One month later
The Ginza District is abnormally silent, just like the rest of Tokyo, just like the rest of Japan.
Just like the rest of Earth.
That silence is broken by the ringing of metal and whirring that echoes off of the buildings. The large doors of the white dome slowly slide open to reveal the Gate in all of its big white Romanesque glory.
The Third Recon Unit stands there facing the Ginza District with determined expressions. With them are Lelei, Tuka, Rory, Yao, and Arpeggio.
"Wow! What huge buildings!" Arpeggio exclaimed as she stares around pie eyed with pinpricked irises. "There must be a lot of people living here!"
"Don't you mean, must have?" Youji answered grimly.
"Hello! Hello! Is anyone alive out there?!" Kurata shouted.
But only his rapidly fading echo was to be heard . . . and then nothing.
"It's so quiet," Shino said while wincing with unease as she looks around. "I don't think anyone is still alive."
"I don't sense anyone near here," Yao said, given her ability to sense the presence of others.
"It looks like Hardy's Plague really did its work," Mari said. Since the origins of the disease had been discovered, it has since been called that name.
"Come on," Youji said as he begins walking.
The group walk out. The abnormal silence feels oppressive and they look around as if wanting to see survivors up in the windows of the buildings.
Mari sniffs the air. "There's no stink that I was expecting."
"I know what you mean," Youji said. "I think it has to do with the people having kept their windows closed."
They arrive at the partition gate marking the porched off processing area. Beyond it is another matching gate, with two armored personnel carriers just outside blocking it off.
"How're we going to get through them, father?" Tuka asked.
"Should we blast them down?" Yao suggested.
"No, we should keep them intact," Youji said.
"Leave it to me then," Lelei said as she walks up to them with her staff aglow.
She chants words and the crystal at the top of her staff glows. The light leaves the crystal and drifts over to the gate to engulf it. There is a clicking sound and the gate opens for the team to pass through.
"Great work, Lelei," Youji complimented her.
"Aargh! My little sister is surpassing me again!" Arpeggio lamented as she kneeds her fingers through her hair in jealous frustration.
"She merely thought of it before you," Rory snickered.
That causes Arpeggio to straighten with a furrowed brow as she takes out her bolas, a magic aid tipped with a crystal on each end, and starts twirling it.
"Oy, oy! Didn't I just say don't destroy the gates!" Youji exclaimed as he holds his hand out.
"Don't worry, I got this," Arpeggio snapped haughily with closed eyes, then lets fly with a ball of light of her own. It strikes the gate and engulfs it to cause it to also rise as well.
"Oh, so you can use your magic sensibly after all," Lelei said in her soft spoken voice with an undertone of a back-handed compliment in it.
They walk up to the window where a clerk of the JSDF would greet them. There, behind the glass is a woman lying across her desk, bloated with decay.
"That's Miko-san for you," Sergeant Major Souichirou Kuwahara said respectfully. "She was always dedicated to her job."
"It looks as if she's been dead for a week," Mari gasped.
"Which means she probably died shortly after giving us her last report," Shino said glumly.
"You're right about that," Rory said.
At the armored personnel carriers, Takeo and Souichirou manage to get into them and start up the engines, given that they have their universal keys with them. They start up their collective vehicles and move them out of the way. Once parked off to one side, they shut them off and emerge from them to rejoin the group. There are vehicle barriers blocking the street up ahead, causing Youji to sigh.
"Those are going to have to be moved," he said. "Lelei, Arpeggio."
The two sisters start up their magic and unleash it upon the barricades, causing them to be move to either side. The group walk out into the rest of the now deserted Ginza District. Hardly any cars or trucks are to be seen. Those few still around are parked.
"It's so quiet," Tuka gasped.
"It looks like the people listened to those broadcasts," Takeo said.
"Broadcasts?" Lelei inquired.
"The moment Hardy's Plague appeared in Japan our government sent out reports to all citizens to quaratine themselves so that the disease would not infect everyone," Akira said. "And at the same time keep the streets clear of traffic so that there wouldn't be any traffic jams to prevent any survivors from being evacuated over into the Special Area after the disease burned itself out."
"It looks as if they had listened after all," Rory noted.
"That's because Japan is very small and very mountainous, so there's really no place to run," Youji said. "This forced the people to hunker down in their homes and apartments."
"Then that means in every building there are dead people," Rory said.
"So exactly . . . where are we going, Commander?" Souichirou asked.
Youji thinks for a moment with a quizzical look.
"I never really thought about that," he finally answered wistfully. "Although now that you mentioned it . . . I . . . I would really like to see if Risa is still alive."
They take one of the buses nearby. Most of the Third Recon Unit remain behind to help the rest of the JSDF to help secure the surroundings. Accompanying Youji are Shino, as she wants to find out about her sister; Mari, as she wants to evaluate any possible survivors they encounter. The Special Area inhabitants join them.
The streets are eeriely silent and empty, save for the odd vehicle parked nearby. The rarity of vehicles shows the obedience of the populace to that broadcast.
"The last time we were here, there were millions of people walking up and down the streets, so many vehicles," Tuka said. "And now . . . they're all gone." Her tone trailing off in sorrow.
"After what Giselle had revealed, there might only be fifty thousand people left alive across the world," Youji said.
"How many people used to live in this world?" Rory asked.
"Seven and a half billion," Youji answered.
"How much is that?" Tuka asked.
"Seven thousand, five hundred times one million," Youji answered firmly.
A collective gasp went up from the inhabitants of the Special Area. Even Lelei has an expression of awe, albeit subdued.
"S-Seven thousand," Rory gasped.
"F-Five hundred," Tuka added.
"T-Times o-one m–m-million?!" Arpeggio finished with a stammer.
"How was it possible for there to be that many people in this world?!" Yao gasped.
"Better farming techniques," Youji answered. "Agriculture had advanced to the point that one farmer could feed at least one hundred people. Of course, they mostly weren't family farms mind you."
"And now billions of them are dead after catching Hardy's Plague," Yao said.
"So does that mean all fifty thousand people will be coming here?" Mari asked.
"I have no doubt about it," Youji said. "I know I would if I were one of the survivors out there. The problem is that I don't think all fifty thousand will make it here."
"The language barrier is another problem," Shino added. "Japanese is but one of hundreds of different languages spoken in this world, and it is far from common. A language called English is the most commonly spoken language. It's known as an international language. I unfortunately, know very little of it."
"I don't know much English either," Mari admitted.
"Neither do I," Youji added.
"How come this In-gleesh is called an in-ter-nash-onal language?" Lelei asked.
"It all started with a country called England," Youji answered. "It is a small country located on the other side of this world. Hundreds of years ago, its people spread out and took over a large land and colonized it. That colony declared its independance and waged war against their motherland to become a republic they called, America."
"Where is it?" Lelei asked.
"It is on a continent called North America," Youji answered. "To the south of it is a continent called South America."
"You mean that country covers two continents?" Rory asked.
"No, it only covers a part of the North American continent," Youji answered. "It's known as the United States of America to distinquish itself from the other countries upon those two continents. It was the most powerful country in our world."
"And they're a republic," Rory said with a hint of amusement. "Usually it's very small states that are republics."
"Given that before the plague, distance was a small issue for us and communication a nonissue it was easy for countries to maintain their political cohesiveness," Youji answered.
They continue to drive upon the empty streets, yet to encounter anyone still alive. They arrive at the two-story house of Risa, Youji's ex-wife.
"Yao," Youji said. "Do you sense anyone inside there?"
For a moment, the Dark Elf is silent.
"No," she finally answered regretfully.
Youji closes his eyes as he sighs deeply.
"I could check to see if she is actually inside," Rory said.
Youji looks at her for a moment. Then again Rory serves the God of Darkness, War, Death, Violence, and Insanity, and in her centuries long life she had administered death like at Italica and has seen death in all of its forms.
He nods and opens the door. Rory gets out and walks over to the house and they watch as she opens the door, then enters. A minute later, she emerges and closes the door behind her, then returns to the bus. She does not speak, but her look answers Youji's question about Risa.
Youji nods somberly. Even though he and Risa had been briefly married and at times she had treated him like a bank, Youji still feels something for his ex. He puts his hands together and bows, causing the rest to do so.
"Rest in peace, Risa," Youji sighed.
"I'm sorry, Captain," Shino said softly.
"So now what?" Rory asked.
"Now we go check up on my sister," Shino answered. "Although I'm not being hopeful either." Her tone ending on a somber note.
"But still you want closure," Youji said.
"Yes . . . And I'll drive us there."
Shino drives the bus through the silent city of Tokyo. That is when Yao speaks up.
"I sense someone nearby!"
This causes Shino to slow and everyone to look around throughout either side of the windows.
"I guess this means that Hardy's Plague was either not universally contagious or not universally fatal," Mari said while looking out her own window as well.
"There!" Youji exclaimed ardently while pressing his forefinger into the window, causing Shino to stop.
They look to see someone running toward them from down a street, who then stumbles and falls. Everyone gets out and runs toward the survivor who slowly gets back up and into a sitting position. They reach the survivor, a woman. She wears grey slacks, powder blue shoes, a green blouse, and a backpack on her back. Her head is tilted downward so that her long hair, dyed brown because black roots are showing, conceals her face.
"Ahhhh, I"m still weak!" The woman moaned, then lifts her head while sweeping her hair back from her face with both hands and looks up at them.
Only to give a shrunken iris start as to who it is she is looking up at and who in turn is staring back down at her.
"Little girl?!" Rory gloated with a broad smile.
Kouhara Mizuki continues to stare back up with a shocked expression of shrunken irises. Despite her haggard appearance, she is still a stately woman.
"You know her, your holiness?" Yao asked.
"She is one of Japan's senators who publicly criticized the Jayesdeef about the dragon attack," Rory answered. "She tried to make a fool out of them."
"Oh, so it's her," Shino sneered. "She gets to live while those who deserved to live died?"
"Now see here, Kuribayashi," Youji chided, "she was only doing her job. And since she is a survivor, we have to take her in."
"Th-Thank you," Mizuki sighed sheepishly as she bows her head momentarily, then struggles to stand. Youji offers to help her get back up.
"Kouhara-san," Youji stated to get her to pay close attention. "Did you encounter any other survivors before you met us?"
"N-No," she answered in a tired though firm tone.
Everyone silently glances around at each other with somber expressions.
"Now that is only as far as I know," Mizuki sighed in an offhand manner. "It's not like I checked every house and apartment building in Tokyo, or even throughout the rest of the country for that matter."
"You got a point there," Youji said. "Let's go everyone."