The air hung heavy with the stench of decay and the acrid bite of ash. Tokyo, once a dazzling metropolis, a sprawling testament to human ingenuity and ambition, now lay in ruins, a desolate landscape scarred by the Great Catastrophe.
The sky, once a canvas for towering skyscrapers, was now a somber grey, veiled by a thick blanket of smoke that choked the air, obscuring the sun, casting a perpetual twilight over the city. The streets, once filled with the vibrant tapestry of human life, were now deserted, littered with debris, a testament to the destructive power that had swept across the globe.
Yūichirō Hyakuya, a young boy barely ten years old, stood amidst the ruins, his small frame dwarfed by the towering shadows of the fallen buildings. He was one of the few children who remained alive, a survivor of the chaos, a child who had witnessed the world crumble before his eyes.
His memories of the catastrophe were fragmented, a patchwork of terrifying images, a symphony of screams, a whirlwind of destruction that had shattered his world. He remembered the fear, the terror, the desperate scramble for survival, the faces of his parents, their panicked expressions, their desperate pleas, their fading forms as they were lost in the maelstrom of chaos.
Every started in the year 2012. A man-made plague, the "Seraph of the End" virus, sweeps across the globe, decimating the adult population and leaving only children under thirteen immune. But survival offers no solace. Powerful vampires, awakened by the catastrophe, emerge from the shadows, seizing control and enslaving the remaining children. Within the seemingly idyllic walls of Hyakuya Orphanage, nestled amidst the ruins of a once-thriving city, twelve-year-old Yuichiro Hyakuya and his younger brother, Mikaela, navigate a life of carefully concealed terror. The vampires, elegant and cruel, treat the children as livestock, regularly draining their blood to sustain their unnatural existence. The orphanage, a gilded cage, is a constant reminder of their captivity, a prison painted with the false promise of safety. Yuichiro sense their callous disregard for human life, and secretly plots a desperate escape, a rebellion against the seemingly insurmountable odds. Mikaela, ever optimistic, provides a counterpoint to Yuichiro's simmering anger, his unwavering belief in their eventual freedom providing a fragile anchor in the storm.
He remembered the pain, the searing emptiness that had taken root in his heart, the void that had replaced the warmth of family, the love of parents, the comfort of a life that had been.
But he also remembered the hope, the glimmer of light that had pierced through the darkness, the moment he had been saved, the moment he had found a sanctuary, a haven amidst the wreckage of his world.
He had been rescued by the vampires, creatures of the night who had emerged from the shadows to claim the world as their own. He was one of the few children who survived the catastrophe, the few who were deemed worthy of their protection, the few who would be trained to fight, to serve, to become the protectors of the new world.
They took him to a place that resembled an orphanage, a prison disguised as a sanctuary. It was a place of mystery, a place of secrets, a place where the line between good and evil blurred, where the children were treated with both tenderness and an underlying sense of detachment.
They fed him their blood, fueling his body with an unnatural strength, transforming him into a weapon, a warrior destined to fight in a world that no longer understood the meaning of peace.
Yūichirō, a spirited child with a fierce sense of justice, a heart that ached for the world he had lost, a spirit that refused to be broken, lived with a heavy burden. His memories were clouded by the catastrophe, the image of his parents lost in the chaos, a searing pain that he carried deep within his heart.
He was one of the few children who remained alive, a survivor of the chaos, a child who had witnessed the world crumble before his eyes. He had been saved by the vampires, taken in, nurtured, but at a price. They fed him their blood, fueling his body with an unnatural strength, transforming him into a weapon, a warrior destined to fight in a world that no longer understood the meaning of peace.
In the heart of the orphanage, a dark secret festered. The vampires, led by the enigmatic Krul Tepes, were not mere creatures of the night; they were the architects of the apocalypse, the orchestrators of the world's downfall.
They had unleashed a deadly virus, turning humanity into monstrous beings, monsters that hunted those who remained. The vampires, they claimed, were the only ones who could save humanity, their blood a cure, their power a shield against the monstrous tide.
But Yūichirō knew deep within his heart that something was wrong. He sensed the hypocrisy, the deceit, the cruelty woven into the vampires' narrative. He saw the fear in the eyes of the other children, the burden they carried, the sacrifice they were forced to make.
He had been saved by the vampires, taken in, nurtured, but at a price. They fed him their blood, fueling his body with an unnatural strength, transforming him into a weapon, a warrior destined to fight in a world that no longer understood the meaning of peace.
One day, a new threat emerged, a threat that would change the course of Yūichirō's life forever. A group of humans, led by the mysterious Guren Ichinose, infiltrated the orphanage, seeking to free the children from their captors.