Under the stone world sky

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The first thing Ayame noticed after waking up was that the world was far too quiet.

For several moments, she remained where she was, kneeling on damp earth while her lungs struggled to remember how to breathe. Every inhale felt painful. Every sound felt too sharp. The sunlight filtering through the trees above seemed almost blinding after an eternity spent in darkness.

Slowly, she pressed a hand against the ground to steady herself.

The soil was warm.

Real.

Not a dream, Not another imagined scenario created by a mind desperate for stimulation.

Actually real.

The realization settled heavily in her chest.

She was alive.

Somehow, impossibly, she was alive.

Ayame lowered her gaze to her trembling hands. Fragments of stone still clung to her skin, breaking apart with the slightest movement. The sight alone was enough to confirm what she already suspected.

Petrification.

The green light.

The sudden loss of consciousness.

Those memories remained frustratingly clear.

Everything that came afterward was far more difficult to comprehend.

Carefully, she stood.

And stared.

The city was gone.

At least, the city she remembered.

Nature had claimed everything.

Massive trees stretched toward the sky where buildings once stood. Vines wrapped themselves around crumbling structures, weaving through shattered concrete as though humanity had never existed at all.

For a long moment, Ayame simply observed.

It was a habit she had never managed to break.

Observe first.

React second.

The damage appeared extensive. Decades would not have been enough to produce such overwhelming change. Even centuries felt insufficient.

A thousand years, perhaps.

More.

The thought should have frightened her.

Instead, she found herself strangely calm.

Shock, she concluded.

Her mind was protecting itself by refusing to process the full implications of the situation all at once.

That seemed reasonable.

Far more reasonable than allowing herself to panic.

Panic had never solved anything.

A lesson her father had spent years drilling into her.

Ayame looked away from the ruined skyline.

The memory left a bitter taste in her mouth.

Even now, after the apparent collapse of civilization, she could still hear his voice.

"If you're going to be exceptional, then act like it."

A familiar pressure settled in her chest.

She ignored it.

There would be time to think about her family later.