災伴 (Saiban)

Chapter One (Yoshida Orou)

"When the world ends, you can find me still holding your hand, alright?"

"Yeah, right." I kick the corpse next to my feet away, my brown eyes stinging. I squat down and grab it by the silky strands of black hair, staring directly into those empty irises. My vision begins to blur. "If you were gonna be here, why the hell did you die on me, huh, Haru-kun?!" I yell, my throat tightening enough to make my voice break at the end. "We're at the goddamn end of the world now, so where are you?!"

I feel a hand on my shoulder — Klein Yohei, the blue-eyed half-German who towers over the rest of us. "Yoshida-san, calm down—"

"I'm not gonna fucking calm down!" I slam my fist backwards, shoving him away. "He's gone! Don't you fucking get that? He's..." I wipe the tears starting to fall on my cheeks as I gasp for air. It feels like my lungs are collapsing— I see the normally bubbly Tanaka Hana flinch away silently from my outburst and the corpse. "H-He's..."

Yamaguchi Tameko gets on her knees and hugs me to her chest. "Shh, breathe..."

The alley we're in is cold and dark, hidden away from the rest of broken-down Tokyo. It used to be a busier road, I think, but a few of the buildings have caved in by now, turning it into a narrow, difficult-to-transverse passage between this district and Shibuya. I release Haru's body and it slouches against the fallen sign for a host club. Blood splatters are dried across it already, and his fresh blood adds a few more stains for the collection. The sky is gray with the edges of dusk, the silhouettes of horrors visible...

My eyes go back to Haru's body with a sniffle. "Why'd you have to leave me?"

There's the sound of claws dragging against pavement... a screech, a growl... Yohei grabs my shoulder, pulling me back from Tameko's embrace and to my feet. "We have to go. Your yelling brought them, I think."

I wince, suddenly forced out of my anger and grief into a stab of guilt. "I'm sorry, I—"

"Let's not blame anyone, okay?" Tameko gets up, dusting off her skirt.

Sorazawa Enkai grabs a timer out of their bag, sets it to three minutes, and throws it into the street further away from us. They grin at me, their eyes flashing a bit crazily (though it could just be the yellow-colored contacts). "Time to get going, losers!" They were a cosplayer before the world went to Hell, and it still shows — they maintain the galaxy coloring in their pixie cut, they somehow find time to get make-up that looks like a certain demon character's face markings done, and even if their outfits aren't based on characters anymore, each one looks straight out of an anime.

We begin trekking across the debris to get into Shibuya, where our base is — a generous term that makes it sound much better than it is, but still the best one. The timer goes off in the street as I duck under a fallen beam held up dubiously by an electric line. I don't even dare to glance back at the noises of the Saiban behind us — the terrible creatures that caused the world we knew to end two years ago. A moment's hesitation could mean death against those things.

"Flyer's heading closer to ground level," Yohei informs us quietly, finding a hole in the rubble to hide inside.

I dart under some stray cardboard as the others find their own hiding places, holding my breath. We'd been lucky enough to kill one Saiban today with only one death on our part, as much as it pains me to know it. Avoidance is the best strategy. I cover my mouth with both hands to avoid any hyperventilation and try sneaking a peek through the small finger holes in the side of the box.

The Saiban has landed near us and seems to be surveying the area now. It looks to be about seven feet tall with large, yellow eyes taking up a good amount of its squid-like head. It has the scrunched-up snout of a bat and the barbed tail of a scorpion, all coming in various tones ranging from pinkish gray to close to black. It has rubbery skin that seems to be expelling some sort of mucus, though the skin of the wings is rubbery — if you can call the strange appendages wings, that is. With only the singular joint of the shoulder coming down into a tentacle, with smaller tentacles spreading out like the "fingers" of the wing. The fact the things can lift the creature into the air is a miracle. Its two additional tentacles drag across the ground as it walks on the only bone-containing appendages it has, drool dribbling out from its thin lips.

It bares its sharp fangs as it screeches, creeping closer to the stack of boxes I'm hidden in. I feel my eyes stinging again, my skin moistening with sweat... I can almost smell the foul stench of the slime dripping off the Saiban, like piss mixed with fish... My hands tighten over my mouth as I suppress a gag. Don't scream, don't scream, don't scream... I hold my breath. It nudges the box lightly with one of the claws on its foot — a foot that's more like a hand, considering the thumb on it. I can feel my heart hammer against my chest, making my veins vibrate.

It sniffles and turns away, stalking away towards the sound of the still-running alarm.

I manage to release my breath, coughing and gagging. "Fuck..."

"Everyone okay?" Tameko whispers, peeking her head out of her hiding spot to check if the coast is clear.

"I'm great," Enkai replies, their voice equally sarcastic and tense. They keep it down enough to not be heard by the nearby monsters.  "Peachy. We almost just got caught by that thing and one of our friends is dead. What could be better?"

Yohei glares at them. "It could be a lot worse, Sorazawa-san. Stop."

"What, we're all supposed to be fine after a fucking Saiban tore out my boyfriend's heart in front of us?!" I demand, my voice a cross between a whisper and a scream.

"It's far from our first loss—"

"Can everyone just stop fighting?" Tameko asks quietly, swallowing. Her eyes look a little red. "Please."

Hana jumps in, putting on her usual cheerful face — if you look close, though, there's a strain to it that doesn't belong. "Right, right! We gotta get going, like, right now, huh? We don't wanna wait until it's dark to get home! And I can make some sweets for everyone with the new supplies, yeah?"

Enkai's stomach growls right then and they flush, looking away. "...fine. Whatever. Only for the food."

Hana lets out a small giggle. It's nervous and a bit sad, a little too tense, but it's a laugh nonetheless, and she's the type whose smile rushes through a room like wildfire. Soon, everyone is laughing quietly, despite how bleak the situation looks. We begin back on our trek to Shibuya, our conversations much lighter than the scene playing over and over again in our minds.