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POV: Souichiro Takagi
Souichiro knew he was a proud man; he embraced this trait, for a man without pride should not even be called a man.
He took pride in who he was and in the fact that he intended to help his people, but now… now he was a nobody, for his pride had long since curdled into Hubris—a sin that had blinded him.
A mere boy, barely an adult and just about to finish school, had—if not for the start of this damn zombie virus outbreak—come and challenged him, a far more experienced and skilled man, to a duel. He had staked everything: his property, his people, his wife and daughter, his pride, and his honor.
In any normal situation, he would have laughed at the boy. But… this kid clearly had no intention of submitting to him just because he was older or held a higher rank in society than he. Not to mention, the boy possessed a Supernatural Ability that acted as his own right to rule—the power to produce metal at will and, according to reports, manipulate it with his mind. It sounded good, far too good and useful for Souichiro to ignore.
So, he had wanted to break the boy's ego beforehand, to crush his will so that he would never dare look down on others again, especially not on Souichiro and his men. But in that duel, it wasn't the boy who lost—it was him.
He, Souichiro Takagi, the man who intended to become the Prime Minister of Japan, who had undergone military training for half of that child's lifespan, who was a student of Master Busujima himself… had lost to a kid who, by appearance, was nothing more than a damn school delinquent!
The bruises from the strikes burned, as did his insides, which smoldered with the emotions he felt right now. His body ached, threatening to make him double over and writhe; the blows from this bo—from Isao—were stronger than anything he had ever received.
His strikes were precise and fast enough that even Souichiro's military reflexes were strained, his reactions barely keeping up to block even a few of them. The sheer force of the impact was comparable to those of his subordinates who specialized in strength and endurance, if not stronger. All of this was backed by Isao's experience in certain martial arts and raw, unrefined talent.
The most prominent among them was Boxing, which he had used in their hand-to-hand duel. If only Souichiro had been serious from the start—if only he had immediately utilized Jieitaikakutōjutsu (Japanese CQC)—the boy would have lost.
But he didn't, and he paid for his hubris. He lost in the most pathetic way imaginable: by falling on ground unconscious . That "raw talent" he had noted immediately recognized the pattern of his movements, and the boy adapted in real-time as if he weren't a teenager, but an experienced martial arts master.
It was a humiliation. The way he was knocked out was a humiliation; the way Isao effortlessly dodged his strikes was a humiliation. But he had lost, and a man's word must remain firm, regardless of how scorching the price of defeat might be.
He had given him everything. Everything he owned—from the property Isao had already begun stripping of essentials (his former subordinates were loading everything possible into vehicles)—to the men themselves. These men were no longer his subordinates; they belonged to Isao. They were men he had known for years, serving together first in the Japanese military and then under his own command. Even his wife was now nodding and obeying the boy's every word while Souichiro sat in the courtyard, trying to recover, watching Isao deliver a speech to the survivors gathered in the yard of his former mansion.
His eyes drifted toward his wife—a woman he had admired and loved only for the first few years. Back then, he admired how smart she was, how submissive and loyal she remained despite her personal distaste for some of his words and actions. But after those first few years together, he had begun to take her and her actions for granted.
The way she helped him, the way she was always by his side—it became something he viewed as an obligation, a given. Over time, he stopped truly noticing her, not to mention his own daughter.
Saya was sitting right next to him, straining every fiber of her being to avoid eye contact. Yet, every few seconds, she couldn't help herself, casting brief, sad glances at him before looking away.
This, combined with the sting of defeat, felt like ashes in his mouth. But his expression remained unchanged. It would be foolish to cry over spilled milk, and even more foolish to regret past actions. The only thing he could do now was... accept his loss.
And accepting it was difficult.
POV: Yuriko Takagi
Yuriko stared at her hand, trying to process everything that had happened in recent days.
First, there was the emergence of the living dead—those infected by a zombie virus who never stopped moving, searching for uninfected humans to poison with the same blight they carried.
The zombies wouldn't die until their skulls and the brains within sustained serious damage; until then, they kept moving, refusing to accept death.
Second was the existence of Superpowers... or whatever they were.
It was hard to fully wrap her head around it. She had only learned of it a few hours ago and wouldn't have believed it if she hadn't seen it with her own eyes. Metal being created out of thin air and then taking shape just like that? It was unheard of!
For the first few seconds, she and her squad had stood frozen, unable to comprehend what was happening. But as soon as they grasped the reality, they moved toward the one responsible.
Honestly, she had thought it was just some high school delinquent who had gained super strength. But the moment she saw her daughter safe in the Humvee, and the way Saya looked at that boy, all her doubts vanished as she remembered who he was.
Isao Tsumugi. She had heard about this high schooler from Takashi's mother, whom she still communicated with periodically. The fact that their children had stopped talking and had generally forgotten their childhood friendship didn't mean the parents had to cut ties.
Besides, going out for walks with her and Kiriko was refreshing; she couldn't work seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day.
Rina, Takashi's mother, had spoken quite well of Isao, despite mentioning that he often got into various fights. However, she had learned from Takashi that Isao didn't go looking for trouble; rather, delinquents from other schools would come to him, trying to start fights just to beat him up.
It was stupid, but teenagers aren't known for their wisdom or sense of responsibility. The exception, strangely enough, was Isao.
According to her daughter, he had immediately taken control, devising small plans to save everyone he could. He even found the courage to take a human life, no matter how insignificant the life of Koichi Shido was.
Under immense pressure, Isao hadn't broken or panicked. He took charge and led people. Even though he was just a teenager about to graduate, he hadn't lost a single person, had gathered basic supplies, and successfully reached a safe haven—which, for him, was the Takagi family mansion. Though, he should have thought about refueling the bus; when it arrived, their mechanic checked it out and found the tank was nearly empty. If not for luck, the bus could have stalled on the way, which would have been disastrous.
She also learned how he had kicked out two boys whose minds were clouded by Koichi's promises of a better life, once again proving he was capable of making the hard choices that the lives of the majority depended on.
Other teenagers his age would have let that wound—which those two were—fester. But Isao acted. He cast them out to what he believed was certain death.
It was admirable.
The penultimate shock was the total lack of electricity. An EMP bomb had been dropped on Japan, and the air defense systems seemed to have failed. The bomb hit, and electricity was no longer an accessible resource.
If their mechanic hadn't been so experienced, most of the cars in the mansion wouldn't have even started, which would have been catastrophic.
Not to mention that the EMP likely knocked out the windmills on Kotsu Island where they were heading. Repairing them could take an enormous amount of time, and the same problem applied to solar panels.
In short, that damn EMP had created a mountain of problems!
But… perhaps solving them was just a matter of the right superpower.
She looked at the 100-yen coin held between her fingers, feeling how this tiny coin contained enough explosive energy to detonate the moment she desired. Then, she glanced at her daughter, who had finally stopped stealing glances at her father and was now playing with ink she had created, forcing it into various geometric shapes.
It hadn't escaped her notice that her daughter's power was similar to Isao's, but instead of metal, her daughter manipulated ink. And tha—
Right before her eyes, Saya made the ink solidify. She gripped the hardened ink, which had taken the shape of a bayonet, causing Yuriko's eyes to widen in surprise.
"Oh! That's cool, Saya-chan!" Kotobuki-chan, Isao-kun's little sister, clapped her hands in admiration, looking at Saya with a slight smile. But the smile didn't reach her eyes, which had slit pupils like a cat's, making Yuriko feel a flicker of unease.
Kyoko, Isao and Kotobuki's mother, who was sitting across from them next to her daughter, tensed slightly.
"Thank you for the praise, Kotobuki-san," Saya nodded and continued playing with her powers, ignoring Kotobuki's gaze. Kotobuki huffed and looked out the window, her tail slowly swaying at her waist and her ears twitching in sync as they turned in different directions.
The fact that an awakened power—a Trait—could change a person's very essence was shocking. But honestly, everything was so far beyond "normal" now that she wasn't even surprised anymore.
She looked toward her husband, who sat with clenched hands, and then turned her gaze toward the window.
Everything had changed incredibly fast in just one day. First the zombies, then a night spent worrying about her daughter, then the morning when she learned about the existence of superpowers, followed by her husband's loss in the duel. Honestly, she still didn't understand what he had been thinking, though it was likely something along the lines of "I must rein this boy in." Then Isao had summoned wolves with strange markings on their heads and delivered a speech that instantly calmed the very people who wouldn't stop whining about how "zombies are just sick people" and "her family and subordinates are psychos for killing them." And then, Isao had awakened her own powers.
An ability that allowed her to charge anything with explosive energy and detonate it at will, as well as a Trait that made her more agile than most people could ever dream of being.
She felt a level of control over her own body such that even walking or running wouldn't drain her stamina like before. If she were given an automatic weapon, she felt she could control the recoil as if she had been born to fire it.
Everything! Literally everything about her had changed so much it was an incredible sensation!
It was unbelievable. Now, she only wondered one thing: would Isao begin awakening powers in people other than his own subordinates and herself, or would he refuse to do so, awakening only a select few?
Logically, she understood there was no reason for him to do it, but you never know what is in another person's head. she could only hope he would be reasonable.
And then, she heard a roar! A roar so wild it nearly made her instinctively blow them all up using her charged coin. She barely restrained herself.
The car braked hard, and the entire convoy screeched to a halt. She heard bursts of gunfire and quickly scrambled out of the car, as did her subordinates sitting on the other vehicles.
Her breath hitched. She heard that wild roar again—a sound of animalistic, insane fury. Looking ahead, she saw the source of the madness, a sight that almost froze her body in terror.
Something with dark, obsidian skin—if what she saw could even be called skin—stood over two meters tall. Its body was a mass of pure muscle. With its four massive arms, it held a sedan containing her people high above its head. She trembled, seeing the ease with which this creature hoisted an entire car.
The creature glared at the vehicle with rage. It had a face—if four glowing red eyes full of mindless fury, a missing nose replaced by that same dark hide, and a mouth far too wide and filled with long, crooked fangs could be called a face.
The creature roared at the car in fury, leaving almost everyone frozen in fear...
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