Shadowed Gaze: The Highserk War Saga - Chapter 0

The pleasant moment was abruptly ended by a shrill noise. Raizou Takakura reluctantly opened his heavy eyelids. His hug pillow was soaked with drool, and the blanket was so twisted that it was impossible to tell its front from its back. The source of the noise continued to ring beside his pillow.

Raizou, who changed his alarm sound randomly every day, was greeted this morning by an alarm themed after a time bomb. The sound, appropriate for the urgency of the morning, made Raizou’s eyes narrow. His blurry vision was of no help, so he fumbled around until his right hand finally grasped the alarm.

After dealing with the annoying confirmation screen, the noisy alarm finally silenced. He unplugged the charging cord and placed it on his desk. Then, Raizou finally rose from his bed, which creaked and groaned in protest, irritatingly reminding him of its age.

“Ah, I’m so tired,” he sighed.

Was it due to the late-night overtime, he wondered, trying to guess the cause of his fatigue. The email, sent just in time to meet the deadline, was already out. He should have been able to greet the morning with relief and a sense of accomplishment, but all that visited him was the lingering fatigue from the previous month. Contrary to his gloomy mood, the morning sun streamed brilliantly into the room through the open curtains. Raizou squinted and let out a small sigh.

He had been feeling off lately, almost in a terrible condition. When Raizou turned his neck, an unpleasant cracking sound echoed. To change his mood, he moved towards the washbasin. The aging floor creaked with every step he took, creating a duet with the sound of his bare feet. Reflected in the mirror was a man, Raizou Takakura, thirty-three years old, single. Wrinkles appropriate for his age and the accumulated fatigue under his eyes, he tried to smile as a form of resistance, but it didn’t change his aged appearance.

“Having a baby face is a blessing,” he mused.

He remembered how, even as a new employee, he was mistaken for a mid-level employee and was embarrassingly asked about future schedules at the site. To shake off his lethargy, he twisted the faucet, splashing cold water on his face and tidying his hair. When Raizou focused on the washbasin in front of him, he noticed, to his dismay, a significant amount of hair loss.

“You gotta be kidding me,” he muttered.

He hadn’t dyed or grown out his hair, living with a serious hairstyle, yet his hair roots seemed dissatisfied. Raizou vented his frustration at his own hair, but it was a futile effort. He took out milk from the fridge, a cup from the shelf, and sat at the desk. Before eating, he reached for the remote control on the table and turned on his habitual morning news program.

“In a recent incident, a group of young people who went to a certain city in a certain prefecture for a video shoot has gone missing. Additionally, it has been discovered that contact has been lost with thirteen members of the Ground Self-Defense Force who were involved in the search,” the TV reported.

“Off the coast of Yokohama Harbor, a container ship NTR, owned by ◯◯ Trading Company, and Ero-Sarline, belonging to Sarline Company, have sunk. The exact cause is unknown, but it seems both ships sank after receiving a huge impact below the waterline. There’s suspicion that an unidentified submarine might have collided with them—”

“It’s disturbing, isn’t it? These mysterious phenomena continue around the world. Just recently, there was an unexplained aurora incident in Tokyo. It’s as if the world is coming apart at the seams,” the commentator remarked.

The high-pitched commentator appeared on the screen. Although Raizou wasn’t fond of this commentator, he agreed with the comments. Since the end of last year, strange phenomena had been occurring around the world, on land, sea, and air. Raizou didn’t dislike watching dubious TV specials about a self-proclaimed shaman lady communicating with gods, an old man whose dog was taken by a green humanoid monster, or stories of mountains where all flora and fauna were destroyed in an instant. These stories, albeit suspicious, intrigued him.

“Hmph!”

He exaggeratedly opened a bag of store-bought bread and threw a piece into his mouth. The bread was sticky and excessively sweet, almost like an assault of sugar. He regretted trying the new melon chocolate caramel cream bread.

Frowning, he washed down the remaining bread with milk. In this manner, Raizou continued his morning routine, eventually noticing the ticking of the clock. It was the perfect time to catch the commuter train. After brushing his teeth, he began finishing up. His morning routine, perfected over more than a decade, was a breeze.

He put on his black socks, buttoned his ironed white shirt in record time, donned his suit, and strapped on his wristwatch. He was ready. He checked his essentials: business card holder, smartphone, and work bag – his “three sacred treasures.” With these, he felt he could handle any situation.

He put on his worn leather shoes and headed outside. Raizou knew there was a trick to closing his aging door – it needed a light lift and a quick turn of the lock. The cause was either the hinge or the overall aging of the apartment causing the door frame to warp.

As he stepped outside, Raizou momentarily recoiled from the stifling air, but bravely pushed forward. He made his way down the narrow hallway, panting as he descended the stairs. He nostalgically remembered how this was never a problem in his twenties.

With unsteady steps, only three stairs remained. As Raizou stepped down, he suddenly cried out, feeling something wrong in his body.

“Ugh, ah? Aaaaahh!”

The pain came abruptly. Without any warning, a severe pain gripped his chest. Raizou, enduring the pain, tumbled down the stairs.

He tried to stand, gripping the wall and objects around him, but the scorching pain in his chest and the feeling of being crushed were overwhelming, and he collapsed to the ground. The pain was unbearable. He struggled to breathe. Dizziness and a distorted vision added to his agony, and cold sweat poured from his forehead.

Unable to breathe properly and with his limbs failing to respond, Raizou could only look up at the sky. His hair, tidied before leaving the house, was now dirtied, and his half-open mouth was drooling. He reached out for help, but today, of all days, there was no one around.

His vision flickered at the edges, slowly darkening and narrowing. Although he didn’t understand what was happening to his body, Raizou realized the inevitable – he was dying.

“I don’t want to die. I still want to live.” As he gradually lost control of his body, Raizou slowly raised his right hand.

His trembling hand, resembling that of a frail deer, was tragically comical, but Raizou had no energy left to laugh.

He faintly remembered the weather forecast mentioning a clear day and warnings about heat and heatstroke.

The loud and annoying chirping of cicadas, which he had detested, was no longer audible. All Raizou could hear was his irregular breathing and the weakening beat of his heart.

Perhaps due to his darkening vision, Raizou started seeing hallucinations. The ground where he had collapsed turned black and swirled, and numerous shadowy dwarfs emerged, trying to drag him into the hole. It was like a scene from some travelogue.

Ah, a hallucination. This is the end. Faintly, he heard someone cheerfully calling his name, but he could no longer make it out. Raizou’s consciousness abruptly ceased.