Reminiscing about it now was quite laughable but that’s one of my biggest mistakes. Suddenly I felt something creepy as I walked through the street. It quiet, too quiet, especially during the middle of the day. I looked around but it wasn’t in my head, it was actually as if I stumbled into a ghost town. I panicked because the one thing that came into my mind was the one thing I didn’t wish for. But it couldn’t have been because the country wide alarm hadn’t gone off if there was a demon that showed up. But even then Japan, is relatively safe due to a strong national military force and quick response time due to the now small area that that Japan now control after the pandemic war. I took a look but I saw nothing. But then suddenly my heart stop. I saw something from the corner of my eye. I recognize it immediately, the air became hard to breath and a peculiar smell filled the air. It smelled of iron. There was no mistaken it now. I heard footstep. Right then I started running, needing to confirm that we weren’t in danger, my family, my sister was safe because now of all time the alarm didn’t sound off. But I turned around the corner I stood in the face of death. There it was standing, grotesque skin with sharpen spikes coming out of its body. Teeth belonging to an animal. But what caught my eyes was what was in its mouth. A head of a small boy and behind it litter of bodies. The smell was even more horrendous as my mind stop working. I couldn’t process what was going on anymore I took a step back and it dashed forward piercing my through the gut with sharpen dagger like arms. The pain was unbearable as my life flashed before my life. So much for martial arts training as it didn’t help in this situation. Opening it mouth I took one last smell of what can only be describe as rotten flesh stench. And the last thing I saw from the corner of my fading sight was a man maybe?

I woke up in a dark place. My head in pain before the memory rushed back in like a flood. The pain I felt was gone but now alone in the dark. “I died” was the only thing that kept repeating in my mind. Every time I repeated the word, tears would fall harder and harder. Soon you couldn’t even tell if it was a cry of a person or an animal. I cried my frustration out as I settled down I heard a humming sound. I stopped and raised my head to look around. I saw no one and nothing but there’s definitely a humming sound coming from somewhere. I chased after the humming in this darkness. I couldn’t tell whether I was going up, down, or side to side but I listening attentively if the sound got louder or quieter. The longer I ran towards it, the weirdest feeling swept over me. It felt familiar almost soothing and yet the melody was so sorrowful. Before long I finally saw a light at the far end of this darkness. “Hello?” I screamed hoping the person would respond. “Excuse me, can you hear me?” but nothing. Even though I was short on breath for a dead man I ran cause harder than ever wanting to know where this familiar sound comes from.

I was panting almost to the point of throwing up “Excuse me…but….who are you…” mouthing every word in between breath. And just like that the place feel into silence. I looked up and to my imagination I couldn’t believe if I was looking at a person or a sculpture being placed in the middle of nowhere. “Hello? Can you hear me?” I asked again. There was a slight pause before this person turned towards me and I swear on my dead body I was smitten by her looks. Pale skin, white or silver hair, slender body, and pale blue eyes. However, don’t get me wrong I wasn’t attracted to her as a woman but I couldn’t describe it. She looked out of the norm and yet I could I swore I’ve seen her before. But there was a certain air to her almost otherworldly. In this dark fill room, she was the only color filling it. I couldn’t stop but ask “are you possibly-“ but before I could finish asking she smiled and sight cut to black.

And just like that I moved on to hell. It was dark, I was expecting tortures screams and burning pit. But eternal loneliness is probably just as bad just a lot slower. I took a deep breathe to prepare for my impending psychological torture but the weirdest thing is I felt a rustle. Throughout my whole body to be precise, the feeling was so familiar, soft, and cold but not super cold. I jumped out in shock. No matter how you describe it this is my room. To my desk and bed and my computer. I couldn’t believe my eyes, but it couldn’t be more true even though I should have died. I grabbed my phone and looked for news about any demon attack yesterday. No matter how hard I look there was no such thing yesterday just a missing report of the child yesterday but no attack. I was too much in disbelief to make sense of anything. I lied down on my bed to make sense of things, but the ray of sunlight hit my faced made me check the time quickly. It was already 8 in the morning. I ran out to the smell of rustling of utensils and smell of food. There she was standing there dressed already. “Morning? You woke up so late today, what’s up?” she said.

We sat and ate in silence not a word spoken to each other. It was already kind of awkward with just the two of us. So, I started the conversation “So where’s mom and dad?”

“Don’t know, they never came back yesterday so they’re probably still at work even now.”

“Ah.” just like that we fell back to eating breakfast silently.

“Okay seriously what’s up with you?” slamming her chopstick down “first you woke up late, then you sit there all sad and stuff like did you broke up with your girlfriend or something?”

“What? No!” suddenly taken back.

“Then what?”

“It’s just….” How could I ever explain it to her, even after a cold shower hoping it was all a dream “Nothing.” I said softly. She’s very straightforward when she loses her temper.

“Ugh, fine if you’re not going to say anything then you better listen to me nag because I woke up early and made breakfast.” Grabbing her chopstick and shoving more food into her mouth “It’s really good too by the way.”

I jokingly replied “Yeah Yeah, sorry princess”

As we exited the house, we walked our separate ways. But I stopped and turned around at my sister who suddenly shouted. “Hey! You know I’m here, right?” she couldn’t see but I smiled and waved and I replied “Go already or you’ll be late”

“Asshole”

“Ah you little-“ almost wanting to shout and chased after her.

disbelief to make sense of anything. i tack.yesterday. no t not super cold. i s i

The boy’s locker room was just the same as usual loud and rough, but I couldn’t concentrate. My mind kept going back to that event. Suddenly someone but their arm around me “Oh, here he comes” said Jun cocking a devilish grin.

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“Who?” asking surprisingly

Another arm had wrapped itself around my neck choking me “Sup guys” I tripped over before tapping out from lack of air

Jun was laughing at the amusement of this all “Sorry bro, but I gotta admit it’s funny how you took martial arts lessons but still fall for stuff like these”.

“You okay man?” extending his hands forwards. If there’s one word to describe him it would be optimistic. He’s someone who is loud and chatty but easy going. “I’m fine Shinji” grabbing his hand

“Hey really sorry about that. Normally you wouldn’t be taken so easily” smilingly he said

“I’m fine, just distracted today”

Jun asked with a worry tone “You okay then? Must be pretty bad”

“Just thinking about school” I replied

“Well.” Shinji putting his arm around the both of us “How about the Idiot 3 walk out together?”

The weather was nice and warm not hot. With our regular gym classes taking place like usual. “Look at us, the three idiots strolling out and about.” Shinji said cheerfully still having his arms around me and Jun. I shrugged his arm off in response “When did I get grouped up with you two?”

“When you became friends with me and then Shinji during freshman year.” Jun said gleefully. I wanted to object to his statement, but I couldn’t. If anything, it couldn’t be truer. The first time we met him was during the first day of school when Jun and I went to visit Sakura. Little did we know he was trying to get her number. Both of us thought Shinji was trying to flirt with her so we stepped in since she looked uncomfortable. And the first thing Shinji said if I remember correctly was “Well well, are you two this gorgeous babe’s friend I been hearing about? The name’s Shinji, Takeda Shinij. Goal is to make a hundred male and female friends. Wanna be my first two?” putting his hands out. I was dumbfounded from his introduction, but Jun burst in laughter. “Put ye there buddy.” Answering his gesture. Sakura placed her hands behind me and only smile while silently shaking her head, silently to tell me there’s no point in refusing at this point.

As the conversation carried on Shinji told me to suddenly look to our side. We noticed Sakura and Jessica laughing together. Jun playfully punched me shoulder “Well we’ll see you after gym class, okay?”

“Guess it can’t be helped since we’re near the gym.” Shinji added. Normally I would walk on over to them but this time I couldn’t. Jun and Shinij took my mind off of the problem but seeing Jessica really brought me back to reality which made it that much harder. Everything felt surreal but I definitely needed to figure out this problem before hanging out with them. So, I purposely avoided them and went directly to the teacher, I didn’t even wave back to both of them when they waved to me.

Because of everything that has happened till now I completely forgotten one of the things I really felt uncomfortable about. Sitting on the sideline really does sucks though, all my friends. Being the first of rare cases of someone being born in modern times without an armament. I first realize this around my tenth birthday when I didn’t manifest anything my family took me to see a specialist. And that’s when I learned the cold hard truth about myself. My mother cried that night that. Probably because she must have felt responsible for my shortcoming. Years ago, people would be looked down upon for having any sort of disabilities but now all that prejudice where forced down on people who can’t manifest an armament. I guess because of that my mother pulled close and cried every night telling “It’s okay sweetie. It’s not your fault, people just don’t understand.” As she pat head. But I normally wouldn’t cry. Maybe those years of babysitting my sister toughened me up mentally because cause even after getting bullied and beaten up every day when people found out about me, I didn’t cry but those days when my mother would comfort me I would just breakdown in front of her

To make sure I wouldn’t worry my parents anymore I tried learning martial arts classes such as Muay Thai, boxing and some Taekwondo. I got pretty good at them. But nowadays society doesn’t care, once a defect always a defect is how the world sees it. And for me, that was no different. Because I didn’t couldn’t manifest my armament, I was labeled a soulless. A modern derogatory term describes someone like me. Although I couldn’t participate in most activities due to limitations I managed to get bullied less. Can’t beat a group but if it was a one-on-one confrontation I could mostly win and that’s more than what I could ask.

Sitting on the sideline I watched my friends and classmate participate in armament training. “Kazuki, you still want to participate with the rest, don’t you?” I recognize this familiar deep yet soft spoken voice. I turned around to see the gym teacher Mr. Ho to my expectation asking this. He was a refugee from Vietnam who moved here due to ravage of war “I do but there’s nothing I can do, only those who have armaments can participate you know this” I replied with a smile as he took a seat next to me.

“What a load of crap I’ve seen your martial arts, you could probably take care of half the class, most of these kids have subpar talent at best” his tone slightly stern

I chuckled a little “Hey come on teacher that’s not true, besides it was a surprise for me too to see my gym teacher at the same muay thai gym. Also, should a teacher be talking like that to his own student?”

“Don’t change the subject. Besides it was a good thing I did; I saw real discipline. Textbook technique and form, most people don’t even learn properly unless they’re aiming for the army, instead relying on their weapons” he said adamantly. Mr. Ho always treated a soulless like me like I was a normal, something I appreciated very much. But even with him I couldn’t bring myself to tell him about my issues.

Suddenly the school emergency alarm rang wildly. Everybody panicked in a daze. The alarms only sound when demons are within a certain radius is detected. I looked up to notice a black smoke falling rapidly to where we are. The teacher stood up immediately and gave instruction to the students. Once the smoke cleared, I was shaken to my very core. The thought that was eating away at me today came running back in a flood. The fear had returned, and the air mixed with sand became hard to breathe in. The senior students from our school arrived and tried to fight it while the other students were being evacuated. However, frozen in fear, I was knocked down during the commotion. My legs were shaking, and my back was covered in cold sweat. No matter how much training I received a soulless can never stand up against a demon. This demon was nimble yet intelligent enough to use the dismembered body parts of some of the student. The S.S.E.D would arrive too late, and everyone would have died. Not to mention most officers in the S.S.E.D are deployed at the borders of the wall with very few in within cities. Polices are scarce and won’t even be able to properly help.

“God someone, help us please.” screamed one student

“How long till S.S.E.D. arrive?” yelled another

“Why bother waiting they’re too far just run.” another screamed.

The groups of students pushed and pulled each other to get as far away as possible. It was complete chaos. No matter how many years we were just high school students with no formal training. But for our school to be attacked in what is known as a safe zone scared everyone. The seniors had all either died in battle or was injured beyond hope of recovery. I had gotten up myself, but I was looking for my friends. It wasn’t until most people where front of me. Jessica was lying on the ground with her dagger armament. The demon’s line of sight was directed at her. I weighted my option as time had seemed to slow down. Was Jess, so important to me I would risk my live for her and cause my family to mourn their son’s death or should I just run using her as bait to give me as much time to run away as possible? Even if she wasn’t, it just wasn’t right for me to abandon someone to die. I forced my body to move and with every step my body took felt heavy almost like strapping on several tons of weight on it. However, it noticed me running towards it. That’s when I realize why did I try to be hero when I just a soulless. It swiped its large claws at me sending me flying through the air. While in the air, I caught a glimpse of a red-haired person I had never seen before running towards that demon. My consciences faded quickly as my world darkened again.