The day was all too bright. It was sunny, hot and humid under the 30th parallel. The city of Neo Tokyo was marred by a heavy, torpor inducing climate that was like a weight of lead on the shoulders of its inhabitants, the permanent as well as the tourists.

Yet many were outside. The sky was clear and for once since too long, rather clean. Clean enough to not cause sudden asthma crisis. Clean enough to not kill the elderly. Clean enough to make the government not distribute filter masks.

All in all it was a good day to go out, despite the feeling of having to swim through an air so moist it felt thick.

And for those who could not withstand it, there were a multitude of bar, coffee shop and shops selling all, nothing and ice-creams amongst other things. Today was even the day of a convention. A major one at that, given the size of the prefabricated housing the event.

As far as I am concerned, I had found shelter and a much needed gasp of fresh air under the canopy of one of the numerous trees that marked out the street. Genetically engineered trees that made more than their part in absorbing carbon dioxide and replenishing breathable oxygen.

Trees whose branch and leaves provided a fresh shadow. And that was all I needed at the moment.

I had two friends inside the dome housing the convention. Despite being myself an amateur of japanese pop culture, I had to bail: my resilience to extreme heat and humidity was limited and the convention center albeit climatised hosted too much people for its AC to be efficient.

So here I was on a bench, one empty carton cup of soda in one hand, massaging my temple with the other, under the blessed shade of a pine.

I guess I more or less fell asleep, as the sun had travelled a good distance in the sky when the rumor made me open my eyes.

It was indistinct and vague at first. People running, sound of screams far away.

And suddenly John, one of my friends, taking me by my shoulder and shaking me fully awake.

"Charles! CHARLES! Réveilles toi bordel de nom de Dieu!"

When John, a fine englishman of Cambridge, took the pain of screaming and cussing at me in french, my own mother tongue, you knew shit was about to hit the fan.

But what kind of shit could hit the fan in the district of Ginza-ni, dead center of Neo Tokyo?

I got my answer sooner than later. A bit sooner than I even wanted when I saw it at the corner of the street. It. Something. Something ridiculous and definitely something this good Earth did not host.

Part of my mind froze as the still functional, rational remain tried to analyze what was walking toward us, through the fleeing crowd, John still dragging me away.

It was not a stunt, not a well disguised animatronic either. It was too bloodied for that, its beak dripping red liquid. It had the head of a bird of prey, feather turning into fur as the rest of the body was more feline like. But the back legs were that of a bird again and the front legs were not; rather they were wings. A griffyn, or something close enough.

And atop its back probably behind the beast shoulder, a man was seated, clad in leather and shooting bolts from a crossbow. Shooting at people. Shooting at fleeing, panicked civilians.

"Com'on get your ass movin'!"

John's scream chased the stupor that was clouding my mind. And we started running. Away from the man and his crossbow. Away from his flesh eating mount. Away and with the crowd.

But the thing apparently did not take kindly the fact his prey were running and started to accelerate toward us. It was lumpish on the ground, admittedly more at ease in the sky than on earth. Which was strange, the part of my mind not focused on fleeing told me: it was way too big for flight.

Put then perhaps, if it could indeed fly, it had to be light. The magic of a functional grey matter and the strange moment it choses to be clever.

"John!"

We were running fast, as fast as our sorry not particularly trained ass could. As fast as our rapidly dimming breath would allow us. And my friend had not heard me.

"John!"

"What!"

"It's a lightweight!"

John threw me a glance that was asking if I had lost my mind.

"It can fly. It's lumpish on ground. But look at the size. It cannot weigh much more than a hundred kilo!"

"So what!?"

We were at Ginza. It was a world known entertainment district. One could find many things in Ginza. Hell some people said you could find anything in Ginza.

"We need fireworks! Big one!"

John's eyes widened as he understood what I was saying. And I could see fear in them. John was far from being a fighter.

Don't take this statement wrong. John was that one guy who never fought physically: as he was fond of saying "the one who use his fist in an argument has already lost." And there was merit in that.

But that was no argument. It was a real life and death situation. And given the pace things were going at, we would not make it out alive.

"John, fireworks!" I screamed as one aged woman beside me fell as if struck by lightning, a bolt stuck in between her shoulder blades.

My friend nodded and took a sudden turn, I following closely on his heels. John new Neo Tokyo a bit more than me, courtesy of a previous holiday spent here before we had met. And he couldn't shut up about the fireworks evening he had had here.

"To the left!"

Out of breath we reached a store, me barely holding in a retch, my lungs burning like hell. Never had I been so sorry of being a smoker.

In the street, screams and confusion reigned as king as the beast and its rider continued their slaughter. The man was laughing like a savage. Thing he probably was. What soldier would kill civilians like this if not a barbarian.

The shop was a narrow store, deeper than it was large. Behind the counter was a middle aged man, his forehead girded with a white bandeau with a red circle on it, who looked at us in surprise with the only other customer.

The place was selling all and nothing and I quickly saw what we wanted: rockets, their explosive head the size of two large soda cans aligned against the wall. As we took three of them each John and me, the man started screaming loudly in a mix of japanese and globish.

"Sorry mate, national security!" I answered in perfect japanese. One had to be able to speak it, to fully appreciate our hobby.

When we exited the shop, the crowd had cleared a bit, our target in the middle of the street. A perfect practice target, immobile as it was, too occupied eating… something. I heard John give his breakfast back. Behind my glasses, i focused on the rider.

Shouldering the rocket as I could, I lit the wick with my lighter. Never had I been so grateful to be a smoker.

Now to be honest, I never was someone brave. At least not in my opinion. Not that I had had any occasion prior to today to prove my wits. The world was a peaceful place and people were more and more well behaved. Never had to fight a drunkard in a street, never had to stab someone for honor or whatever.

When I realized what was going to happen, my mind froze again, the rush of adrenaline not enough to chase the terror of what would happen if I missed. Too late anyway.

The piece of firework wheezed toward the thing and its human cavalier, burning my hairs and part of my face and blinding me in the process. The resulting bang was satisfactory to say the least even if it deprived us of sound for a good thirty seconds.

As my vision was coming back to me, I saw John retching again.

My rocket had strewn the man and pieces of the beasts back across the street, blood and visceras everywhere, me included.

My mind froze. And I started to shake. I had killed a man. Killed. A man. Killed, man. A. Man. Killed. A MaN KiLled.

My stomach gave in and I felt an acidic bile invading my throat, tears swelling up in my eyes. I had had excellent eggs, bacon and potatoes for breakfast and here they were on the walkway, mainly digested.

I retched one final time before turning my back to the result of my idea and gave John a hand. Knees weak, palm sweaty, legs wobbling, rockets still in hand we went back to the store, leaning on each other to walk straight.

The owner and the customer were out and looking at us, one shocked the other maybe impressed. It was probably the first time one of his firework was used to blow someone up. Just as we reached them, we heard the sound I feared. The confirmation the freak beast was not alone.

A single shriek. Otherwordly.

And after it, sounds of boots hitting the macadam; an army was following.

"We need to book it old man, somewhere safe, you have an idea?"

The shopkeeper shook his head, confused. It was the unknown customer who gave us the solution.

"They comin' from center of Ginza. We can go for the Kōkyo!"

The imperial palace. Well, a copy of it. A castle with wall and sturdy door. The place would not protect us from the flying monsters but it would stop the infantry.

"Let's take what we can." The man offered. I nodded and John, Shopkeeper, Customer and myself proceeded to equip ourselves with some other rockets and smaller fireworks before running for it again.

Behind us were monsters, some real and some wearing the skin of men.

We reached the imperial palace, a crowd already in front of it pouring through the open doors, policemen trying their best to calm the panic while a group of five were restraining another flying mount.

Modern police and their extensive use of low voltage taser would prove to be the malediction of the day.

Customer screamed for the crowd to split and for the policemen to keep their heads down as John helped me ready another load. Surprising how easy it was the second time around. One officer took a look at us and quick to the uptake motioned his colleagues to run and go prone.

The rocked fused toward the gryffyn, exploding near his head, tearing it off in a rain of blood, bone splinters and a variety of colors, courtesy of the chemical in the explosive head.

"Belle bleue…"

At this point John and me were glad we had already emptied our stomachs. One of the policemen, guts all over his face wobbled to the street drain and puked.

The crowd reformed a line and continued to pour inside the relative safety of the palace. One of the police officer walked toward us, cleaning his face from a mix of sweat and blood.

"What're your names? Do you know what's happening here?" the man asked.

"No idea officer. They seem to be coming from the center of Ginza-ni," Customer answered.

"We're not equipped to deal with this madness!" the policeman continued. "Hell you and your fireworks saved our skin."

"Yeah, I think I'll pass on the fact it's illegal to fire rocket this size inside the city," another policeman added, his shoulder pad wearing a slightly different insigna than his colleague. "Where did you find the explosives?"

"His shop officer." Customer said, pointing at Shopkeeper who was waiting in line to enter the precinct. "But I don't think it's possible to go there: they are a hundred freak with shield and sword out there."

"There's… There's more of those people?!"

I nodded silently. It wasn't difficult to see we were in a dire situation. We were weaponless or almost and the tasers of the police would not get rid of men in armor.

As backward as they were, we were at their mercy. And it was not with a ten or so rocket we would beat them back.

That's when mister Customer said the obvious.

"We need an army."

That was also the time for John and me to realize something that struck us with horror. Then made us scream both at the same time, looking at each other.

"Where is Hailie?!"

Astounding how, in a situation where he is at risk, the average human being can forget even one of those he calls his friend. Astounding how, at the slightest sign of security, his brain starts running straight again. Making the average human realizes he just abandoned to an unknown fate someone close to him.

I felt tears running down my cheeks and a feeling of sickness worse than ever sizing my whole body. Fuck.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck !

A wordless, soundless scream formed in my throat, unable to escape it. I choked, hard. Panic making my blood rush in my system, my temples hurting like if a hammer was hitting them.

I was good friend with Hailie. John was even closer to her. But we had run away. Not waiting for her. Focused on our own survival we had shut everything that was not related to the action, to the moment.

I saw John crying beside me, cowering in a foetal position, one of the policeman patting his shoulder.

I felt hands lifting me, setting me straight and standing.

"What's happening? Who's this Hailie?" asked Customer-san.

It was difficult to answer, through my sobs and tears. Taking several deep breath to try and calm myself I eventually answered:

"She is a friend we were with. At the convention center." I said in a toneless voice.

One policeman shook his head and Customer-san looked at me with sad eyes. We could not help her right now. We could barely help ourselves. So someone behind enemy lines? No chance.

It was not our fault. The streets were too crowded, people fleeing the opposite direction of the center. We could not have join with her. We would have been trampled by the mob. We would have been killed by the beasts or the barbarians.

Amazing how one's brain comes up with good excuses and excellent reasons.

Truth is, we were so self centered, we had completely forgotten about her. As I was trying to cope with a growing feeling of guilt inside of me, relief finally arrived.

High up above in the sky, riot police gunships passed us, their engines screeching. One of the transport proceeded to demonstrate its VTOL capacity by landing right beside us. Opening sliding doors, automated peacekeepers exited the chopper, their white and blue metallic armor shining under the sun rays.

The robots quickly set up a defensive perimeter; amongst them, men marked with a red cross dashed towards the wall and the civilians inside. The whole action had taken ten seconds, testifying the efficiency of modern cybernetic.

In the chopper was also the standard supervising officer, who immediately went towards his colleagues.

"What the hell is happening?"

The highest ranking policeman out of the five present saluted.

"We honestly have no idea sir. We began to see fleeing civilians coming from Ginza twenty minutes ago. From what we could gather and what we've seen…"

The man hesitated a moment. What was he going to say? That the civilians were rambling confusedly about men and other humanoids creatures slashing and killing the crowd? Explain that the three young boys over here, two of them in the process of losing it, had just saved his team from a frigging beast out of this earth?

"We have unknown, very hostile forces in Ginza." The man finally said. "I recommend the use of lethal force."

"You know we don't have that."

True. The peacekeepers were only armed with taser and rubber bullet guns. In theory nothing lethal. And plus, they were coded with Asimov's laws in mind.

They could not kill anyone. On a very fundamental level.

"Then maybe we could drown them with gaz. How much do you have sir?" The policeman asked.

"The legal amount… Meaning not much. But that could work if all gunships concentrate their fire." The supervising officer said after a second of thinking. "Yeah we are gonna do that. But first we need to have all hostiles in the same zone."

Breaking away from us, the officer started speaking in his radio all the while giving order to his robotic troopers.

One man was laying on his couch, aimlessly switching between the various canals he had access to. He was not the kind of man to watch any news channel. In fact he was switching to avoid the commercials in between two episodes of his favorite serie. But what he saw on the BBC made him stop in his track.

First because they had replaced the previous anchorman with a young gorgeous woman. And he had to admit he was weak to that.

Second because what she was saying and the images that were shown were completely impossible.

"Today at around ten hours in Neo-Tokyo, local time, a strange attack took place. Politicians around the world have all expressed their condolence to Japan and the inhabitants of Neo-Tokyo." The woman was saying.

"The experts are hesitant on how to qualify this attack. From the reports we have for now it seems like an army emerged out of nowhere in the city, killing in an indiscriminate manner. More than thousand people have been declared dead or missing, and the count is still rising." She continued.

"Let us ask our envoy in Neo-Tokyo, Mr Spicay. Hello Mark, what's the situation there?"

"Yes hello Jenny. Yes as you said, the victim number is reaching the thousand and the authority have yet to give an official count."

"Do we have any information on the attackers?"

"We could not confirm anything as Ginza is currently still in lockdown. From what we could gather from the citizen it was indeed an army, armed with swords and bows and leading strange beasts. Some reports speak about prisoners wearing very roman-like armors."

"You mean Neo-Tokyo was attacked by… Sword wielding soldiers?" There was a mix of tones in the woman's voice. Unbelief, doubts maybe a bit of mockery.

"It would seem so yes. The Japanese government will make an announcement at the League of Nations at around nine p.m London time concerning the attack and we will surely know more at the time."

The man on his couch looked at his watch: ten to nine. Ten minutes of waiting that would certainly kill him.

"Hey Kim!" Called the man.

"Yes honey?" A distant voice answered, over noise of kitchen wares being manipulated.

"Abandon making dinner for one second and come see that, it's crazy."

Another man, from asiatic ascendence exited the kitchen and entered the room.

"What's happening?"

"Some crazy attack in Neo-Tokyo. BBC says it was romans sprouting out of nowhere."

Kim looked at the TV then at the man with a quizzical look.

"This thing is going to make your brain rot, Lance. And the BBC has devolved very low to announce something like that."

"Oh shut up, come sit here and listen. They say Japan will make an announcement at the LN at nine."

Five minutes of idle chatter and conjonctures between anchorwoman and special envoy later, the woman finally interrupted the discussion.

"All right Mark thanks you for being with us. We will now switch to our team in the League of Nations council, stay with us Mark. Hello Mary."

The already split in two screen was further divided in three and a second woman made her apparition, the inside of a huge amphitheater bustling with activity behind her.

"Hello Jenny, Mark. We're in Geneva for today's LN special session. In a few seconds the Japanese delegate should make his speech."

"Any special bit of information we ought to hear Mary?"

"Unfor… Wait it begins, it begins!" "Mary" said with a hurried voice.

The screen became whole again, the camera now filming a huge amphitheater. At the tribune was an asiatic looking guy, with the flags of one hundred and ninety countries at half-mast behind him.

The guy disposed a sheet of paper in front of him and started speaking.

"Ladies and gentlemen, legates of all nations of this world. I should feel honored to speak to you yet my heart is mourning and I can't quite appreciate this moment." The man posed for a moment, looking at the assembly in front of him.

"For today, Neo-Tokyo and through it Japan and the whole world, was attacked!"