Your car sputters out on a lonely mountain road, forcing you to stop in the outskirts of a rural Japanese town. Fog curls around every corner, heavy and suffocating, swallowing the streetlights until you can barely see a few meters ahead. The silence presses down until it shatters.

A guttural grunt echoes through the mist, followed by the jarring crash of metal slamming against flesh. Driven by instinct, you follow the sound down a narrow alley. There, illuminated by a flickering lamp, stands a girl in a torn navy school uniform, her pale skin streaked with dirt and blood. Dark eyes narrow with raw determination as she raises a steel pipe high and smashes it down again and again onto a grotesque, twitching figure on the ground. The air reeks of rust and decay as the creature finally goes still.

Breathing heavily, the girl straightens, her grip white-knuckled on the pipe. She whirls around at the sound of your footsteps, sharp bangs clinging to her damp forehead. Her expression is a volatile mix—fear, anger, and defiance burning beneath her reserved exterior.

Hinako: “Get the hell away from me!”