That day was the worst day in human history... Everyone... was dead.

Corpses scattered in every direction... No signs of life at all, no survivors found to unfold the truth about their sad fate.

Strangely, the buildings and the public spaces remained intact, but they were filled with lakes of blood and piles of chopped limbs and corpses. As the sun shone brightly, clouds of vapor immerged from the ground filled with bloody particles that give them that frightening reddish color of death.

Tokyo, Japan, the most populated city on the face of the earth, 13 million citizens.

casualties: 13 million.

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On the 17th of September 2020, the world woke up to a piece of sorrowful news that was a shock to everyone. Hundreds of newspapers and websites outlined one major event titled "Red Tokyo", describing the apocalyptic sudden death of all Tokyo inhabitants in one single night. As some showed their compassion and support to Japan, others started developing theories and throwing accusations everywhere while other groups just remained silent. But despite their reactions, everyone had one key question in mind, "What happened to Tokyo exactly?".

Due to the massive number of casualties, Japan's government dispatched several civil protection units on a cleanup mission to collect all the corpses in order to give them a proper burial. All the units were equipped with sophisticated protective suits against radiation and viruses, along with oxygen tanks with isolated breathing masks as a countermeasure to any contingency. The government also ordered many inspectors to start conducting investigations immediately.

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"Oh, man! We've been working 2 days non-stop and we still have millions of corpses to gather..." said one of the agents charged with the cleanup mission to his comrade.

"Yeah! This is really tiring, everyone is feeling exhausted, we need more manpower if we want to finish soon." answered the second agent.

The two agents were part of the 97th unit that was assigned to the Shinjuku district, the unit's agents were split into teams of two and scattered all across the district.

The first agent walked towards a corpse of an old man he spotted earlier, as he bent over to grab it, he asked."What do you think happened here anyway?"

The second agent feeling sorry for the old man's corpse which the wild birds already ate large a portion of it, bent over as well to help his comrade pick it up, then said.

"I really don't know." as they carried the body to a truck nearby, he asked as well." What about you? Any ideas?"

"I have some theories about it, but I'm not sure." The first agent replied.

"Like what?" the second agent asked curiously as he pushed the old man's corpse further inside the truck.

The first agent then pointed towards a pile of corpses nearby then he replied. "The most convenient explanation I could think of is a sudden high radiation attack."

"A high radiation attack!" said the second agent astonishingly. then he asked. "Why do you think so?"

"Well, my first clue is the fact that the city didn't get any damage at all, only minor destruction, probably from the panicked people. If it was some kind of terrorist attack, we would probably found serious land devastation, but it's not the case." He explained while picking up a little girl's corpse.

"I don't know, this seems highly unlikely... I mean look at this guy over here," he pointed at the corpse of a young man who has lost all of his lower body from the chest down. "Do you think exposure to radiation could cause such damage?" He asked rhetorically while collecting some limbs on the ground.

"As I told you, I'm not sure, but I've heard from one of the investigators that they have detected some strange radiation levels." He responded then stacked the little girl's corpse in the truck.

"Oh! Really? That's some interesting news, do you have any other information about the investigation?" The second agent asked curiously.

The first agent opened a huge plastic bag and helped his comrade hoard the collected limbs there, then he said. "Not really, I wish they update us soon, I can't wait to find out the truth about this!"

When they arranged the plastic bag between the corpse, the truck was completely stacked at full capacity. The second agent then tapped at the side of it and waved to the driver who responded with a thumbs up then drove away.

"But you know... Since they provided us with these protective suits, I think my theory might be true." The first agent said.

"Yeah... Since some radioactivity has been measured here, I guess your theory may have some truth in it." The second agent confirmed.

"There is no valid study that actually shows what happens exactly to the human body when exposed to really high radiation... But I think that maybe the body heats up really fast and explodes, so that would explain the scattered limbs and organs everywhere..." He explained.

"I see... I guess you may be right!" The second agent said.

"You're wrong!" Someone shouted from behind the two agents.

They turned around quickly to identify the voice, and then they both yelled at once "Takamura-san!"

It was inspector Takamura, he was one of the Japanese inspectors charged with the Red Tokyo investigation. For some reason, he wasn't wearing a protective suit, only his usual clothes and he seemed tired and sleepless.

As one of the agents noticed that he wasn't wearing a protective suit he said. "Takamura-san, why aren't you wearing a suit? You could be risking your life like this!"

Takamura replied calmly. "That won't be necessary."

"Why do you believe so sir?" The first agent asked.

"Because it's not radiation or anything of this sort that killed all of these people..." Takamura answered while putting a cigarette that he was holding in his mouth.

"So do you have some idea about what happened here?" The first agent asked curiously and got immediately followed by another question from his comrade. "Can you please update us on the progress of the investigation? Sir."

Takamura lit his cigarette, and slowly puffed on it, he held the smoke inside for a bit, and then breathed it out then he said. "All of these people... Have been murdered!"

"What?" The two agents screamed at the same time.

"Murdered? Do you mean someone is responsible for this?" The first agent asked stressfully.

"Someone or something... we're still not sure, but the investigation is still ongoing on this matter." Takamura replied and continued his smoking peacefully.

"What makes you say so? did you get something on the CCTV?" The second agent asked.

"Actually that's one of the clues, none of the cameras on the entire city were functional, actually no electronic devices were operational!" Takamura said.

"Then do you mean... No way!" The first agent said when he realized what Takumra had been hinting.

"Yes! A nuclear electromagnetic pulse bomb (NEMP), it's a type of nuclear bombs, that doesn't cause physical damage nor does it harm the living creatures, but instead, it fries all electronic devices on its range." Takamura explained.

The second agent looked toward his comrade and told him."Maybe this is why the radiation was detected, because of the NEMP bomb!".

The first agent confirmed with a head nod then asked the inspector again." But how did all of these people die, Sir?. Do you have an explanation for that?"

"Unfortunately, we still didn't crack this mystery yet. The only thing we know is that the one responsible for this has managed to kill 13 million people in less than 20 minutes!" Takamura answered.

"20 minutes! How is that possible?!" The first agent shouted while the other one remained shocked.

The inspector continued his explanation."On the 16th at exactly 6 p.m., authorities received several calls from train companies and from road supervision agencies, in which all of them contained complaints about the road to Tokyo being blocked somehow. Of course, they tried to reach out to all of Tokyo's public organizations first but with no luck, communication was completely shut down.

"It isn't until one hour later that a scout helicopter that was flying over the Kanto region, decided to check Tokyo's area because the pilot didn't spot the city's lights as he usually does. It was then when he discovered all the dead bodies.

"This means that this extermination was over by 7 p.m., however, due to the large number of dead bodies, the medical team was able to estimate the time of death more precisely, and they suggest it's between 5:50 and 6:10 p.m."The inspector finished his cigarette, threw it on a blood swamp near him, and then brought out another one.

"How did the roads get blocked?" The second agent asked.

The inspector lit his second cigarette and then answered."When we checked, we found out that the roads were deliberately blocked as if someone actually didn't want people to come in nor to come out. By then I was absolutely sure that all of this was planned, and that it wasn't some kind of natural disaster like some people speculate."

The first agent said depressingly." Wow! To think that someone would go this far to kill all of these people... Are there any leads on who could be responsible?"

"All the suspects now are the countries that have the NEMP technology available, but nothing can be said without any solid proofs..." Takamura said.

"This is sick! But why would someone want to do this? " The second agent asked.

"It's not easy to deduce a murderer's motives... But one thing is strange about all of this, and that is the fact that the one responsible took a lot of trouble planning this carefully just to keep the city intact." The inspector said while looking at the building around him.

"And what does this mean?" The first agent asked.

"It means that the murderer may have plans to repopulate the city!" Takamura said.

The agents felt amazed by the inspector's deduction. They started talking to each other accusing several countries like the United State or China but they got interrupted by the inspector. "As I said, we can't know for sure, without solid proofs... So just stop throwing accusations everywhere!"

"I guess you are right Takamura-san, but can you tell us your thoughts about the identity of the murderer?" The second agent asked politely.

Takamura remained silent for a while then said. " I don't know why I remembered this while investigating... But, one day, someone told me that a long time ago, people used to believe that death was a blue flashing silhouette and that anyone that encounters that silhouette would certainly die.

"Over the years people then started manifesting this silhouette as some kind of creatures that strive to kill humans."

"Excuse me Sir, but how does this relate to the current situation?" The second agent wondered.

"It's because I don't think that humans are responsible for this... I believe that this is a venture of intelligent otherworldly creatures!" Takamura replied.

The two agents didn't know how to respond to that and kept looking at each other until the first one said. "With all due respect Sir, but do you actually believe that?"

"Well, I may be wrong... but...somehow it feels like a threat that was always around us, but now it has awakened...and we are surely not ready for it..." The inspector answered.

By this time the inspector stopped making sense to the agents, and as he noticed their confusion, he simply walked away and told them to check the reports that the investigators published for more details while they just stood there watching him walk away.

While inspector Takamura was still looking around searching for more leads and pieces of evidence, his phone rang suddenly, it was one of his co-workers, inspector Sato. He answered the phone right away and said."Hello, Sato-san, what's up?"

Sato seemed frightened and he spoke loudly."Takamura-san! I have bad news!"

"Take it easy... just calm down and tell me!" Takamura said with a chilling attitude.

"It happened again Takamura, everyone is dead, this time in New Delhi, India, no survivors! dead corpses everywhere!"

"What!!?"