A 14-year-old boy wakes up in a small laboratory set up in the attic of his house. He has slightly tousled brown hair and is wearing a short-sleeved scientist's coat, a green t-shirt, and brown shorts. Glasses rest on his nose. Lying on the floor, he stares at the ceiling, slightly dazed, slowly regaining his senses. As he turns to get up, he sees a broken vial next to him.
"A broken vial?" he wonders, looking dazed.
He leans on the glass table in the laboratory and manages to sit up.
"I remember now, the vial contained a powerful sleeping pill that I had made. When it broke, the gas was released, and I found myself asleep," he thinks as he refreshes his face with water in front of the mirror.
That's when he noticed blood flowing from his right nostril. He wiped it with his left hand and sniffed.
"It's definitely blood," he thought to himself in surprise.
He hadn't had time to wonder yet, he was barely regaining his senses. He then took his phone out of the right pocket of his blouse to take a look at his calendar. The screen of his phone was cracked. He pressed the start button.
"The screen is cracked. I must have slept on it. No doubt the display is broken," he thought, visibly disgusted.
As he had suspected, the screen of his mobile phone was indeed damaged; the lower part was completely black, while only the upper part remained functional. He was surprised to find that the date displayed on his phone had been changed to July 3, 2019.
— The date is out of order, but it doesn't matter, I can always correct it using the calendar. Besides, there's no need to check, everyone knows what day it is. That's what Kurao said as he headed towards the attic window.
He pulled the curtains of the windows, and the light flooded his laboratory. The landscape presented a completely different scene, almost worthy of a post-apocalyptic film populated by zombies. Observing the road, he couldn't make out a single soul; the city was completely deserted.
"It's surprising to see that there's no one in the streets on this New Year's Day. I'll take the opportunity to send my New Year's wishes to Mom," he said to himself with a smile.
The absence of any presence in the street, visible through the attic window, hadn't really worried him. To him, the passers-by simply seemed absorbed in other activities.
He opens the attic hatch, unfolds the ladder, and climbs down. Downstairs, he notices an unusual silence in the house. Surprised, he goes to the ground floor, but finds no one.
He then realizes that the door to the house is wide open. At that moment, he thinks that his mother could be outside and that she may have forgotten to close the door behind her.
As he leaves the house, he sees wrecks of burned cars littering the road, some overturned, while windows of houses are broken. It is at that moment that anxiety begins to take hold of him.
"What really happened? Were there clashes?" he wonders, his expression perplexed and filled with anxiety.
Looking up, Kurao felt a shiver as he observed something unusual, a phenomenon that transcended the everyday. Having fallen to the ground, he takes off his glasses, wipes them with his coat and puts them back on, but the object still remains in the sky.
Kurao's face was marked with intense fear, his body trembling in shock. Although he felt great terror, another tumultuous feeling blossomed within him.
"This is impossible... There can't be two moons orbiting the Earth. Even stranger, there's no one in the streets!" he thought, overcome with fear, while showing an excited smile.
"Something's wrong... Normally, people would have been there to film, but there's no one. It's as if all the people have magically evaporated. It seems that something happened while I was sleeping, something that makes people disappear." he wondered with a worried expression.
He straightened up and walked around his house in the hope of running into someone. He asks himself many questions without being able to find any concrete answers.
His worry grew as he circled the place, finding no one. Tears filled his eyes, and fear invaded him; he did not know where the others were. In a moment of despair, he called out to his mother, exclaiming: Mom! Mom, where are you? Mom, please come out of hiding! But no echo answered his cry of distress.
Kurao scratched his head and tried to calm himself down so he could think better. He took a deep breath, then exhaled slowly.
"Let's start from the beginning. First of all, the scenery is different from what I'm used to. Second, there are two moons in the sky. Finally, the city is completely deserted," he muttered to himself as he looked at the sky.
"There are only two possible explanations for this phenomenon. The first could be that I probably overlooked some details and that it is a prank related to the New Year. The second hypothesis considered is that of the advent, as mentioned in religions, this fateful day when the Creator comes to collect pure souls to lead them to paradise", he said to himself as he walked.
Kurao had returned to his starting point, in front of the front door of his house. It was then that he saw a person. He felt a relief at the idea of having finally met someone. He approached this person slowly, but noticed that she was constantly staring at the ground. Her clothes were torn and stained with blood.
"His clothes are stained with blood, he must be injured." he said to himself as he approached the man.
"Sir, can I help you?" he asked politely, tilting his head to try to see the man's face.
The man didn't answer, so Kurao was now a few inches away from him when the man let out a strange moan that froze Kurao's blood, causing shivers throughout his body.
"Sir, are you okay?" he asked in a worried tone, feeling a cold sweat run down his back.
The man raised his head and let out a shrill cry, which Kurao tried to cover by placing his hands over his ears. He then noticed the man's face, pale and stained with human blood. His teeth and eye glands were deep black, while his pupils and irises shone bright white, like snow. Faced with this terrifying vision, Kurao couldn't help but scream in turn.
Kurao's scream was filled with terror; he hadn't been able to resist the anguish that overwhelmed him, and he had pissed himself. The man standing before him looked like a real walking corpse, and his scream had only one purpose: to call his fellow zombies.
Ten other zombies approached, dragging their feet. Kurao, not wanting to wait, had fled by taking to his heels.
Once he got home, he closed the front door, quickly crossed the kitchen and closed the garden door. Not having a garage, he didn't fear any threat from that side.
"I must be dreaming; zombies don't exist. What I saw was just a disguised man, trying to scare me," he thought to himself while biting his nails.
Kurao had been watching through the window and noticed that zombies were approaching his house. He immediately retreated and went up the stairs.
Kurao was sitting on the stairs, overwhelmed by his emotions, to the point of forgetting that he was looking for his mother.
When he came to, Kurao began to look for her, calling out to her. He started by searching his mother's office, located on the ground floor, but she was not there.
He went up the stairs while continuing to call out to his mother, but there was no answer. However, that did not make him lose hope.
He went into the shower, but found no one. After a few moments, he came out and headed to his mother's room. There again, he found no one. He stood up straight in the hallway upstairs.
"There are only two places left to check: my lab and my room. Since I woke up in my lab, I would have noticed if she was there. So all I have to do is check my room. Mom, I know you haven't been transformed and that you're still yourself," Kurao said to himself as he held the door handle of his room tightly.
His heart pounding, his frail body trembling and he had started to sweat. After a minute of hesitation, he finally made the decision to open the door.
クローバーの約束 : 零
[ KURO-BA NO YAKU SOKU : REI ]
⟩⟩ THE PROMISED OF CLOVER : ZERO ⟨⟨
PART 1: DAWN OF A NEW DAY
CHAPTER 1: CLOVER WATCH, MY LUCKY CHARM
For as long as I can remember, my mother has always been the only person I could count on. My father, a physicist, was rarely home, and when he was, it was always late.
At the age of five, you need your parents' affection. Personally, I only knew my mother's love. I told myself at the time that if I too became a physicist, I would be able to spend more time with my father.
I decided to distance myself from others in order to devote myself fully to my studies and research. My sole goal was to become the best in my field. At the age of eight, I won my first science competition.
During that school competition, only my mother witnessed my nomination. Two years later, I won the national competition, and the Japanese press described me as the new Einstein. However, I hadn't managed to capture my father's attention.
One evening, when I was having trouble sleeping, my mother came to talk to me in my room.
"Kurao, my darling, are you still angry?" she asked.
Kurao remained silent, his eyes fixed on the sky through his bedroom window.
"I understand that your father's absence can be difficult, but that doesn't mean he doesn't love you. Being a physicist, especially a university professor, is no easy task. I'm sure he would have liked to be present for your second national nomination," she said softly.
"Did he send you?" Kurao retorted, his voice cold and distant.
"No, I'm here of my own free will. Your words really hurt your father; he never wanted you to hold a grudge against him. Everything he does is for us... Do you know what he calls you?"
His mother's words touched Kurao's heart, and he looked away from the sky.
"No, Mom, what does he call me?" he asked in a curious voice.
"He calls you his lucky charm!" his mother replied with a smile.
Those three words were enough to make me cry. After that evening, my father never returned, having lost his life in an accident. I inherited his compass watch.
It's a compass that also functions like a watch, with a mechanism similar to that of a compact. The outer side is a compass, while the inner side is a watch. On this compass, my father had engraved his last will, entitled "The Promised"—the promise I had made to him. From that day on, this compass watch, nicknamed "The Clover," has become my lucky charm.
Kurao opened the door to his room and entered, calling, "Mom." Finding no one there, he noticed that his room was tidy. He noticed his Clover (his compass watch) lying on a chest of drawers. He picked it up with his right hand and slipped it into the right pocket of his blouse.
"If my mother isn't in my room, she's probably in my lab. If she isn't, it means she's been zombified and is outside," he mused as he left his room.
He found himself in front of the ladder leading to the attic and his lab. Progressing slowly, he climbed step by step, his Clover gradually sliding out of his pocket. He lifted the hatch slightly to peer, hoping to spot feet, but without success. Finally, he opened the hatch fully and entered the lab.
"There's no one here. Mom probably left the house; maybe there was an evacuation and she left with some other people... I doubt she abandoned me. She never would have, unless she thought I was already gone," he told himself, trying to reassure himself.
While trying to calm himself down, he felt a presence, followed by a moan coming from behind him. Tears began to flow, and he couldn't stop them. At that moment, Kurao realized his mother had become a zombie and was standing right behind him. Paralyzed, he couldn't turn around as the zombie advanced on him.
"Mom has turned into a zombie. Am I destined to be the only survivor in a world like this? I'd rather join everyone else's fate than live in such a universe," he thought tearfully.
As the zombie reached out to immobilize Kurao, a clover fell from his pocket and a voicemail message played.
"Kurao, I'm aware that I haven't been enough of a father. I'm afraid I've messed up and that you'll no longer look up to me as a role model." You wanted to work with me, and I've been looking forward to this opportunity.
You possess remarkable intelligence, which has often made me fear disappointing you, especially since I haven't managed to bring about the scientific revolutions I envisioned. However, I have complete faith in you and in the promise you made to me that you'll become one of the greatest physicists and surpass Einstein. I'm reserving a spot for you near my desk until you graduate."
The message ended, and Kurao's gaze was filled with a multitude of emotions, a mixture of fear, joy, and sadness, as he clenched his fists as the zombie lunged at him.
⟩⟩⟩ TO BE CONTINUED 🧟 ⟨⟨⟨