"People say you hear silence before the end… but I only heard the train."
The steel platform trembled beneath his boots.
Even after weeks of alarms, explosions, and sirens, the low hum of the bullet train felt unnatural — too smooth, too calm. Like it didn't belong to the same dying world.
Tatsuya Arakawa, seventeen, adjusted the straps of his bag with one hand while the other clutched his sister's tiny fingers.
Nana, eight years old, wore her favorite yellow hoodie — the one with the stitched bunny ears. The hood was pulled over her short black hair, her sketchbook held tightly against her chest like a shield.
The platform at Kagutsuchi Terminal was crowded, but quiet.
Too quiet. No shouting. No pushing. Just exhausted, trembling survivors with empty eyes, waiting like ghosts. Above them, drones hovered silently, scanning barcodes and body heat.
Anyone with the wrong signal… wouldn't board. Tatsuya didn't look at them. He couldn't. Not after what happened to his neighbors last night. Not after the screaming. Not after the way their baby didn't stop crying until—
No. He gripped Nana's hand tighter.
They had one goal: Board Raijin-01. Reach Amahara. That was the plan.
That's what the soldiers said. That's what the news screamed before going dark.
But as they moved closer to the gate, Nana tugged at his sleeve. He looked down. She wasn't looking at the train.
She was staring at the sky. "Onii-chan..." she whispered, "Why is the sun... not moving?"
Tatsuya blinked. The sun was stuck behind thick, blood-orange clouds — glowing like it had paused mid-fall. Maybe it was illusion. Maybe he was too tired.."Don't worry. It's just the weather," he lied, and smiled softly. But Nana didn't smile back.
She hugged her sketchbook tighter.
Final boarding call. Compartment 3. Tatsuya Arakawa. Nana Arakawa. Proceed. The voice was robotic. Cold. Like it didn't care if they were human.
As they stepped onto the silver ramp, Tatsuya finally looked at the train.
RAIJIN-01. 12 compartments. Armored. Slick black metal, glowing blue underlights. It didn't look like a rescue. It looked like a machine built to survive a war… or end one.
He stepped in. Nana followed, slower, her small shoes echoing on the floor. The inside was... too clean. Smelled like metal and antiseptic. Cold air. Dim white lighting. Row after row of silent passengers. Nobody spoke.
Only the sound of the doors closing behind them.
CLANG.
The world outside vanished in an instant.
They found their assigned seats. Compartment 3, Seat 4A and 4B. Nana climbed in first, setting her sketchbook in her lap. She still hadn't looked at the other passengers.
Tatsuya sat beside her, heart still pounding. He tried not to meet anyone's eyes. Tried to pretend this was just another train ride. But just as he exhaled... Nana whispered again.
Softer. More certain this time.
"Onii-chan… this train is lying."
"It's not taking us to safety…"
Tatsuya turned, startled. "What do you mean?" Nana's eyes weren't scared.
They were sad.
She opened her sketchbook.
The page showed something freshly drawn — a long, black train...
...and behind it, shadows of screaming people being left behind. The train began to move. Not with a jolt. Not with a roar. But a whisper.
A ghost sliding across rusted rails. The lights inside flickered once. Then steadied. A soft mechanical chime echoed through the compartment.
"Welcome aboard RAIJIN-01. Destination: Amahara.
Please remain in your designated seats. Any passenger found tampering with system protocols will be… removed."
That pause before the word "removed" was not accidental. Tatsuya's eyes flicked to the glass window. The city of Kagutsuchi slid past—black towers, empty streets, smoke curling like dying breath. Within seconds, the ruins were gone. Only forest now. A wilderness that had reclaimed everything.
Except them.
He glanced at Nana. She was scribbling again, fast—charcoal pencil racing across the paper. Her drawings were always strange, but this one…
This one was a seat.
Their seat.
And in the sketch… someone was sitting behind them.
But when he looked back—no one was there.
"Nana…" he began.
She didn't stop sketching. Her voice came low. "He's going to cough soon."
"What?" he whispered. "Then his eyes will go white." Before Tatsuya could ask more, a dry cough broke the silence. Exactly behind them.
His body froze. Slowly, he turned around.
A man sat there now. Mid-60s, wrinkled face, wearing a thick brown coat and gloves. He hadn't been there a moment ago, had he? His mouth hung slightly open. His head tilted.
Tatsuya's gut twisted. "Excuse me, sir—are you okay?" No response.
The man blinked once. Twice.
Then his eyes turned… pale. White. Clouded like ash. And then—he smiled.
It wasn't human.
Before Tatsuya could move, the train jolted. People gasped. The lights flickered again—this time longer. When they steadied, the man was gone. Just an empty seat. No coat. No trace.
A woman two rows back stood up, wide-eyed. "Where did—he was just—someone was just there!" "Who?" asked another. "No one boarded from Compartment 2 yet," a soldier murmured. Nana whispered, "He's still here. Just not sitting anymore."
Tatsuya stood, his fists clenched. "Is this a game?" he muttered. "They said this train was safe. They said—"He stopped. Because just then, a low rumble echoed from somewhere beneath the floor Like breathing. Wet, slow breathing. Something huge.
A young girl across the aisle began to cry. Her mother hushed her with trembling hands. Another passenger clutched a charm around his neck. A silent prayer. Everyone felt it.
Something had boarded with them. Something unseen. And Tatsuya knew, deep inside — this was only the beginning.
A new message appeared on the digital screen above:
"Next Stop: Station Zero."
But there was no such station on the official map. There was no announcement.No slowing.
No sound.
The train simply stopped. The hum of the Raijin-01 died like a breath held too long. Outside the windows: nothing.
Not a forest. Not a city. Just blackness. As if the world beyond had vanished into smoke. No stars. No land. No sound. Passengers began murmuring.
Tatsuya stood and approached the window slowly. There was a station sign, faint and flickering in red neon:
"Station Zero."
But this station wasn't on any survival maps. Was it a test? A malfunction? A trap? He turned to Nana.
She was staring at her drawing again—this one different.
A face. Distorted. Half-covered in a black conductor's mask. One eye showing. The other side… was cracked like glass. Below it, she had written:
"The man who watches."
Just then—The screens inside the train flickered. All of them. Passengers gasped as static filled every monitor. Then… a single image appeared:
A man in a long dark coat, his face hidden behind a metallic mask, eyes glowing faintly behind the slits. No name. No emotion. No movement. And then his voice came. Distorted. Hollow. Yet painfully clear.
"Welcome, passengers of Raijin-01."
"This train does not carry survivors. It carries sinners."
"You have not been saved. You have been chosen."
People looked around in confusion. A man tried the emergency button — it didn't respond. The masked figure continued.
"There are no rules here. Only judgment. Each stop... will test a part of your soul."
"At the end of this line lies Amahara — a sanctuary… for the few."The screen went black.
Silence. Then the floor beneath Tatsuya's feet vibrated again.
He turned — and that's when he saw it.
Blood.
A single drop.
Then another.
Falling from the luggage rack just behind them.
He ran over, pulling open the compartment—A man's body lay folded inside. His throat was slit open.
His name tag read: "Passenger 4C — Hiroshi Amano." Tatsuya's heart stopped. 4C was just two seats behind them. Someone screamed. People began to panic. The air turned sour with fear. Then Nana… slowly lifted her sketchbook again. She flipped the page.
There it was. A drawing of that exact man, bleeding from the same wound.
The sketch was time-stamped: ten minutes ago.
Tatsuya looked at her. "Nana… did you see him before? How did you—" She just stared ahead and whispered:
"It's not my drawing, onii-chan."
"The train made me draw it."
Behind them, the door to Compartment 4 slid open by itself. Darkness waited inside.And something… was breathing.
[END OF CHAPTER 1]