December 24, 201X --
The christmas present
Tokyo got that day
was death and destruction.
“Whatever...”
I muttered thoughtlessly.
The Overlook Floor was
bustling with tourists and couples, among others.
Constructed with great fanfare to 35 floors above ground,
this building was one of Tokyo’s latest hotspots.
“What’s so fun about this?”
Coming to Shinjuku to shop
was her idea.
Though I didn’t have a reason to refuse,
I didn’t want to go either.
Shuffled about by the crowd,
I felt only a deepening sense of exhaustion.
What’s the point of something like this?
(Just what...)
(What will it take before I’m satisfied...?)
On one hand were such self-deprecating thoughts.
I would always be somewhat irritated,
like I had some sort of complaint.
Yet, as to just what I was irritated by,
how I could get over it, and the like?
I didn’t have a single clue.
(Maybe there’s nothing in me.)
Nothing to believe in.
Nothing to chase after.
Nothing to love–
“...huh?”
A ringtone.
My cellphone screen showed a newly arrived email.
The sender... had no name.
And written in the message was just one thing:
“Will you decide?”
Attached to the email was a file.
“What... is this –”
I opened the file.
D.I.O. system, compile, link...
“I’m back!”
Abruptly, the woman returned, having bought a drink.
“Do you want coke or orange juice?”
she asked with a carefree smile.
With a dampened demeanor,
I closed my cellphone,
turned around, and tried to respond. It was then –
Flash!
Several minutes earlier.
Atop a screen surveilling the Tokyo airspace,
countless dots of light suddenly lit up.
“What the hell is this?!”
“I- I don’t know...
but... they seem like missiles, sir.”
“Missiles?”
“Yes... most likely... ICBM...”
“Bullshit!
Why’d something like that not show up until now?!”
“That...just now, all of a sudden...
it was like they just suddenly appeared in midair...”
“What are the Americans at Yokohama doing?!”
The bellows blended together, the self defence force in shambles.
As if to laugh at them,
the light atop the radar screen turned
and launched towards the capital.
Anyone could see it. They couldn’t make it in time.
And thus, Tokyo was forever illuminated,
as all things disappeared into a curtain of nuclear light.
Anything caught in that burning light
would melt and evaporate.
All the while holding millions of people,
the city of Tokyo was struck by a hot gale
leading to the total collapse
of the skyscrapers crowding about.
Countless bodies were swept away,
alive, yet burning, as vehicles scattered by
in every wrong direction,
like children throwing toys away.
Asphalt was upturned.
Traffic lights lay helplessly melted together.
Window glass had all turned to dust.
The screams, the death throes, the voices calling out names,
all were drowned out by thundorous roaring.
December 24, 201X --
The flames of nuclear war burned Tokyo to the ground.
In an instant, the capital was brought to a halt,
and an innumerable amount of lives
was mercilessly taken. Simultaneously,
an electromagnetic pulse born from the explosion
destroyed the capital’s electrical grid,
wiping out what remained of Tokyo’s information systems.
The young pair was no exception.
All thought was swallowed up by light, their fields of view stolen,
bodies floating in the air like leaves.
A torrid wind struck against their skin.
Like stones,
bits of debris came bumping towards them,
along with the sounds of roars, screams, cave-ins, and explosions.
Then...
Silence.
Surrounded by rubble
were the bloody, dust-laden figures of
those who narrowly survived.
And they watched on
to see the shadows of countless monsters within the flames.
Above the ruins of Tokyo,
beings that once existed only in myths and legends,
now furnished with flesh and blood,
strode across a mountain of corpses.
As if to loudly herald
the end of Man.
Seemingly being summoned by something,
they headed towards that place.
That is,
given that all other buildings had crumbled away,
towards that still-towering edifice.
It just may have been
a present day Tower of Babel.
Just...
how long had it been...?
I rose amongst the debris,
and from across a wrecked window,
I saw a closed sky past
low, drooping, ash-colored clouds.
Lightning rumbled in the distance.
“What... the hell’s happened...?”
Surrounding me were what seemed to be
ruins from a movie.
Either that, or an active warzone.
Even though until just before now,
it would have been peacefully buzzing with
people and conversation.
Surrounded by rubble,
I spotted a familiar hoodie.
On an outstretched fingertip sharply shone
a ring that we had
bought together at some point.
“......”
Her death was clear for any to see.
A fallen beam had pierced her back
like a steel grave marker,
firmly planting her to that spot.
Through the wreckage,
rivers of blood oozed away.
Yet, as if my heart had died,
no feelings arose at all.
Why...? Even though my lover died...
Not a single tear would come out.
Huh.
So that’s it.
That’s the sort of person I am.
It’s not that I didn’t love her.
Nor that I didn’t care.
It’s just... inside me, probably...
there’s something definitively broken.
I grasped my staggering head,
and started dragging my aching legs away.
At the very least, I had to get out of here.
I don’t know what happened, but...
That moment,
from my jean’s back pocket,
my phone flickered with a dodgy light.
It seemed like something’s heartbeat.
Perhaps, even, a pulse,
fomenting the end of the world.