Chapter 4 – The end of the world

I type in the number she recalls, but the line is dead.

Her face falls, the hope draining from her eyes. "

No signal," I say, my voice barely above a whisper. Outside, there is a weird dead silence.

She wipes away a stray tear, her expression resolute.

"She lives in Shibuya, near the main crossing. We were supposed to meet up and go see a movie when the rain begun… I sought shelter here, while the clerk walked outside to check it out… then everything went wrong."

I nod. The presenter said that men disappeared and some of the women turned into slime. Yet it's strange how even though this girl in front of me was so worried about her sister, she felt such an aching desire to fuck me.

Whatever she felt before, though, is now gone as she looks at me, terrified.

"What should we do?" she asks, her voice trembling. "Do you think she's…?"

"No!" I tell her, shaking my head firmly. "Some disappeared, but look at me and you – we're still fine. Maybe she stayed indoors like I did and saved herself. You need to have hope."

She nods slowly, a flicker of hope returning to her eyes. "The cinema shouldn't be far from here… could you help me get there?"

"Of course," I say, trying to sound more confident than I feel. "We'll find her."

I dress up zipping my pants while she wears her shirt and together, we carefully step out into the night, the cityscape around us transformed into a surreal, nightmarish version of itself. The streets are empty, the silence broken only by distant sounds that hint at the chaos lurking nearby. Screams, yells.

"What the fuck?!" a girl yells, her voice filled with panic. "I'm a slime?!"

"What the hell!" a boy shouts, his tone strangely excited. "Have I been isekai'd?! Fuck yes!"

We round the corner cautiously and see them. The girl is staring at her gelatinous arms in horror, her body shimmering with a translucent glow. The boy, on the other hand, seems almost thrilled, examining his surroundings with wide, eager eyes.

I exchange a glance with my slime girl, who looks equally bewildered.

"Hey, are you both alright?" I call out tentatively.

The girl turns towards us, her eyes wide with fear.

"No, I'm not alright! What the hell is happening? Why am I like this? You're like this too!" She says, pointing her gooey finger to the slime girl near me.

The boy grins. "This is awesome! It's like I've been transported to another world or something. I've always wanted to be in a situation like this!"

"Are you dense?!" The girl screams, "The ones we love are all gone!"

"You've never watched anime and it shows," the guy says with a shrug.

"Alright, let's calm down… Nobody got isekai'd anywhere."

"Damn it,"

I glance at the guy, shaking my head. "We need to find shelter and understand what the fuck is going on!" I tell them, "We're searching for a cinema nearby… are you guys with us?"

The guy nods reluctantly, the new slime girl glances at the two of us.

"Who are you?" she whispers.

"I'm Kenzo," I tell them. The girl I just did sex with in the store eyes at me, understanding written in her eyes.

"I'm Kimiko," the girl says, a slight blush covering her beautiful round cheeks.

Both Kimiko and I turn to the girl and the boy we have just met in the streets.

"Name is Aki!" the boy says with a sigh, then glances around, "you sure this isn't another world or something like that?"

"You sound so dense in the head!" the slime girl tells him with a shake of her head, "My name is Sayuri, and I'm a college student."

"Oh," Aki says with a smile, "What are you studying?"

"Is this the time to be asking this?!" Sayuri frowns, placing both hands on her hips. "Shouldn't we seek shelter and then make chit chats?"

"I agree with Sayuri," I tell them. "It's best that we stick together… no pun intended," I tell them when both Sayuri and Kimiko eyes towards me. "Then we can introduce ourselves."

Aki, the brash boy with the dyed blonde hair nods, and the four of us make our way towards the cinema. On our way, we meet a few people crying on the streets, some calling for their husband's names, other just nervously asking what time it was – confused.

"Is this the end of the world?" Sayuri asks, her short hair morphing into her shoulders.

I shiver. Somehow it feels like the world as we knew it, ended.

We reach the cinema after a few minutes of walking, slowed down by both Sayuri and Kimiko who try to slither on the ground but end up walking much slower.

"I'm sticking to the ground!" Sayuri complains.

A thunder above us makes us whip our heads up in attention. Is it rain coming? Will it be the same rain that turned people into slime?

"We need to rush inside, come!" I say and place a hand over Kimiko's shoulder, penetrating her skin. I recoil, surprised. The action doesn't go unnoticed by Kimiko.

As we approach the cinema, we notice the sliding doors are open and still moving, sliding back and forth erratically. The glass panels shimmer under the neon lights. The mechanisms seem to struggle, producing a soft, mechanical whine as they repeatedly attempt to close but fail to meet properly, causing them to retract and try again in a futile loop.

Then I see, a group of naked slime girls hugging each other in fear, their screams filling the lobby. A group of other women, still human like Aki and I, are pointing fingers at the slime girls.

"Not another move," one of them bellows – an elderly lady with a cane. "Do not touch us."

"Let's go in," I whisper to the group, leading the way through the malfunctioning doors. As we step inside, the human ladies whip their head towards us.

"Of course, why not bring even more inside?!" the old lady yells.

"Alright dry plum, calm down!" Aki says with a wave if his hands, trying to diffuse the situation. The old ladies yell even louder now, after being called a dry plum. Kimiko bounces deeper in the cinema hall. I follow her.