Flashes of light are seen, A young girl carrying a certain wounded boy, panting over the tremendous distance they have travelled, escaping certain doom.

The same visions are seen, the same abhorrent ringing is heard, of multiple voices surrounding their ears, her ears. She remembers her training to not give in, to not focus on the horrible things she sees and hears.

To remember who she is, and her purpose in living, the things that motivate her, that keeps her going. This was all of what they taught her, what they taught young Ishiins. Yet some of them always give in, and they are lost never to be found.

Every time she blinks she always sees multiple moments from across time, that are related to this place, that is related to the people inside of this city, to the people gone, and to the people still here, fighting.

She sees a young boy standing outside of a balcony, his hands rubbing against one another as he puts them against his mouth, trying to warm himself from the cold, he stares at the beautiful moon. Its light shining over the cold dark night, as he asks himself.

"Who... am I?" He softly murmurs.

She sees another person, this time a young girl, surrounded by the neon lights of the city, of Tokyo. The light glimmering from a distance, the cold and dark alleyway rings with the shouts of multiple men, begging her... for mercy... She hangs her head low, her knuckles bruised, her clothes wet from the pouring rain.

Her face is empty. There is nothing on it, she feels nothing. Even in beating up stronger and taller men than she is. It brings her no joy, it brings her no satisfaction, it brings her nothing.

Another young girl is seen, beating up a lamppost, painting it... with her blood. Her screams and weeping filled the sky, the red sun falling on her, burning her. She lost someone who was dear to her because she didn't think it'd last, she thought... it was too good to be true...

She didn't know any of these people, but she had a feeling... she soon will.

These visions of these moments back in time and also ahead of it, are no coincidence. Traversing through this plain may be painful, but certain people are shown certain things... For a reason.

She looked at the injured boy she was carrying and whispered unto his ear.

"Rushi-kun... we're almost out of here, and I feel... we have some new faces to meet..." she grasps his hair, rubbing it and patting him. She lightly smiles as her eyes finally see the blinding light, fading away.

"Shihei-san?"

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- A Few Minutes Ago -

Himura flashes out, with Rushiko getting ready to... face him.

All of the soldiers keep huddling together, no matter how many times you crush them. Like ants, they keep gathering and multiplying all over the park. The wind brushing the leaves, the wind brushing her hair.

She elbows one of the soldiers in the chest, puncturing a hole in him. All of them surround her by the trees, she powers up her whole body and starts beating all of them up. She jumps midair and flips, kicking and snapping someone's jaw.

She carries one of the soldiers and spins him around, tossing him aside towards the others like a plaything, the force mushing them like little insects. She keeps getting faster and faster- snapping their body parts like nothing, collecting all of their limbs and heads. Throwing them with such impact, the body parts slam unto the enemies, creating holes in them, but also around them.

Multiple craters are formed, multiple trees and broken and snapped from the ever-growing amount of thrown pieces of these so-called "soldiers". It's like they're not even human, from the sheer amount of how many there are, the Insurgents couldn't just throw all of their forces at just a single Grade S Ishiin Agent and his unremarkable and expendable Ishiins (compared to him that is).

As much as she'd hate to admit it, they are all expendable... useless compared to Kuroke's strength, compared to most of their high-ranking Insurgents. That must mean, there is someone else in here helping Kuroke. The person that made this sick version of the past Fukushima!

Another Insurgent leader... capable of not only replicating and molding this hollow city but also its inhabitants as well, arming them and controlling them. Leaving their souls to forever aid the Insurgents, torturing them... and leaving them to torture and kill more... like how they were killed on that fateful day...

If this was unleashed on Tokyo, who knows how many casua-

A loud sound is heard, the shifting of the earth, of the ground.

She stops her onslaught of the bug-like soldiers, the mess evident everywhere. Blood is spilled on every part of the park, on the grey and lifeless grass, painting it red. On the corpses filling each of the numerous craters and on the trees, broken or not. There are guts everywhere, even on her. She gags because of the disgusting scent, not only everywhere but on her clothes too.

Another loud sound is heard, this time she swiftly looks at the giant Ferris Wheel being cut in half, she squints her eyes and sees two figures, one of them pummeling the other to the ground with his burning fist.

"Rushiko!" she screamed.

But as this was all happening, she is suddenly surrounded to the brim by more of the "soldiers", they huddle together on top of her, filling her vision with the faces of the long gone, forgotten by history, forgotten and moved on by their loved ones, a sea of faces overwhelm her as the light fades from her eyes.

"I can't just... I can't just give up now... I still have to find her... I still have to find Mo-"

She screams, raising her hands up, sending all of the insects all over her to their impending deaths, only to be revived once again for the cycle to repeat. The bodies closest to her, fully covering her in their blood and guts.

She endures and ignores this, no matter how uncomfortable and degrading it may be, she flashes out of there and back to where she left Rushiko.

Her mind filled with many scenarios of what could've happened to him... she lost... her

She couldn't lose another, she couldn't lose Rushiko...

She moves faster, the wind intensifying and the leaves scattering over the bloodied bodies. She finally arrives at where the giant Ferris Wheel used to be, she powers up to enter the area, only to be interrupted by the fight happening in front of her.

A certain brunette man fighting a samurai... it's them.

"Suzu-san and Kuroke-san..." she muttered under her breath, she minimizes her aura consumption to not interrupt the fight so Kuroke won't notice her, so she can find an opening to save Rushiko.

Suzushii flashes towards Rushiko with Kuroke in pursuit, smashing the ground below him, creating not only multiple craters but also multiple versions of himself all around his student alongside adding a bit of aura beneath the holes. Great surges of wind propel upwards, as both of them clash.

Caught up in all of this, she sees a wounded Rushiko lying on the ground. She fights the urge to not go up and rescue him right there and then, Suzushii is then pierced by the Wakizashi and is pummeled to the ground beside Rushiko.

Suzushii rips the blade out of his arm, breathing and maintaining his condition. Kuroke flashes to his position, stabbing the ground, creating a burning aura surge. Suzushii punches it with the full force of his fist full of water, extinguishing it.

Kuroke is suddenly gone from his past position, he gets closer to Suzushii and raises his blade up, fully slicing off Suzushii's arm, the blood spilling uncontrollably on the ground. Himura gasps as she covered her mouth, a worrying Rushiko shouts in disbelief, with him crawling over to Suzushii, his fingernails digging in the dirt.

But as Suzushii's slashed arm drops to the burnt ground, she had a... feeling... an opening would present itself, and that moment was n-

"Now!" A loud voice shouts, Himura doesn't know why... but at that moment, her body moved on its own, she may want to save Rushiko... but all of this happened in such a short amount of time, even her brain couldn't process it that fast... the realization of what Suzushii was doing... all happened... in just 20 seconds...

She suddenly flashes in towards the scene, rescuing and grabbing Rushiko just as "Suzushii" disappears along with his "sliced arm", her swift speed even surprising her. She was gone from her position to carrying Rushiko, to escaping Kuroke in just the blink of an eye.

She passes all over the trees, passing all of the dead "ants" she crushed, and leaves the park entirely. She looks at Rushiko, who looks at her in return, he is bruised all over with multiple lacerations covering his body due to the debris cutting him when hit the ground from Kuroke's massive attack of throwing him at the giant Ferris Wheel and beating him up. The debris came from when he destroyed the "cafeteria".

She notices the black eye on his face as she caresses his cheeks.

"Rushi-kun" she whispers...

"Himura-san?... thank y-"

He is immediately interrupted by the bullets whirring towards them fired by the evergrowing amount of forgotten faces, these ant-like puppets controlled by the one who made this entire city in the first place.

The fog obscures most of their positions, she can't afford to stop and hold a defence position, when even she was overwhelmed by such forces just a moment ago. Now, it'll be a lot worse, especially when she has a wounded friend in her arms. Trying to attack them would slow her down, but if she doesn't, she may be overwhelmed once more if she gets careless with them.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

She clicks her tongue and bites her lip, zipping all over the city, her feet attached to the glass walls of the gigantic buildings as they are all punctured and shattered by the sheer amount of ammunition being hurled at her.

The skyscraper is seen from this distance, she is getting closer but as she looks backwards. Her eyes get larger and wider at the horrifying sight. All of the faces are collected together, the amount so massive that it's almost comparable to seeing a giant tidal wave coming at her.

She gets faster, wall running and jumping from wall to wall of each of the buildings, avoiding the soldiers being hurled at her. She finally gets on the skyscraper and she starts to scale its massive stature. Climbing it downwards may be easy, but trying to climb the damn monolith is very difficult, especially with the ghost horde behind and coming after her.

The horde has so many of them, that they are even capable of scaling a skyscraper like it was nothing! All of them overwhelming the giant monolith of a tower, to the point of where they are able to basically bend it! Himura panics after noticing this, she can't get much faster than she already is!

Will she make it in time? to reach the exit of this fever dream of a city? She shakes her head and shrugs it off, focusing on the situation at hand.

The clouds are in view, the atmosphere and air are getting hard to breathe into, she holds her breath. Knowing they are so close to getting out of this mess! And just as it looks like the skyscrapers' length won't get them far enough to reach the sky, she propels herself upwards. Narrowly avoiding the reaching hands of the damned, she sees the light, the blinding light.

Both of them are sucked open by the overwhelming presence of this blinding light, this white light...

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"Suzu-san!" Rushiko screams, seemingly waking up from the insanity of everything that had happened, he looks around. Noticing that he-- they are in some parking lot of a mall, and from how empty the streets look, it is pretty early in the morning...

He looks right beside him, a quiet and bloodied Himura sits close to him, her eyes fixated on his. He grasps his cheek and looks downwards at his arms, his chest and his legs. They are all bandaged up, though they are all covered in smears of blood from her hands, she did a quick fix on him. But he is still in no condition to fight just yet.

He looks down at the pavement, remembering everything up until when they left the empty city. The last thing he saw of Suzushii fighting Kuroke was his arm being cut off and the blood spilling all over the lifeless shrubbery.

He worries over what had happened with Suzushii, his Senpai... he knows that Suzushii is powerful but with how much Kuroke beat him up, especially with the signs of that black fire... he can't help but still worry for him... if only he was-

"If only... I was stronger..." he mutters under his breath, the coldness of the winter surrounding them, his breathing showing signs of visible warmth from his mouth, he shivers and tries to rub himself.

He suddenly feels a warm sensation from behind him, covering him... calming him...

"Rushi-kun..." she whispered.

"If only I could stop him sooner! before he kills anyone else... before he kills Suzu-san..." he states in clear frustration, the bandages on his hands and around his knuckles didn't matter to him, he wanted to let out his anger on something... anything...

He pulls his arm back and proceeds to punch the pavement regardless of his wounds.

He is immediately stopped by her hand, his hand shaking in pure crushing bitterness. The stress in his head intensifies, he breaks down in front of her, his tears falling on snow-covered asphalt, melting a little bit of it.

"Why?! After all of what I've been through! Why can't I still come close to being as strong as he is?! Why can't I protect Suzu-san!!!" he cried from the top of his lungs, he turns around and embraces Himura, her foul smell not mattering to him at all. His tears cleaned a bit of the blood on her chest.

She grasps his hair and plays with it, her sweet voice calming him. Her warmth surrounded him.

"I'm here for you... remember when you were there for me when she disappeared? how you promised you'd not only help me find her, but also you wanted to help make me stronger too? this time... I want to return the favor! I want to... help you get stronger too! with me..." she strongly said to him, his eyes clearing and his tears stopping.

"It may be hard... but you showed me... that you cared for me! even if you could've just left me to suffer on my own... you didn't! you helped me, you comforted me... you were there with me..." she says as she lets go of him, grabbing both of his hands, her smile melting him.

"I want to show you... I'd do the same for you! No matter what happens... I'll be here! Just as you were for me... back then..." her eyes staring at his, digging deep into his soul, at his core. He lightly smiles, his eyes still sore and wet. He rubs both of them as Himura rubs his back.

A bright blue light fills both of their eyes, a figure suddenly appears in front of them.

It was Suzushii!

Rushiko quickly gets up to embrace him, but he unexpectedly stops.

Suzushii looks at Rushiko with an extremely depressed look, his eyes sucked out of their once warm and inviting allure. His eyes full of desperation, his body and clothes full of blood and guts... his face was covered in it.

"I- I- I- killed... him" he mutters shaking in pure dread and regret... the look in his eyes... were like black holes in the sky... Rushiko couldn't approach him, as much as he wanted to comfort him... to tell him that it was alright... that he was here for him...

He couldn't... not like this.

This was too much even for him, he doesn't know how Suzushii feels... not yet atleast...

The wind blowing over them, the snow falling harder... their breaths visible... not a single one of the Ishiin Agents they sent survived... they were all overwhelmed by the sheer impossible and insurmountable amount of those "soldiers", some of them couldn't even pass through the entrance, let alone escape it...

No one won that day... not the Insurgents and certainly not the Ishiins...

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- End of Fake Fukushima Arc -

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A breath is made, the coldness all around the figure coating their jacket with falling snow, his body shivering; he rubs his hands and covers his mouth as he breathes, trying to warm himself. His eyes see the shimmering twilight of the moon, his face calm but his mind races.

"Who... am I?" He gently whispers as he asks himself, he grabs a stool and seats down in front of the end of his balcony, as he remembers the one memory... the one moment he can't get out of his head.

- 2 Weeks Ago -

"Even though we don't get to see each other often, I know you still care about us and your mother, but you're about to graduate now... Jisei... What do you want? Do you want to follow in my footsteps to protect others... to protect... us... from "them"? Or do you take another path and live an ordinary life?" the tall man states, his back facing Jisei, his foot on the other side of the door.

"Who do you want to be? An Ishiin? Or someone else entirely?" He asks as he grabs his coat from the rack and his military cap on top of it. He puts both of them on, the massive coat covering his formal uniform, his cap covering his short and sleek military cut.

"I don't know who you are... son... and I'm afraid... I won't have any more time to know you better..." he sadly says, putting his hands inside the pocket of his coat, and in opening the doorknob, he replies with one last statement.

"I'm going away for a while, this might be the last meeting we'll have... I'm sorry if I'm dumping all of this responsibility on you... but you have to protect both Natsuno and Inari..." he declares, and in sighing, he says-

"I might die..." He mumbles, with his other foot about to step outside the door. His sleeve is suddenly pulled by Jisei's hand.

"What do you mean you might die?" He bluntly asks, his hand tightening around his coat, his dad's face tensing up. The snow entered, covering both of them and the insides of their home.

"I have to fight them, no matter what; even if I'll die for it... I'll do it for all of you... for what they've done..." He replies, embracing his son, his arms tightening against him. Jisei's breath warmed his chest... their embrace lasted for a long time, the snow continuing to fall...

"Both of us never really knew each other well... I was too busy fighting them off... too focused on all of them. I won't be there for you... when you need me the most... I didn't mean to ignore you, I didn't mean to... ignore your mother and your little sister..." he lets go of Jisei, with both of his feet outside the door, he faces Jisei and looks him straight in his eyes.

"Remember what I thought you... I may have only shown you how to exert your aura, and not to harness it. But you need to be ready for the worst. I'll have a fellow friend teach you in my stead, I won't know whether you want to follow me and become an Ishiin Agent... or just live a normal life. Just know that... whatever path you choose. Protect your family, protect both Inari and Natsuno for me..." he says, putting his hand on Jisei's forehead and making a mess out of it. He turns away from him, his back facing him once again.

"I'm sorry it had to end this way..." he states, walking away from Jisei, his figure fading into the dark and cold wind, the blizzard swallowing him whole. The last thing Jisei saw of his father, was his arm raised upwards and then the same arm settling downwards to nestle inside his pocket.

"Dad..." he softly says, his eyes continuing to stare into the blowing wind and snow that swallowed his dad whole. He loudly shuts the door closed, his facing face facing downwards, his tears dropping into the snow-covered floor.

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"Why?!?"

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With the wind continuing to blow harder, Jisei's dad plows through all of it, his lower half, knee-deep in all of the gathering snow. He grabs the sleeve of his uniform and reaches for his phone inside of it. He dials a familiar number, a number he hasn't called in a long long time. The dialling rings out of the speaker, his ear pressed against it.

It keeps ringing and ringing until a voice is heard.

"Huh- is this Atsushi? Sup!" the cheerful voice replies, the man smirks at hearing his old comrade's voice once more.

"Yeah... I have one last favor to ask you... Kakomi" he says, reaching for another item contained in his coat's pocket, a crumpled and wrinkled packet of cigarettes. He grabs it and looks inside, only a single bent cigarette remains. He puts it between his lips, unlit and then between his fingers.

"Look after Jisei for me... the higher-ups have given me their hardest mission yet. I don't think I'll survive this one... if I don't contact any of you in 3 weeks. I'm likely dead, don't come for me... I've got some unfinished business with them... it's just like the old times, with you at my side. And when you weren't as well" he states, walking in the street of their neighborhood, both lanes filled with all sorts of cars, he gets closer to a black car, his car. He grabs a lighter in the same pocket he took his "cigarette" from and lights it.

The smoke trailing upwards from the end of his cigarette, with its bent form in the middle of it, he puts his fingers in between this spot and takes it out of his lips, exhaling the fumes.

"Support Jisei in any way you can, but when he is willing to fight. Teach him to use his power when I can't... protect my family... Suzushii, I trust you. I know you won't let me down... you never have..." he says, unlocking his car, its lights blinking as he opens the door and starts the engine.

"Atsu-kun... you have my word!" Suzushii reassured him, Atsushi smirks once again as he puts the cigarette in between in lips once more, the smoke circling around the car, he opens the windows, with him stepping on the gas.

"Goodbye... Suzu-san..." he whispers into his phone with Suzushii bidding him farewell as well, Atsushi currently heading for his death bed, his funeral... to the infamous crater that decimated its entire populace.

*beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep*

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The call ends...

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- 3 Weeks Later -

- Present Day -

- Graduation Day, Early Morning -

"Is this the place?... Senpai?" the voice asks, fixing his messy hair, he waits for the reply. The warmth exiting out of his mouth; clearly visible. The sun covered by the cloudy mist of the coldness... another voice replies.

"Kaizen Academy... yeah that's it. That's where he studies and is currently about to graduate from. I'm dealing with all of the infected schools one by one, our forces are spread too thin! For now, you're the only support Kaizen Academy gets. So do your best! And if necessary, you are authorized to use the "Modified" Protocol... but don't forget your main objective! Find Jisei Suzuto! And if he complies and is willing, use the protocol on him!"

"Copy that!" Rushiko says as he looks at the school, its two large white buildings separated and connected by the small bridges contained inside of them, the trees all stripped of their leaves as they survive the cold winter. The snow falling on his hair, he shakes it off, approaching the icy school grounds, murmuring.

"I guess this Jisei guy is here?"

- To Be Continued -

Ending Song: https://youtu.be/pyTY6Z-Fqzw / Where I End and You Begin - Radiohead