held a grand secret.
Watanabe turned and saw him.
A man in a neatly tailored black suit, seemingly untouched by time or space, entered the room with a casual yet commanding stride. His face was clean, his skin pale with sharp eyes that seemed to conceal something deeper. A thin smile curled on his lips, giving off a calming yet mysterious aura that defied explanation. Watanabe felt he had seen this man before, but his memory couldn't place who he truly was.
The man stopped in the middle of the room, surveying his surroundings with an authoritative gaze. "Is everything calm now?" he asked in a soft yet firm voice, as if nothing could hide from his scrutiny. Everyone in the room fell silent, none daring to speak.
Watanabe stared at the man with a mix of fear and curiosity. He wanted to know who this man was and what had happened, but his mouth felt frozen. The man approached Watanabe and Hitomi, looking at them with a gaze that seemed almost familiar.
"I know this must be confusing for you," the man said in a calm but enigmatic tone. "But rest assured, you're in a safe place now. Everything that happened out there... is over."
Watanabe wanted to scream, to demand answers, but the man seemed to understand all the questions raging inside him without needing words. "Who are you? What's really going on?" Watanabe finally dared to ask, though he wasn't sure he wanted to hear the answer.
The man merely smiled, his gaze seemingly piercing through time. "Me? Just someone who happened to be in the right place at the wrong time," he replied with an ambiguous tone that made Watanabe's heart race even more.
On the screen, Nagasaki continued to display relentless destruction, but for Watanabe, the questions about where he was and who stood before him were more terrifying than the shadow of destruction itself.
The man stepped back, regarding Watanabe with an unreadable smile. "What matters is, we're all still alive. Now, let's see how this game unfolds."
Watanabe could only remain silent, realizing that everything that had happened was just the beginning of something far greater and darker than he could ever imagine.
Watanabe stared at the man in the black suit, confusion and fear swirling in his mind. The man spoke calmly about safety and endings, but everything felt off—wrong in a way Watanabe couldn't quite grasp. The screen continued to show the burning ruins of Nagasaki, flickering like a memory that refused to fade. In this strange place, time felt heavy, yet unstoppable, as if the world was moving on without him. Watanabe sensed that this moment was just the beginning of something larger, a shadowy game far beyond his understanding. And somewhere, someone else was already moving the pieces, setting the stage for whatever came next.