The sky cracked open like glass.
Not a metaphor.
The clouds shattered—splintering into shards of glowing blue—as something
immense and unnatural emerged behind them.
The last sunrise painted the city of Osaka in gold, red, and finality.
Then it burned.
Streets cracked. Towers fell. Screams rang out… and then were silenced.
And in the middle of it all stood him.
Shin.
Unmoving. Unforgiving. Unreachable.
Four friends lay scattered beneath him, bloodied and broken. Some gasped
their last breaths. Others didn't move at all.
But she,Hana looked up through her tears.
"...Shin?" she croaked.
He didn't answer.
No sadness. No rage. Just silence.
And then,something snapped.
Not in Shin.
In the world.
A ripple, like time itself screaming. Light twisted. Memory unraveled.
Everything turned cold.
Everything turned white.
"AH—!"
Two voices shouted at once.
Hana and Riku jolted out of their seats,
wide-eyed and gasping.
A full classroom stared back.
The teacher blinked, chalk halfway to the board. "Kurosawa. Sato. Is there a
reason you're both reenacting a horror film in my classroom?"
Laughter scattered through the room. Someone muttered "weirdos" under their
breath.
Riku, still pale, gave a shaky bow. "S-Sorry, sensei! I just—uh, leg cramp!"
Hana shrank into her seat, face red. "N-nothing, I'm sorry!"
The teacher sighed and turned back to the board. "Right. As I was saying,
quadratic equations…"
Riku leaned over, whispering through clenched teeth. "Tell me you saw it
too."
Hana's eyes trembled. "Shin… he…"
Riku nodded grimly. "Yeah."
They both stared straight ahead, unable to focus on anything else.
At the school gym, *Daiki* stood frozen, his breath shallow.
His hands trembled as he stared down at them.No blood, no bruises, just skin
and bone.
But in his mind, the image wouldn't leave,or rather couldn't.
How could he forget.
Crimson.
His ribs shattering like glass.
Echoed throughout the city with his blood curdling scream
The sound of Shin's voice as everything went black.
His pupils were wide, dilated with shock. Sweat running down his body. The
basketball rolled out of his grip and bounced away unnoticed.
He couldn't believe it,
"Why am I still..Alive" Daiki asked himself
something inside him still had him feeling trap under the
ash and flame.
Yui sat alone in the back corner of the school library,
sunlight slanting across the desk in soft gold.
Her hands were clasped tightly in her lap, nails digging
into her palms. Her shoulders didn't move, but her eyes stared blankly ahead,
unfocused.
She hadn't said a word since waking.
No tears. No questions. No reaction.
But her throat ached like she'd been screaming.
She remembered it all the heat, the collapse, the silence.
His voice. His face.
Shin.
The only one she ever believed in.
"...Why" she mumbered
Later that evening, the four gathered under the old train bridge their
hangout spot from before everything fell apart.
The sky was orange with fading sunlight. The air held that awkward tension,
like no one knew how to say what needed to be said.
Riku's voice broke the silence, low and unsteady.
"…You all remember it too, right? That… that wasn't some nightmare."
Daiki didn't look up. He just nodded, slowly.
"It happened. Every second of it."
Yui's voice was barely a whisper.
"Why us…? Why are *we* the ones who remember?"
Silence.
Then Daiki exhaled, forcing a shaky grin. Trying to ease the tension by providing
a solution
"Maybe this is our shot, yeah? We've got a head start now. We train, stay
sharp, work together—maybe we can stop it before it ever happens."
He looked at them with a spark of hope that felt too fragile to touch.
But Hana's voice came in like a knife.
"…What if we can't?"
Everyone turned to her.
She wasn't crying, but her eyes were cold. Still.
"What if no matter how strong we get… it still ends the same?"
They all fell silent again.
Because deep down, they knew—
This wasn't just about remembering.
They hadn't been given a second chance to reflect.
They'd been given a **countdown**.
Three years.
Three years before everything burned again.
And this time, there'd be no miracle. No reset.
Only the end.Everyone turned to her.
She wasn't crying, but her eyes were cold. Still.
"What if no matter how strong we get… it still ends the same?"
The air shifted. The spark faded.
Riku looked away.
Yui wrapped her arms around herself.
Daiki's smile slipped, just a little.
Then Hana said it, quiet but firm.
"If we can't stop him…"
She paused, swallowed the lump in her throat.
"If we can't stop him… then we…en-"
Before she could speak another word
The wind howled through the bridge's steel beams.
They notice a figure slowly walking toward them from the shadows.
Teenage. Calm. Hands in his pockets.
*Shin.*
He stopped just a few steps away and tilted his head.
"What are you guys talking about?" he asked casually, voice soft and
curious.
The four of them stood frozen.
Not because they didn't have an answer.
But because the one person they thought they'd never face again…
…was already standing with them.