PREVIEW : 

This night, Kazuto met a 10 year old kid named Ashton. Ashton lost his family as well and decided to search for other survivors with Kazuto.
From what Kazuto has heard, a virus has been spreading through out the world and is contagious.
Transported by the air, the virus can kill a lot of people which forced the people to wear masks and wash their hands, daily.

During that same night, Kazuto met a mysterious shadow, thinking that it might be the shadow that Ashton saw, back at his house.

It's already morning when Ash came to wake me up from my sleep.

"Kazu, wake up. We should go to my house early.. I'm starting to get hungry." he said with his stomach rumbling very loudly.

I rubbed my eyes and took a deep long stretch. I went to the bathroom with the katanas between my arms, again.

I looked around the toilet and it came to my mind.. the toothpaste must be expired and my brush must be rusty and nasty.

I tried pulling the lever to make the water come out of the pipe. There was a bit that came out so I took advantage of it and washed my hands.

The usual water shortage comes after 2 months or so which means.. every serious actions and events has been starting about four or five months.

Ash came into my bedroom, searching for me. "I came here to inform you that we're leaving in 3 minutes or so. Kazu? Kazuto, you there? H-hello?" he said while shivering.

"I'm here, Ash. No need to be scared. I was just washing my hands in the bathroom so no biggy." I said while coming out of the bathroom.

We left the house a few minutes later, and took a few noodles that didn't expire during the time.

"Ash? This shadow you saw back home, was it the shadow of a man or a woman?" I asked.

"I'm not sure but the shadow I saw near the staircase seemed like a man's.. I would say it's a teenager just like you and about 17 or 18 years old." he said, putting his hands on each other.

I could say that he was trying hard to help me. He just didn't know that he was the one helping me and not the opposite. I thanked him and kept going.. even if I felt bad for a reason or another.

"Ash.. I need to tell you something serious." I told him, looking at him with my serious eyes. "I-is there something wrong, Kazuto? You look.. pale." he said, while stuttering a lot.

"You told me about this person you saw back home, yesterday, am I right?" I asked him. "What is this question? I talked about this to you, even today." he said while giving me an indescribable look.

"Just answer the question, Ashton. Did you or did you not tell me about the weird person that was at your house, yesterday?" I asked him, once again.

"Yes, Kazu. Now tell me why're you asking me this question when you already knew about it. It is weird of you to ask me a question that you already know the answer for." he said with a face as serious as mine.

I'm surprised by the way he's acting.. I never really thought he'd be acting towards me like that. I still need to tell him, though. His life and mine might be in danger because of this situation.

"I saw it.. the shadow. This shadow didn't really seem like the description you gave me. The shadow I saw had.. a knife on it's hand. I think that person is trying to kill survivors. I'm still not sure but just in case, we'll have to be careful around here.." I said while looking around us.

"W-what?! A person is trying to kill survivors?! Isn't it supposed to be a good thing that there are survivors around?! Did he kill our family?!" he panicked.

I understand his feelings.. while we're searching for survivors, he's killing them. Good thing he left the house before the killer could see him. I shouldn't have screamed at him, when I heard he ran away from home.

"We should try to be discreet and prevent from showing ourselves to that person.. which means we should try and lower our voice. If you continue screaming and the killer is right beside us, what would we do?" I told him while trying to calm him.

The questions I'm asking myself Is if he's trying to kill people? If he was, why would he be killing them? Does he know where the others are? Is he going to kill us as well? Was he the one responsible for the family of Ash and I? How many people did he kill so far? Why does he walk around carrying a knife?

While i was in my deep thinking, I heard a voice calling out to me. "Ka.. Kazu.. Kazuto! Are you listening to me?" Ash screamed "Uh? Y-yes! Sorry.. I spaced out for a bit, there." I explained to him.

While I was thinking some more, I saw something near the corner of the road. I held Ash's hand to prevent him from going towards it. "Is there something wrong? You seemed like you saw a ghost, just now." Ash whispered.

He knew something was wrong and I'm glad he whispered. If that person heard his voice, something bad word good would've happened.

"Listen to me, buddy. There's someone over there waiting to get a real beat down. I don't know if it's the killer or if it's the killer but you have to stay right beside me." I said worried that something might happen to Ashton because of me.

I took both of my katanas. I started doing exercising yesterday, anyways. I took my stance that my teacher thought to me. It was the defensive and offensive stance.

Ash saw me and took it the wrong way. "You could walk all along? Why did you not tell me?!" he screamed. "Stop screaming, you dimwit.. he might hear us. Don't think I'm a lazy person.. I've been doing some training while you were sleeping. I knew that maybe we'd encounter the killer so I pretended to have my legs numb." I explained.

"Can I know why you were pretending in the first place? Why did you hide the truth from me knowing that I'm on your side? Do you think I'll betray you or something?" he asked. He's asking too much questions and not concentrating on the person who's, now, running away.

"No time to have a conversation, right now! He's running away. Let's go, right now!" I screamed while running after the person.

Damn! I was carried away by Ash's problem that I completely forgot about this mysterious person. Why did Ash even think that he'd be betraying me? Why does he even think so lowly of me in the first place?

The person changed courses and ran right. I couldn't run properly because of my legs but i took it as a training.

I was supposed to have my national swords competition. I was very good and was the best in the city. I started doing it after my father. My father did a case on one of my best friend. I used to have a best friend but he went missing when I was at a young age.

They found the body after 3 months in a cabin. Apparently, he's been abused by his father after his mother died. When I mentioned his family, he'd start acting weirdly and say that there is a monster in his house. I told it to my father but he didn't care. He thought he was watching too much horror movies.

When my friend died, my father started panicking thinking that he could've survived if he went to investigate his house. My father's a famous inspector and the most intelligent of his company. He was the one that assumed that he was abused based on his bruises.

I cried for 3 days straight without leaving my room.. that's when my father came into my room and explained that I could learn self defense. In case I'm in a bad situation, he made me do sword training and physical training. In the physical training, I'd do boxing, kung Fu, karate, archery and yoga.

I suffered a lot, to be telling the truth but i manages to survive well and got a good body. Now, it's quite the opposite. I should restart my training and buy some food and clothes.

The person I was pursuing stopped midway and turned around. I couldn't really see the face because of the red cloak he was wearing. "Stop.. please." I heard.

"W-what now? Did I hear that right or did you just say stop? How do you want me to stop when you were holding a knife in your hand yesterday?! I don't even know your purpose or why you even held a weapon." I screamed.

The person took the cloak down. It was a.. woman! "I think you've mistaken me for someone else, actually.. i thought you were the person holding the knife and that you were doing something with that young boy." she explained.

"You too, huh? I'm sorry, my mistake. But may I know how you knew about the killer? Did you see him somewhere?" I asked the woman. That's when I heard footsteps. I turned around to see that Ash was there, out of breath.

"Miranda?! Is that you?!" Ash screamed. "A-ash! What are you doing with him and not with uncle Jeff?!" she screamed. I guess they know each other since they know each other's names. 

"Umm.. pardon? What's going here? You guys know each other?" I asked, trying to process what was happening, right now.

"Right! Kazuto, this is my cousin, Miranda and Miranda, this is my friend, Ash. We met each other beside his house. I found him crying on the ground." he said with a look. "That's true. I was happy that he came or I would've been all alone, not understanding anything that was happening. I'm glad that there's four survivors that we've met." I said while smiling.

Miranda turned away and looked at me, again. She came towards me and started frowning at me. "If you think that you can flirt with me, think about anything dirty or even make me like you, that won't work!" she shouted.

I looked at her weirdly before explaining myself. "Umm.. I never said that I'd do anything like that. I'm not those sort of boys. I don't do anything wrong to do girls. In fact, i don't even care about them. You shouldn't get carried away, Miranda. Anyways, It's nice meeting you!" I said while smiling.

She looked surprised when I said that. What's gotten into her?