prologue (1/2)

— And all life vanished

I want to tell a simple, hypothetical story

One day, when you woke up, you noticed the lights wouldn’t turn on

Thinking it was a power outage, you checked the breaker, but it wasn’t flipped

The sun had just begun rising, and yet none of your family members were in the house

And noticing this o outside to look for the up

First, no cars pass by The traffic lights aren’t even functioning

When you rush into the nearest convenience store, you find not a trace of life, and the automatic door doesn’t open for you

In a state of confusion, you return to your house to retrieve your bike, and using it, you head to the station As expected, there wasn’t a single car on the road, and you didn’t pass by a single person

Even after reaching the station, you find no one there

That place was one you were fa back and forth

Even in the o, and there was never a time when it was empty

Your anxiety changes to i for traces of human life

And eventually, your ination

Because, even with the changing scenery, there’s still no signs of anyone else

Before you realized it, you had stepped foot in the Capital, Tokyo

But still, there are no huins to make sounds

While you do feel slightly guilty, you enter a convenience store that caught your eye, leave soister, and take soiri with you

After finishi+ng your late breakfast, you begin to regain your composure

Resolving yourself to return to your on… your own ho the path you came

Buses, trains, and other for, and still, there are no signs of people

Of course, there are auto around everywhere

But like everything else, they’re empty: unmanned

It took o, but you arrive at your home

As expected, your family isn’t there

Looking at the single house that had suddenly lost its landlord, to suhts, you were tired

When you return to your roo It’s the room you’re familiar with

Reue, you spread yourself over your bed

All that enters your htmares

When you wake up, the sareeted you yesterday flows into your room

With a bit of hope, you look around all over your house, but your family isn’t there

For breakfast, you sierator

Yesterday, you had quietly skipped, but today, you decide to put on your uniform, and attend school

No one passes you on the familiar path you walk every day

And nothing changes when you arrive When you enter the school building, and make your way to your class, you find it empty

It was usually croith your classmates; quite a lively place

You arrived much later than normal, and it’s already around 10

The staff room is no different No one’s there

Having given up on school, you begin investigating your neighborhood

In order to find traces of whether a single hu other than yourself remained

But your efforts asted in vain

The only things you really found out were that all the stores were closed, and there wasn’t a single person to be found

You lie down in the middle of the main road, and think

Why is everybody gone? Why are you the only one?

And you reach a single idea

It ally trespass

You walk up to the house of your neighbors, who had been kind to you since you were little

The front door was locked, but the back as still open

Once you got in, of course, the scenery of someone’s house stretched out before you

But still, no one was there

And you noticed

— Sets of silverware, and dishes of food were laid out on the table

Quite an amount of time has passed since the food was cooked, so it’s dry and cold

You don’t know just how long it would take food to become like this

But you guess that it’s been around two to three days

Your trickling worries pour forth like a waterfall, and you burst out of the house

You continue breaking into every house in the neighborhood, and reach a single conclusion