Chapter 126: The Crimson Tide

Tokyo.

Immediately after the Prime Minister broadcast the "State of Emergency" declaration across Japan, nearly every resident in Tokyo began to move in a panicked frenzy.

Royalty and the old nobility of Chiyoda Ward, the wealthy of Minato Ward, ordinary citizens, students at home, migrant workers, foreign immigrants, and so on—one after another, they sprinted down from suburban villas, high-rise luxury apartments, massive office buildings, and detached houses, all scrambling to find underground bunkers.

In an instant, the subterranean spaces once shunned by humanity as dark and damp became the most coveted sanctuaries. Subway stations were packed to capacity with people who had no intention of boarding a train; tunnels throughout the city were seized by residents and claimed as territory. As for the precious havens of underground parking garages, they were so overcrowded that car owners holding parking permits were forcibly shoved out by others. When these owners tried to call building management in their fury, the only response they received was: "The number you have dialed is currently unavailable." Even the building staff had fled.

"The worst..."

While the underground world became suffocatingly packed, the roads above were no better.

Although the Prime Minister urged citizens nationwide to prepare for a potential "nuclear strike," clever minds considered a simple reality: even if a nuclear attack occurred, the United States would surely target major urban centers to cripple Japan. Therefore, as long as one could escape the Tokyo metropolitan area and reach the countryside, the odds of being at the center of a nuclear blast were slim.

Consequently, these "clever" people piled into their cars, dragging their families along in a desperate attempt to flee Tokyo and find refuge in some rural outpost.

Unfortunately, this idea was not as "clever" as they imagined. When all these smart individuals acted simultaneously, the entirety of the Tokyo metropolis turned into a vast ocean of gridlock, rendering movement impossible.

Underground and above ground, everything was teeming with people.

Tokyo is a massive metropolis with a population of over ten million, with nearly ten million residing within the city proper. In ordinary times, these ten million people are largely hidden within the steel jungle, moving in and out of buildings—houses, businesses, izakayas—that easily contain them, to the point where many forget just how gargantuan a number "ten million" truly is.

Yet now, as all ten million moved at once, a drone hovering above the city would reveal roads turned into rivers of vehicles and human crowds, moving forward with the agonizing slowness of ants. If one were to visualize the population crowded into underground bunkers, those spaces would appear like chambers within a body, with humans filling them like red blood cells.

Amidst this frenzied, collective panic, only a few remained unmoved.

Some were simply stubborn.

In a detached house in Edogawa Ward, in a bedroom with no lights on, the fluorescent glow of a computer screen illuminated the body of its owner, who looked like a stack of differently sized rubber rings. The obese young man reached out with greasy fingers, pulling chips from a bag and chewing them voraciously. He wore headphones, his eyes fixed intently on the screen where a shimmering, two-dimensional anime girl stood, a happy smile on his face.

"Heh, hehe... Meriri-chan..."

Outside the bedroom door, the anxious voice of a man and the sobbing wail of a woman could be heard.

"...Forget him. If the kid won't open the door, let him rot!"

"But Kenichiro is our son..."

"We can have another son... and has he ever shouldered the responsibilities of a son? Since graduating high school, he’s been a shut-in, neither going to junior college nor working, just watching cartoons non-stop! He even snuck into our room at night to steal from our bankbook when we wouldn't give him money—a son like that is worse than having none at all! Come on, we have to go..."

"I... I still want to try to persuade him... Kenichiro... Kenichiro... Waaah..."

Soon, the sound of the woman being forcibly dragged away echoed outside the door, followed shortly by the heavy thud of the front door closing downstairs.

"Thump!"

The sound, barely audible beneath the beautiful singing voice of the anime girl, finally caused a slight tremor in the young man's gaze. He glanced at the "7dh" browser tab at the bottom of his taskbar, but it was only a fleeting look before he returned his attention to the stage where the anime girl performed.

"Japan being destroyed or whatever... how could that possibly happen? I don't want to leave Meriri, not even for a second. Heh, hehe..."

As the young man giggled, the girl in his headphones continued to dance and sing tirelessly, putting her heart into every note, her eyes sparkling like stars:

"The feeling of love is the greatest magic of all..."
"Have you ever seen that side of me..."
"Chu-mi, chu-mi! Meriri is firing at full power..."
"With you protecting me, Meriri will never be afraid..."

...

The crimson tide, like a massive fungal mat, surged past the National Diet Building and began to spread into the surrounding districts. In Chiyoda and Minato Wards, street after street fell. Because of the Prime Minister’s "State of Emergency" declaration, the roads were so packed that people were relentlessly swallowed by the blood-red ocean.

Piercing screams echoed one after another, only to fall into silence just as quickly.

If viewed from thousands of meters in the air, the expansion of this red ocean did not seem particularly rapid; it looked as if a god were carefully coloring the earth with a red crayon, circle by circle. However, to those caught within it, that seemingly gentle advance became a blood-colored frenzy that even a Bugatti Veyron could not outrun.

The red ocean was advancing at a speed of over one hundred meters per second.

One by one, one by one...

Human gender, age, and status no longer mattered. As the blood-red ocean washed over them, they were absorbed and became an inseparable part of it.

Those in the underground shelters had received the news via the internet. Realizing they had been deceived, they rushed out of their bunkers, but this only created greater chaos. Before the blood-red ocean even arrived, there were numerous incidents of violent death, which significantly delayed the escape of others.

The blood-red ocean, however, did not pause. It continued its relentless, steady, and inevitable expansion.

One hundred meters per second. One kilometer every ten seconds. Ten kilometers every one hundred seconds.

The entire Tokyo metropolis was only about two thousand square kilometers in size.

The fate of the city was sealed.

The world above fell silent. Those remaining underground were enveloped by the blood-red tide as it seeped through the cracks, becoming part of the whole.

In Edogawa Ward, the young man was still watching the graceful performance of the anime idol on his screen. Just then, the constant flashing of notifications in the status bar finally caught his attention.

The young man clicked them open impatiently, but the moment he did, his pupils dilated.

—The blood-red ocean is expanding?
—Blood Angel outbreak?
—Everyone is being pulled into it?

At that moment, he felt a movement, a slight tremor in the building beneath him. He stood up slowly, walked to the window, pulled back the curtain, and froze at the sight outside.

"Hiss..."

In the distance, between the buildings, a crimson ocean—as if the bloody sky of a dying sunset had been draped over the earth—was surging toward him with an unstoppable force!

He had no time to close the curtains, no time to retreat, no time to even utter a word.

In the blink of an eye, the red ocean crashed down, swallowing him whole!

The world before him turned into a void of blood-red crimson. Yet, the surging fear and cowardice in his heart vanished the instant the red ocean swept over him, replaced by a sense of supreme bliss.

Because of a voice. Because a voice of immense tenderness drifted from a distant world:

"Don't be afraid, we are all here—this will become the most beautiful world."

In an instant, his soul dissolved like ice cream in a microwave. With a faint smile, the young man became a tiny stream within the blood-red ocean.

"Meriri... I can finally go to your world."

The blood-red ocean swept past the house and continued to surge toward the distant neighborhoods.

Only on the computer screen did the anime girl’s singing continue, her sweat shining on stage, her smile filled with genuine joy:

"I believe I will surely meet you..."
"Until the very moment the world ends..."
"And when that time comes, I will gather my courage..."
"And on tiptoes—I will leave a kiss upon your forehead."