The woman's name was Yuriko Takagi.
She used to be the lady of this grand estate, the wife of its powerful owner, Souichirou Takagi.
But everything changed just yesterday.
The apocalypse had struck without warning. Chaos spread like wildfire. People screamed, cities burned, and the dead began to walk again.
In that madness, the Takagi family didn't fall apart. Instead, they pulled together.
Souichirou, being the head of the region's biggest right-wing political group, managed to take control quickly. He turned their estate into a temporary shelter. He brought in survivors, armed guards, and stockpiled supplies. Everything seemed under control.
But then—just one zombie got through.
No one saw it coming. No one noticed it slip in.
It was already too late.
Souichirou was bitten.
In this new world, even a single bite was a death sentence. There was no cure. No chance. Once bitten, you were already gone—just waiting to die and come back as one of them.
Souichirou knew it too. He didn't panic. He simply called Yuriko, handed everything over to her, and ended his life with a single, clean shot.
Just like that, Yuriko was left in charge. The estate, the shelter, the survivors—it was all her responsibility now.
At first, things held together. The number of survivors was small, the estate well-fortified. But it didn't take long for the cracks to show.
Some of the men—men who had once followed Souichirou's orders without question—started watching Yuriko with greedy eyes. They saw her not as their leader… but as a woman suddenly left vulnerable.
They smelled blood.
Yuriko knew it. She felt it in every lingering stare, in every quiet conversation that stopped when she entered the room.
Last night, she locked herself in her room and kept a loaded pistol on the nightstand.
She survived the night. But the weight of it all was unbearable.
If it wasn't for one reason—her missing daughter, Saya Takagi—she would've run away already. She would've let these vultures fight over what remained of her husband's legacy.
But she couldn't leave.
Not until she found Saya.
Then, just moments ago, she walked up to the window… and saw someone.
A figure, standing on the rooftop across from hers.
Her breath caught in her throat.
At first, she thought it was one of the troublemakers trying to sneak into her room.
But this figure was different.
Even from a distance, even in the shadows, she could tell—he was handsome. Striking. Almost unreal.
And just as quickly as she spotted him… he vanished.
"Was I… imagining things?" she whispered to herself.
She turned around—and gasped.
Someone was standing inside her room.
"Who are you?!" Yuriko cried out.
She lunged toward the nightstand for her gun—but her hand grabbed nothing.
"Looking for this?" said a smooth, almost teasing voice.
The stranger was holding her revolver in one hand, turning it over like it was a toy.
Yuriko's heart dropped.
She was defenseless.
But she didn't panic. She was no stranger to danger. Her hands curled into fists. Her eyes narrowed.
"Who are you? Why are you here?" she demanded.
The man smiled, calm and unbothered.
"Great questions."
He flicked his wrist, and her gun dissolved into sand right before her eyes. It spilled from his palm onto the carpet.
"My name is Rin Yuki," he said.
"And my reason for being here... is you, Yuriko Takagi."
That smile—it was almost too perfect. His face was flawless, his aura overwhelming. He carried himself like someone who had never feared anything in his life.
Yuriko couldn't look away. For a single heartbeat, she forgot to breathe.
Then reality crashed back in.
She glanced down at the sand where her gun had been. What the hell had she just seen? That was real—wasn't it?
Fear crawled up her spine for the first time in years.
"You... what do you want from me? I don't even know you."
Yuriko's voice was cold and firm, but the way her shoulders tensed betrayed her fear.
Yuki's smile didn't fade. "You don't know me. But I know you."
He took a slow step closer. His tone dropped to something quieter, almost intimate.
"Tell me, Yuriko—do you want to survive?"
"Do you want to leave this place behind?"
He closed the distance between them with ease, his eyes drinking in every detail of her.
She straightened, refusing to let him see her flinch.
"This shelter is safe," she said, trying to sound convincing.
But deep down, she knew the truth.
The figure on the rooftop... it had been him. He moved like a shadow—appearing and disappearing like something out of a nightmare. Or a dream.
She'd seen creatures like him in fiction—inhumanly fast, impossibly graceful.
But this wasn't a story.
He was real.
And if he existed… what else did this new world now hold?
Yuki chuckled. It was soft, knowing.
"You can lie to yourself," he whispered, brushing a loose strand of hair behind her ear, "but not to me."
His touch was gentle, but there was a dangerous edge beneath it.
"I see the wolves. I hear the whispers. The men planning to take everything from you. Do you really think they'll let a widow hold power for much longer?"
He leaned close. She could feel his breath on her skin.
"No allies. No protection. Just you, and a house full of men who want to own you."
Yuriko clenched her jaw.
He was right.
She didn't want to admit it—but he was absolutely right.
And then, he said the words that truly broke her.
"You're only still here because you're looking for Saya, aren't you?"
"What if I told you… I could reunite you with her?"
Yuriko's eyes widened. "You… you know where Saya is?"
Yuki simply nodded, calm and sure.
Without thinking, Yuriko stepped forward and grabbed his hands.
"Please," she whispered, her voice trembling. "If you can help me… I'll go with you. I'll do anything."
Her sincerity caught even Yuki off guard.
"You really take this mother thing seriously, don't you?" he said with a quiet laugh.
Yuriko gave a small, bitter smile. "I have to. I made a promise."
The truth was—Saya wasn't her real daughter.
She was her sister's.
Saya's birth mother had died shortly after giving birth. On her deathbed, she'd looked at Yuriko with tearful eyes and begged her to raise the child as her own.
And so Yuriko did.
She gave Saya the best life she could.
But while she played the role of a devoted wife to Souichirou… they had never once shared a real marriage bed.
In fact, Yuriko had never been with any man.
Souichirou, though powerful, had been deeply wounded just before his wife's death. An injury during one of his missions had taken away any chance of intimacy. After that, he buried himself in work and politics.
Yuriko, meanwhile, remained untouched.
A quiet sigh escaped her lips as she looked up at Yuki again.
And then, without planning to, she asked him the question she'd been holding back.
"If you're really helping me… what do you want in return?"
"I'll do anything—if it's within my power. Just name it."
Her cheeks flushed. The meaning behind her words hung in the air like a slow, heavy fog.
Yuki's smile turned wicked.
He stepped closer, voice soft and teasing.
"Oh? Anything?"
"...Yes."
It was barely a whisper. Her body was shaking. Not with fear anymore—but with something deeper.
Yuki didn't ask twice.
He wasn't the type to play coy.
His hands wrapped around her waist with effortless ease.
And in the very next second, the two of them vanished from the estate—leaving nothing behind but silence.