Night arrived faster than it should have.
Not gradually.
Not naturally.
It was as if someone had taken the sky…and pulled a curtain over it.
One moment there was dim light.
The next—
Darkness.
Heavy. Sudden. Suffocating.
The strange system message still lingered faintly above the clouds, flickering like a broken screen embedded into reality itself.
Below—
The city was collapsing.
People were running everywhere.
Panic spread faster than fire.
Car horns blared endlessly.One crashed into another with a violent screech of metal.Glass shattered somewhere down the street, followed by screams.
It felt like the world had skipped straight to the end.
Maru grabbed Rishiro's sleeve tightly.
"What is happening?!"
Her voice wasn't angry this time.
It was shaken.
Uncertain.
Rishiro didn't answer immediately.
His eyes were fixed down the street.
Watching.
Calculating.
And then—
They saw them.
Figures.
Moving within the darkness.
Not clearly.
Not fully.
Just enough to know—
They weren't human.
Something darted across a rooftop.
Too fast.
Too light.
Too wrong.
Another shape leaped from one streetlight to another, its silhouette bending unnaturally mid-air.
Daichi narrowed his eyes, trying to focus.
"…Those aren't people."
Rishiro nodded.
"Yokai."
The word settled heavily in the air.
And as if reality itself wanted to prove him right—
One of them appeared clearly.
A creature dropped from above—
CRASH.
It landed on the roof of a parked car.
The metal caved in instantly under its weight.
The alarm exploded into noise.
A woman nearby screamed and turned to run.
The creature's head snapped toward her.
Then—
It moved.
Fast.
Too fast.
It lunged after her.
Hikari took a step back, her voice barely steady.
"…We can't stay here."
Rishiro finally spoke.
"No."
His tone was calm.
Too calm.
"If we stay outside…"
He looked at the spreading darkness, at the movement crawling through it—
"…we die."
That was enough.
"RUN!"
They moved instantly.
All four of them sprinted down the street.
Their footsteps mixed with dozens of others.
People pushed past each other, not caring who they hit.
Some tried forcing their way into shops.
Others ran blindly—
Straight into danger.
The city had lost all order.
It was survival now.
Nothing else.
Rishiro's eyes scanned everything as he ran.
Entrances.
Shadows.
Movement.
Escape routes.
Then—
He saw it.
"There."
He pointed ahead.
At the end of the road stood an old house.
Wedged between two abandoned buildings.
Forgotten.
Its windows were shattered.The paint peeled off in long strips.The structure leaned slightly, like it had already given up.
The front door hung open.
Just enough.
Just inviting enough.
Maru didn't hesitate.
"Inside!"
They rushed toward it.
One after another—
They slipped inside.
And—
SLAM.
The door shut behind them.
For a moment—
Silence.
Heavy breathing filled the room.
Each of them trying to catch up to reality.
Daichi leaned against the nearest wall, sliding down slightly.
"…This place is creepy."
He wasn't wrong.
Dust coated everything.
The floor.
The broken furniture.
The air itself felt thick and stale.
It smelled old.
Damp.
Like something had been rotting there for a long time.
Maru wrapped her arms around herself, scanning the room.
"At least nothing followed us…"
Hikari adjusted her glasses slowly.
Her expression didn't relax.
"…Actually."
Everyone turned to her.
She hesitated.
Then said it anyway.
"Yokai often live in abandoned places."
Silence.
Maru blinked.
"…You're joking, right?"
No one answered.
Then—
Creeeeak.
The sound cut through the air.
Slow.
Sharp.
Unnatural.
Everyone froze.
It came from the hallway.
A narrow corridor stretched deeper into the house.
Dark.
Too dark.
At the far end—
A closet.
Its door—
Moved.
Creeeeak.
It slowly opened on its own.
No wind.
No reason.
Just—
Movement.
From the darkness inside—
Something shifted.
Something alive.
Something watching.
Then—
A figure crawled out.
Slowly.
Painfully.
A small, old woman.
Her limbs bent awkwardly as she dragged herself forward.
Her hair was thin, tangled, falling over her face.
Her clothes hung loosely, covered in dust and stains.
But her eyes—
Her eyes were wide.
Too wide.
Unnaturally stretched open.
Staring.
Directly at them.
Then—
She screamed.
"AAAAAAAH!"
The sound was sharp.
Piercing.
Inhuman.
Maru jumped back instantly.
"WHAT IS THAT?!"
Hikari's voice trembled.
"…A yokai."
The creature twitched.
Then suddenly—
It leaped forward.
Its arms stretched out unnaturally long, reaching toward them like claws.
Daichi panicked.
"RUN!"
Everything exploded into chaos.
The creature rushed forward, screaming again—
"AAAAAAAH!"
Maru stumbled backward, nearly losing her balance.
Daichi knocked over a chair trying to turn around.
It crashed loudly against the wall.
Hikari fumbled, almost dropping her glasses.
The narrow hallway became a mess of movement and fear.
Too tight.
Too close.
No space to escape properly.
And in that exact moment—
Three voices overlapped—
"AAAAAAAH!"
But—
One voice…
Didn't scream.
Rishiro stood still.
Just for a second.
Watching.
His eyes locked onto the creature.
That same faint smile slowly returned to his face.
Not fear.
Not panic.
Something else.
Something dangerous.
His grip tightened on the chainsaw.
The sound of its engine—
almost felt like it wanted to start on its own.
"…So this is how it begins," he muttered quietly.
And then—
He stepped forward.
End of Chapter 11