Chapter 1 - The Absence of The Gods part 1
The dark clouds in the midday sky hung low, like a grey plastic film covering the whole of Tokyo.
“Is there anyone…… Is anyone here!”
The streets heading north from the south were empty, hurried footsteps coming closer could be heard, along with breathless gasps.
A woman in a fur coat ran out of the thick fog, the slim and tall stilettos under her foot twisting. They slipped out many times but she never stopped, as if something was chasing her from the back and it would be fatal for her if she even so much as paused a little.
The woman looked around. The doors of all shops were opened, the cars parked neatly on both sides of the street and the large LED screen above the mall was showing advertisements for new autumn products.
On the screen, the glamorous female celebrity grinned and was in the middle of saying something, but there was no sound.
Everything was the same as the usual weekend street scene, except there was no one, and no sound.
In the whole city, even the sound of the wind could not enter.
“Is there anyone! Please give a response!”
In the terribly quiet world, the woman could not win against the fear in her heart and she finally let out a cry, slowing down her pace.
Passing a wide junction, the heel of her right stiletto broke and she sprawled heavily on the asphalt road. The rough ground grazed her palms and knees and she could not support her body up for a long time.
As she was struggling, there were slow and heavy footsteps behind her, and the sound of steel dragging against the ground.
The woman raised her head, her eyes behind her scattered and messy hair widened, bloodshot and panicked.
Her eyes darted left and right but she could not see what was behind her. In a hurry, she clawed at the ground with both hands, dragging her weak body forward.
“Is anyone there, save me……”
The footsteps behind her were not rushed, and had a teasing leisure attitude.
Like a dying bird, the woman crawled forward with her broken body.
All of a sudden, she could not move. The sound behind her had also stopped.
She had been stepped on by someone.
Her entire body trembling, the woman’s hands clutched at the ground, her fake crystal nails turning outwards. “Who…… who will save me……”
“Who! Who will save me~”
A low masculine voice clumsily imitating her came from above, perverted pleasure underlying it.
At this moment, the point of view bypassed the woman and headed towards her back.
It was a little girl wearing a sweet purple cotton dress, holding an axe high in both hands.
“You got caught by me, you lost~”
The little girl opened her mouth but what came out was a mature masculine voice.
The girl raised the axe. She pointed it at the woman’s head, but then switched it over to the neck, as if she was the birthday girl at a birthday party looking for an angle to cut the cake.
“God, please help me.”
Feeling movement behind her, the woman on the ground trembled desperately, praying with her voice shaking. Her entire body was enveloped in fear.
The little girl paused for a moment and then showed a huge smile, expression almost hideous. “The gods aren’t home, HomoSapiens will play with you.”
The axe fell instantly, and dark red blood splashed onto the sweet cotton skirt.
In the centre of the empty and wide junction, the woman lying in a pool of blood with her gray eyes open was just like a crow lying on the black frozen ground that became a kind of landmark, as the blood flowed towards the four streets.
The little girl let go of the handle, letting the axe penetrate the woman’s throat and sank deeply into the ground.
Clapping her small hands, she hopped off the woman’s back.
Looking up at the dark clouds covering the city, the little girl’s lips curled.
“The game has started.”