To scare the three masked men, she didn't flinch she stepped forward and drove her blade clean through the creature's temple. A wet crunch echoed as bone gave way. The creature convulsed once, letting out a choked gurgle, then collapsed in a heap of twitching limbs.
Its flesh was pale and torn, streaked with old, dried blood that cracked like dust beneath her boots. The stench was unbearable, rot, sweat, metal.
Horrible smell.
The three men said nothing. No recoil, no gasp. They just watched.
What the fuck? Why are they not reacting?
"You're coming with me," she muttered, voice low and steady, already walking an d without a word, they followed.
I wasn't sure what was more disturbing: the dead thing behind us or the living ones beside me.
Mizuki led them down a slope veiled in moss and silence. Trees gave way to broken concrete an old rural commuter line, long since buried by time and bureaucracy. A rusted sign barely clung to a crumbling arch
Kawasaki-shimo Station.
The middle one was the first to speak. His voice low, cautious behind the black knit of his ski mask. "Why here?"
Mizuki didn't answer.
She stepped onto the platform and swung open a metal access hatch with a practiced motion. The hinges screamed. No hesitation. She descended into the dark.
I followed.
The masked men hesitated. Then one, tallest, I guessed grunted and followed. The others came after, wordless. One by one, into the dark.
Belowground.
Flickering bulbs revealed a narrow corridor of tunnels and maintenance rooms, half-collapsed. Damp, suffocating. The only sound: our footsteps and the metallic drag of something alive further in.
Mizuki stopped at a door. Reinforced, welded shut with metal plates, reinforced with chain. Her hand brushed it, casual.
The thing behind it howled.
Cannibal?
It scraped and slammed into the door like it had no bones left, just rage. The sound was wet and hungry.
The shortest one stumbled backward.
Mizuki didn't flinch. "He turned last week. Still fast. Strong. I keep him down here. So I don't forget."
Is this why she leaves early?
None of the strangers moved.
She faced them.
"I want names."
Silence.
"You're wearing masks," she said. "That tells me you're hiding something. From me, from each other."
"I don't follow people with secrets," Mizuki said coldly. "So either you take those off and speak, or I leave you down here with him."
No bluff, no sarcasm.
The one with the buzzcut outline under the mask, he one who always tried to speak first, shifted uneasily. His voice was hoarse. "You don't give orders."
Mizuki tilted her head. "Then go ahead. Stay behind. See if he prefers your face."
The thing she was holding growled, for a moment, the mask man faltered.
Then, slowly, the tallest reached up and pulled the ski mask off.
Short white-blond buzzcut, his smirk gone.
"Vale," he muttered.
The one with glasses behind thick lenses hesitated, then followed.
Round face. Shaky hands.
"…Zai."
Only the last stayed masked.
Mizuki turned her back to the others, walking toward him.
"Take it off."
He didn't move.
"You think I won't make you?" she asked softly.
Still nothing.
Then, at last, he lifted his fingers. Pulled the mask back.
He has cat-like eyes. Narrow and unreadable.
"Takeshi."
Mizuki nodded.
Then walked away.
"This is how it works," she said. "I don't care who you were before. I care who you answer to now."
No one spoke. We left the tunnel in silence, shadows clinging to us like something alive but I knew the real thing Mizuki was testing wasn't fear.
It was obedience and they'd all passed, or barely.
Zai nearly dropped his bat when he stepped in.
"Holy shit," he breathed.
The door clicked shut behind us.
Mizuki said nothing. Just started unzipping her jacket, folding it neatly, placing it over a chair.
The others looked at each other. Then Vale peeled off his gloves. Dropped his pack.
Zai sat first, sinking into the couch like it was a shrine. His fingers pressed into the cushion, like he didn't trust it to be real.
"Is this—" he looked around, voice low. "Was this all yours before?"
"No," Mizuki said. Was that a lie?
Takeshi walked through the kitchen archway like he was afraid to disturb something. "You stocked this all before the panic?"
Mizuki nodded once.
Zai exhaled. "God."
Vale crouched by the crate of water bottles and hesitated.
"Can I…?"
"You can drink," Mizuki said. "One each. Eat after. Wash your hands first."
No one argued. They obeyed. Even Vale. In the kitchen sink, water flowed from backup tanks. They took turns washing silently, one by one. There were towels. Clean ones.
Takeshi sat last. His hands were shaking, just a little. I noticed. So did Mizuki.
Zai had taken off his boots. His socks were mismatched, one torn. He clutched the water bottle like a relic. "Feels like my aunt's house," he whispered. "Before…"
He didn't finish.
Vale leaned back on the floor, arms spread. His voice was quieter now. Almost hollow. "I used to bitch about dishes. Stupid shit. Left my PS5 on pause the day we ran."
"You had a PS5?" Zai asked.
"Yeah." He laughed, but it wasn't real. "Left it on Ghost of Tsushima."
Zai smiled at that, brief and real.
Takeshi didn't say anything. But he looked at the books on Mizuki's shelf a long time.
"This isn't a shelter. This is a weapon."
Zai blinked. "What?"
"This house," she said. "This food. The supplies. The warmth. It's not here to make you comfortable. It's here to keep you functional."
Vale sat up, jaw clenched.
"You live here," he said. "Alone?"
She looked at me and tilted her head. "No."
A pause.
Then Takeshi said, flat and low: "You want soldiers."
She didn't deny it.
Instead, she turned, opened a closet door, and pulled out a folded tarp.
"Drop your gear," she said. "No weapons without permission. No food hoarding. No leaving without clearance."
Zai raised his hands, mock surrender. "We're not fighting."
Vale hesitated but began unloading. I saw a knife, flashlight, compass, some kind of battery pack. He placed it all on the tarp.
Takeshi laid his blade down last.
Then, like they'd rehearsed it, each of them spoke.
"I'll follow your rules," said Zai.
"I'll listen," Vale added.
"…I'll obey," Takeshi finished.
Mizuki looked at each of them in silence.
Then nodded.
"Good."
She turned toward the hall. "There are blankets in the upstairs closet. One room per person. Lock the door if it helps you sleep."
Zai stood slowly, still holding his water bottle. "Thanks. For real."
She didn't respond and just disappeared into the hallway.
I watched her go, then looked at the others, how quiet they were now. How human.
The three of them lounged near the couch, heads tilted back, bellies full. A different kind of silence now. No tension. Just that strange emptiness after survival starts feeling safe again.
Zai shifted first, turning to me. "So what's your deal?"
I blinked. "What?"
"You and Mizuki," Vale added, leaning on his elbow. "You're the only one she hasn't threatened."
Takeshi didn't say anything. Just stared at me, like he already knew something was off.
I looked down at my hands. "There's not much to say."
Zai tilted his head. "You live here, don't you?"
"…Yeah."
"Why?"
That stopped me.
I didn't want to tell them everything. Some of it hurt too much. Some of it was too pathetic but something about the house, the clean floors, the curry still warm on my tongue made it feel okay to say a little.
So I did.
"Parents disappeared during the first wave," I said, voice soft. "I think they turned. I didn't see it happen. Just the blood. The screams. They got pulled into the forest."
"My girlfriend's gone, too," I added. "Suicide. Before this mess even started. Last year."
Silence.
"That's all you need to know."
Zai exhaled. His face dropped the grin.
"Damn."
Vale didn't say anything.
I let the pause hang, then kept going before I could chicken out.
"I didn't know I was looking at," I said, voice barely above a whisper. "Not really."
"What do you mean?"
I hesitated.
"All I saw was a guy eating another guy."
Vale blinked. "What?"
"I thought it was a mugging," I said. "Then I saw the way he bit. Not like he was fighting. Like he was starving."
I looked down at the floor, eyes distant.
"He wasn't dead either. The one doing the biting."
Zai's face twisted. "You're saying it was a—"
"I didn't know what it was," I cut in. "I thought maybe it was cannibalism. A breakdown. Maybe a drug thing. But the blood didn't stop, and the screams didn't either."
Vale leaned back, face pale now.
"There were two cops there. One froze. The other tried to help. He got grabbed."
I didn't even blink as I said it. I could still see it.
"I didn't wait. I ran. Through the forest."
"I kept running to the forest"
They watched me in silence.
"I thought I was going to die right there. I didn't even try to move."
"And that's when she saw me."
Zai straightened. "Mizuki?"
I nodded.
"She wasn't even looking for me. Just happened to be walking near the station."
I closed my eyes for a second, remembering the shape of her in that moment.
"She didn't ask who I was."
"She didn't save me because she cared. Maybe she just didn't stop me from living.".
Vale raised a brow. "So she just let you in here?"
"Yeah."
"Why?"
I shook my head. "Still don't know."
Zai leaned back, lips pressed into a line. "Maybe she saw something in you."
I laughed, short and dry. "Doubt it."
"I clean," I muttered. "That's my job. I stock shelves. Wash the clothes."
Zai gave a half-grin. "You're the house ghost."
Vale gave a light chuckle. "She lets you fold the towels and we get chained to the door. Unfair."
I gave a tired shrug. "I don't ask questions. I just do what I'm told."
None of them replied for a while.
Then Zai reached for a second blanket from the crate. "Weird thing is," he said softly, "I don't even think she's being cruel. I think she's just efficient."
Vale nodded. "She scares the hell out of me."
"Same," Takeshi said, flat.