Anime Crossover: Post-Apocalyptic Survival, My Stand is the World

After the adrenaline subsided, a wave of exhaustion and lingering fear washed over me.

Her beloved Fender electric guitar, bearing the "IcyTail" band logo, had just served as an extremely handy "blunt weapon," smashing the core of a monster with a wild home run.

She was using it as a crutch, leaning on the ground pitifully, several strings snapping from the impact.

"That scared me to death..."

Her face still bore the pallor of someone who had survived a disaster, and her usually vibrant eyes held an undisguised trace of lingering fear.

"I thought this time I was really going to become food for those ugly freaks and become the shortest-lived legend in rock history..."

On the other hand, Saeko Busujima appeared much more composed.

She stood quietly, looking at her beloved sword, named "Murata".

After a fierce battle, the finely forged blade remained spotless, without a trace of demonic blood.

She slowly twirled the blade in the air, creating a beautiful sword flourish that stirred up a cool breeze, before precisely sheathing the sword.

Those purple eyes, always filled with calmness and sharpness, remained completely still.

It was as if the battle that had just taken place, which seemed thrilling to ordinary people, was nothing more than an ordinary morning sword practice for her.

She looked at the rock girl who was slumped on the ground, panting and muttering to herself, and at her vibrant and optimistic appearance, which, despite her disheveled state, still shone brightly.

Her heart, which had become somewhat cold and hardened from struggling alone in the apocalypse for too long, softened for no apparent reason.

She stepped forward and extended her hand to Michiru Hyodo.

"Are you OK?"

Her voice was calm, with a touch of the coolness unique to swordsmen, yet surprisingly gentle.

"Ah...it's nothing, it's nothing."

Michiru looked up and saw the purple-haired older sister who had just saved her life like a goddess descending from heaven. Instantly, a bright smile, full of energy and gratitude, bloomed on her face, bright enough to illuminate this ruined city.

Without hesitation, she grasped the other person's slender yet strong hand, covered with a thin layer of calluses, and used it to stand up.

"Wow! Big sister! You're amazing! Those moves you just made were just like those of a swordsman in a movie, so cool!" She wagged her invisible tail excitedly like a puppy that had found its owner. "My name is Hyodo Michiru, what's yours? What's yours?"

Faced with this girl who was so outgoing and as warm as a little sun, even Saeko Busujima, with her usually calm and collected demeanor, was left somewhat amused and exasperated.

"Saeko Busujima".

She simply gave her name and then tried to pull her hand back.

However, at that moment, Mai Sakurajima and Megumi Kato, two equally stunningly beautiful figures, also emerged from the alleyway beside them.

"Um... excuse me."

Sakurajima Mai looked at her two new companions, who were so different in style but equally incredibly powerful, and gave them an impeccable smile.

“I am Mai Sakurajima, and this is Megumi Kato. We are members of the ‘Survivor Base’.”

"Judging from your appearance, you must be survivors too, right?" She formally extended an invitation to join them. "Would you like to travel with us temporarily?"

……

Ten minutes later, in a fairly clean tea room filled with a rustic atmosphere, a tea ceremony that felt completely out of place began.

Mai Sakurajima, with her charismatic language, simply introduced Saeko and Michiru to their strange team, which was full of miracles.

It introduces the proactive philosophy of someone who dares to take the initiative in the apocalypse, not content with merely surviving; it also introduces the powerful yet mysterious leader, Su Chen.

"Wow!"

After hearing Mai's story, countless little stars instantly appeared in Hyodo Michiru's eyes.

"Taking the initiative? Establishing a base? And having a captain as strong as the final boss?" Her face was filled with longing and excitement.

"This is so...so cool! This is exactly the same plot as my favorite kind of shonen manga!"

"I'm in! I'm in! Please let 297 join you too!"

She almost didn't think twice before expressing her desire to join. For an optimist like her, finding a companion, especially such a cool one, was incredibly lucky.

On the other hand, Saeko Busujima appeared much calmer.

She listened quietly, a thoughtful glint in her beautiful purple eyes. She wasn't as naive as Michiru.

She had survived alone in the apocalypse for too long, and had seen too many companions turn against each other over half a loaf of bread, and witnessed the ugliness of human nature that would stop at nothing to survive.

She didn't believe in free lunches, and she certainly didn't believe in a "leader" she had never met.

"Your leader, that man named Su Chen." After a long silence, she finally asked the most crucial question, "What kind of person is he?"

This question surprised both Mai Sakurajima and Megumi Kato.

Then, the two looked at each other and saw a hint of helplessness in each other's eyes.

How to describe it?

That man…

In the end, it was Kato Megumi who gave the most fair and objective evaluation.

"Um…"

"He is a good man."

"but…"

"Sometimes, he's so bad he's not even human."

Chapter 145 Whispers of the Ruined Capital

at the same time.

Shinjuku Ward is the most dangerous and also the most central area.

Kabukicho Ichiban Street.

This is where Kurumi Tokisaki's "Shadow Legion" has the highest density. The air is filled with a malice that is as tangible as the aura of countless clones.

This is also the area in Su Chen's spiritual perception where the evil and enormous aura belonging to the "Time Witch" herself is most concentrated.

A figure, like a true ghost, moved silently through the ruins filled with the aura of death.

It's Su Chen.

He closed his eyes, completely abandoning his vision, which had long since become unreliable.

In this witch's realm filled with illusions and disguises, the eyes are the easiest organ to deceive.

He entrusted all his senses to his spiritual perception, which he had already cultivated to a completely new level: the [Triple Rebirth].

In his spiritual world, the entire Kabukicho district had become a gray, lifeless ocean composed of countless chaotic energy particles.

Within this gray ocean, streaks of red, brimming with violence and madness, swam slowly through the streets like an unconscious swarm of sharks.

That was Kurumi's clone.

They are the most dangerous hunters in this sea of ​​death, each exuding malice enough to drive ordinary survivors to the brink of madness.

However, Su Chen was not the prey.

He is a top-tier hunter who is more advanced and more terrifying than them.

His body seemed to blend completely into the surrounding darkness, without making a sound or leaving a trace.

Even his presence seemed to be possessed by Kato Megumi, compressed to an almost nonexistent level.

Like a most patient time detective, he searched and tracked through this hunting ground full of clues.

That unique echo of time, hidden within all the false red undercurrents.

……

"here."

He stopped in front of an abandoned movie theater, his feet resting on broken glass and rotten poster fragments.

In his spiritual perception, he could see the lingering echo of time belonging to Kurumi, like a cold, inextinguishable dark blue flame that had lingered here briefly yet profoundly.

why?

Su Chen frowned.

He used his intuition like the most precise probe to carefully probe into that remaining "past".

Not long ago, that girl, always full of madness and elegance, stood here alone.

She looked up and stared blankly at the Titanic poster at the entrance of the movie theater, a poster that was faded and damaged but still clearly showed the male and female protagonists embracing at the bow of the ship. She remained in a daze for a very long time.

The wind blew her long, jet-black hair, as dark as the night sky, and the hem of her magnificent yet solitary gothic dress.

The playful, manipulative air she usually displayed was gone from her face, as was the madness and ruthlessness she displayed during battle.

There was only one human expression he had never seen before, filled with sadness and longing.

It was a kind of melancholy, as if through this poster, one was reminiscing about a beautiful old time that had long since passed and could never be returned to.

……

"And here."

He arrived at the entrance of a dusty cat cafe.

Here, the lingering echo of time becomes even more intense and sorrowful, like solidified amber, sealing away a silent grief.

He probed in again.

Kurumi once squatted here, among the countless corpses of stray cats, and with her slender, snow-white fingers—the fingers that should have been used to pull the trigger—gently and tenderly stroked the body of a stray kitten that had long since starved to the point of being skin and bones, its body already stiff.

The usual madness was gone from her eyes; only glistening, misty tears shimmered within them.

……

One after another, echoes lingered.

A series of moments from the past.

Su Chen is like a master time detective, constantly piecing together the broken pieces of the puzzle about Kurumi Tokisaki, a girl full of mysteries.

He discovered that this time witch, who seemed to him to be full of madness and evil, was not as inhuman as she appeared on the surface.

She also has her own sadness, her own gentleness, and the beautiful things she wants to protect that have long since passed away.

Her madness and cruelty were more like a heavy and cold armor that she had to put on herself in order to fight against this desperate world.

'What a complicated woman. Slave.'

Su Chen sighed silently in his heart, his emotions a mixture of pity and understanding.

However, just as he was about to touch upon the most crucial truth about Kurumi.

A chilling will, like a black thorn formed from the purest malice, transcended the barriers of time and space, piercing his spiritual world.

"Don't look anymore!"

Chapter 146 The Trap of the Clock Tower

The investigation is ongoing.

Su Chen was like the most patient time hunter. He walked in that invisible ocean of information composed of countless "time echoes," constantly filtering, sifting, and piecing together.

Each lingering echo is a fragment of memory; each piece pieced together is a deeper interpretation of that woman's inner world.

Finally, just as the sky was about to be completely swallowed up by that ominous dark red again.

He pieced together the last and most crucial piece of the puzzle.

All the echoes, all the clues, all the movements, all coincidentally, like rivers flowing into the sea, point to the same destination.

— Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building.

That iconic building, which was once the center of power in Tokyo before the apocalypse, and its ancient clock tower, full of Gothic style, like a ghostly monarch guarding this dead city.

It turned out to be the case.

Standing at a distance, Su Chen gazed at the twin towers that resembled two devil horns pointing to the sky against the dark red backdrop, and finally understood everything.

I now understand what was depicted on the tarot card in Kurumi 297.