It was another cold night tonight—the kind that chills you down to the bone. Although I helped to start a small fire inside the hut, it didn’t seem like it was doing a great job at giving us warmth. 

“A-a-choo!” Lila, a ten-year-old girl who was the newest member of our group, let out a loud sneeze without warning. Her straw blonde hair fell over her forehead as she lowered her head in embarrassment. 

“You alright?” I asked, putting up a concerned expression on my face. “Don’t go catching a cold now.” 

“M-mm.” She nodded her head weakly and huddled close to me. “Um, M-Mori, can…can I hold your hand?” 

I hesitated for a brief moment before smiling.  “Sure, Lila.”

She grasped my left hand tightly and held it against her beating chest, causing me to recoil ever so slightly. I wondered what the significance of this strange gesture was to her.  

“Mori…your hand is cold.” 

“Really?” I murmured, placing my right hand on my cheek to feel its temperature. Indeed it was cold as ice—but then again, my whole body was cold—so I thought nothing of it. “No worries, you don’t have to worry about me.”

“No, t-this isn’t good. Your hand is as cold as Mama’s…” She blew her breath onto my hand and rubbed it between her palms a few times. I knew doing so was pointless, but it was kind of amusing to watch her attempt to warm my hand up, so I let her be.

The wooden door creaked open. “We’re back.” 

“Welcome back, Nico and Ave,” I said, nodding at the two boys who entered the hut. 

“As expected, we didn’t find anything outside,” Ave said dejectedly, taking his seat by the fire. He glanced up at me with a questioning look. “Is Gee asleep?” 

“Yes.” I gestured at the bundle of blankets in the corner of the hut. 

“She took all the blankets even though we tried to stop her,” Lila said with a shrug. 

“Ho, looks like Lila is getting along well with Mori,” Nico remarked as he locked the door behind him—not that a locked wooden door was going to defend us against the monsters, but I assumed it was to give a sense of security. “Hmm? Lila, why are you rubbing Mori’s hand?” 

She held my hand up with a worried look. “Come and feel her hand, isn’t it a bit too cold?”

“It’s always been like that since Ave and I met her,” he said with a small laugh. “I think Mori has uh, low blood pressure or something.” 

I nodded my head silently. It was an excuse I thought up on the spot back then, but somehow everyone accepted it readily, so I just went along with that. 

“Oh…” Lila gave me what seemed like a pitying look and turned to Nico again. “How did you all meet, by the way? Are you guys friends from the start?” 

“We were saved by Mori while we were trying to escape from our school,” Ave spoke up instantly. “ Then later on, we found Gee hiding from the monster in the same building as us. That’s how our group was formed, more or less.” 

“Without Mori, we wouldn’t have even survived this far. Having her around is a blessing indeed.” Nico nudged me with his elbow and grinned at Lila. “Though she acts weird, she’s surprisingly strong, you know?” 

“I’m not really…” I began to protest, but I was suddenly cut short by an annoyed shout. 

“Jeez, can you guys be more quiet?” Gee stretched her arms and glared at us. 

“Stop monopolising the blankets, will you?” Ave told her off.

“I’m cold, alright?” she retorted. “You two already have the fire.” 

“Then stop staying in the corner and come here, you stupid girl.” 

“Huh, but I’m too lazy to move…” Gee reluctantly dragged herself and some blankets over to the crackling fire after Nico persuaded her a few times. “Did you find any food out there?” 

Ave exchanged glances with Nico and sighed. “The convenience stores nearby are all emptied out, and the supermarket was destroyed by a fire, so…” 

“Wait—that means we’re screwed, a-aren’t we?” Gee pointed at the miserable stockpile we had amassed along the back wall. “We only have one bottle of drinking water left to share among four—no, five of us, you know?!” 

“I suppose,” Nico said with a carefree shrug. “It’s already late. Let’s rest for the day first, we can discuss what to do tomorrow morning.” 

“Yeah, I’m tired man.” Ave grabbed a blanket and laid down on the floor next to the fire. “Night, guys.” 

“You two…” Gee muttered something under her breath and crawled back under her chosen blanket in the corner. 

“Gee’s like a worm, isn’t she?” Lila whispered into my ear. 

“Don’t say that in front of her, she’ll kill you.” I took a blanket and passed it to her. “Here, you can have this.”

She hugged it close to her chest and beamed. “Thank you, big sis Mori!” 

“Big sis?” 

“Um, is that not…good?” 

I quickly recovered from my shock and managed a smile. “No, not at all. It’s okay if you want to call me by that.” 

“Yay!”  

“Lila, come over here.” In the meantime, Nico had made a space just enough for the two of them to lie down beside the fire. 

“Okay~” She snuggled into his arms and stared curiously at me. “Big sis Mori, aren’t you going to sleep?” 

“I’m keeping a lookout for any danger,” I said while resting against the locked door. “You don’t have to worry about me.” 

“I see…good night then, big sis Mori!” 

“...good night, Lila.” 

It took about fifteen minutes for everyone to settle down for the night and drift to sleep. I waited a bit longer for their blankets to soak in enough warmth before extinguishing the fire with a wave of my hand. 

Outside the wooden hut, a frigid wind was howling against my eardrums, making it hard to discern the noises of my surroundings. I pulled the collar of my cloak tightly around my neck and copied Lila’s earlier action by blowing my breath onto my hands. Of course, my breath was also cold, so my hands didn’t receive any warmth at all. 

I chuckled wryly and shook my head. Perhaps taking on a human form had unknowingly dulled my instincts. 

“Having me around is a blessing, huh…” I glanced up at the murky night sky. “Life, did you hear that? How things have changed, haven’t they?”

There was no answer, as always. I closed my eyes and picked up the faint but unmistakable rumbling of a monster prowling the city ruins. It was a far distance away, so there wasn’t a real danger in ignoring it; but as we would likely leave this place tomorrow in search of supplies, it was best to kill all the monsters in the vicinity first.

“Memento mori.” The air beside me quivered and a long scythe the colour of midnight black materialised in my hand. I swung it freely in my hand, relishing the familiar soothing aura of death, before leaping in the direction of the monster. 

Seven days ago, massive hordes of nightmarish monsters suddenly spawned on the surface of Earth. No country could withstand their rampage and every civilization soon collapsed into waste. As I witnessed the unspeakable bloodbath which disregarded all life, I was suddenly aware of my imminent end too. 

For Life and Death are two sides of the same coin—and when Life has finally forsaken this world, Death too no longer holds any meaning. With that revelation, I decided to abandon my role and preserve the last remaining life on Earth instead. 

So let me not be the end, but the hope of these young souls.