It hadn't rained in days but the city still dripped like it mourned something invisible
Shigure stood at the edge of a rooftop staring at the skyline
What was left of it anyway
Blackened buildings bent under time
Signs flickering like dying thoughts
Air heavy with rot and smoke and something worse
He tried to remember what blue sky looked like
Failed
It was gone
Like the rest of him
Nobody looked up anymore
Everyone kept their heads down like the sky itself betrayed them
A man passed below
Dragging a cart full of corpses wrapped in sheets
Children played with broken toys beside a puddle of oil
This world forgot hope
But it never stopped moving
Shigure didn't flinch when a rusted crow landed beside him
Its wings half melted
Eyes dull
It let out a screech that sounded more human than bird
Then silence
Even that creature knew what kind of place this was now
He stepped back from the edge and turned toward the stairs
But someone was waiting
A cloaked figure with silver hair and eyes like glass
"You're still alive" she said without emotion
"No thanks to you" he replied coldly
"You should have died back there
Like the others
Like the ones you couldn't save"
He grabbed her by the collar slamming her into the rusted door
"Say their names" he growled
"If you're gonna bring them up
Say their names"
She didn't blink
"They're just echoes now
Just names written in ash"
He let go
The wind howled across the rooftop like laughter
Even the sky forgot him
But the pain
The pain always remembered