Chapter 1- Prologue

Tokyo was beautiful at night, a true revolution of human innovation, the world of the living is quiet and peaceful.

Zaki Lee sat laying in the streets of Tokyo as people came around to find out what happened to him, he sat there staring as the rain splashed against his face, washing the blood from his pores. Zaki had come to Tokyo with his class for a field trip. He was a seventeen-year-old, American high school senior on a study abroad trip for six months. His first week in Japan went well before his school decided to take a trip to the big city of Tokyo.

He had worked for months to pay the big lump of money to get out of the hell hole American had been turning into, he wanted a break from the regular and wanted an adventure with a new land, a new world. Zaki looked at the people around him without raising his head, only his eyes needed to move to see them, he watched as they looked in terror at what had happened to him, blood gushing from his head and broken bones, he was a total fool.

Zaki’s life flashed before his eyes and the truth was revealed.

“Hey Zaki hehe, how’s your first week been?”

A cute girl tapped Zaki on the shoulder, her name was Natsuki Tomoko (last name first). She had bright red hair and found school to be a time of social rather than a time of learning, something Zaki could get along with.

“You know, it was hard getting to sleep the first few nights, being almost six thousand miles away from home and such, but now I’m starting to get into the feel for living here.”

Zaki worked for almost two years on his Japanese. He had thought about going there since his freshman year when an injury caused him to be bedbound for six months, Zaki had tons of time to think about what he wanted to do with his life and finally decided that going to another country was his goal.

“That’s amazing! You’re getting even better at your Japanese than I thought in this short amount of time.”

This comment made Zaki’s face go red, an embarrassing compliment from a girl he found cute. Now Zaki was young for his grade, even though he was technically a senior, he was more of a junior since his birthday made it so he would graduate when he was only seventeen. The class they had put Zaki in was a class of sophomores, most of them almost being seventeen at the time of the trip.

“ALRIGHTTTT CLASSSS! TODAY WE, aka your awesome teacher, DECIDED THAT WE’LL GO ON A SHORT TRIP TO TOKYO FOR THE DAY!”

Miss Tanaka Aiko (last name first) was the teacher for this class, she was a young teacher in her late twenties, she had black hair and wore these glasses you’d find every single teacher wearing in some sort of manga. She was an angel by heart and had no malice in her body at all, a true angel.

Zaki and Tomoko watched in amazement as their class cheered their lungs out, it was early March and the air was going from freezing to warm, the perfect time to get out of the class and enjoy the countryside, they’d take a big charter bus and would get home around four P.M.

“Is it normal for you guys to get surprise field trips? Seems kind of like a safety hazard, like what if someone's parents want to come to get them or has an emergency?”

Zaki wasn’t trying to ruin the party for Tomoko but he thought even she’d think it’s weird how they’re just getting out of all of their classes today for free without any problems.

“Zaki, don’t be silly of course it’s not normal, but it’s not like we're staying the night, just going there for a few hours, that’s all!”

Zaki reluctantly gave in to the pressure and began to get hype as well, he thought to himself that he might as well enjoy himself while he can since it’ll be the first time he’s ever been to one of the largest cities in the world.

Everyone in the classroom picked their bags up and started to walk outside of the classroom. They made their way to their lockers to put on their outdoor shoes. The morning sun was shining right on Zaki’s face as they waited for the bus, it felt good with the cold air around him and it reminded him of all the times they had fire drills back in school, where if you were lucky, the sun would be out and it would turn the coldest day into a warm wonderland.

“Zaki, aren't you excited? You should be! This will be so much fun, let’s sit together!”

Tomoko grabbed onto Zaki’s arm and began to take him onto the bus. It was a huge bus, bigger than it needed to be for the class and probably more expensive than the classroom itself.

The two found their way to a seat in the back of the bus.

“Hey Zaki, Tomoko, you think Miss Tanaka would take us out on this field trip last second? I smell a conspiracy.”

The boy sitting in front of them, peering down at them was none other than Sato Haru (last name first) he was short and had bright blonde hair, he was Zaki’s first friend in the new land called Japan. He saw him sitting alone at lunch and decided to make friends with him on his first day, not too long after that is when Tomoko started to hang out with them. Zaki found out fast that Tomoko and Haru were cousins and spent most of their childhoods running around causing mischief, so it was bound to happen that she became friends with one of his friends.

“See! That’s what I was trying to say. It’s not even normal in America for them to give out random field trips to a bunch of little shits.”

Tomoko laughed at Zaki’s comments towards kids, she always found the way he spoke to be infatuating, like any kid, Zaki’s first goal in a new language was to learn all of the swear words, it didn’t take him long to learn shit, damn, and idiot. Looking back on it, Zaki realized that being able to call someone a damn idiot was the least of his worries.

The bus took off and Zaki finally got to see the beautiful countryside of Japan. It would be about an hour before they reached Tokyo so they got comfortable, some kids got on their phones while others slept. Zaki didn’t even realize it but Tomoko had fallen asleep on his shoulder almost as soon as they left the school, he didn’t mind it though, but being bad around girls was one of Zaki’s problems.

“Zaki, do you think they’re going to take us to Tokyo for free? I know I was joking at first, but, it just doesn’t make any real sense.”

Zaki looked deeply into the eyes of Haru, he felt the same level of uneasiness that Haru felt, it was almost like they had been the only ones to notice how weird it was that they’d get to go to Tokyo for no rhyme or reason.

“I don’t think Miss Tanaka would put us in any harm, but I guarantee she’s not the one who made this plan up. I love Miss Tanaka to death but she’s not very bright. Finding a free way to let the school give us a day off to go to Tokyo just doesn't seem to be likely.”

They both agreed that they’d keep this theory to themselves until something came up.

The rest of the ride was normal, and the grueling reality that came up came back into mind. Zaki could see from the corner of his eyes lay Tomoko, a girl he had once liked, was lying there, dead. Haru, who was bloodied up, limped over in between Zaki and Tomoko.

“Zaki, I don’t know where you are, b-but I’m going to take a quick nap to wake up from this dream, okay?”

Zaki looked up at Haru and noticed that his face had been completely blown off, no longer did he have a nose, eyes, or even hair. The once handsome Haru was now a ghoul. Zaki started to remember what Haru just said, it caused him to start crying, the pain of losing all of his new friends, and his life scared him.

-Why god, why would you put me through this life, this hell, why, TELL ME! WHY!

“Why, Why! WHY!”

Tears shot down Zaki’s face as his adrenaline had finally started to wear off, the gloomy fate of death had set in for him and his eyes slowly rolled to the back of his head, all while still screaming, asking for the reasoning of this misfortunate event.