"Who are you?" said the President.

"Me? I’m just a nobody," the Japanese man said as he stepped forward. "Though I do have something I need from you."

He smiled faintly.

"Your nukes."

The corridor went silent.

Even with the alarms screaming across the underground facility and the distant sounds of infected slaughtering personnel deeper inside the complex, those two words still landed heavily.

The President stared at him in disbelief.

"...What?"

The man continued walking calmly across the blood-covered hallway, stepping over severed bodies and shattered rifles like they were nothing more than debris on the floor.

Behind him, the zombies remained still.

Completely still.

Dozens of infected crowded the corridor entrance, twitching and snarling softly beneath the flashing emergency lights, yet none of them advanced any further.

They were waiting.

Obeying.

The realization made the surviving Secret Service agents visibly tense.

One injured agent still raised his pistol despite blood pouring from his shoulder.

"You’re not getting anywhere near nuclear command."

The Japanese man glanced toward him casually.

Then sighed.

"You Americans really love dramatic speeches."

The injured agent fired.

BANG.

The bullet stopped midair.

The round hung suspended inches away from the Japanese man’s face as if time itself had halted around him.

Then with a small flick of his fingers, the bullet dropped harmlessly onto the floor.

The surviving personnel looked horrified.

"What the fuck..." one official whispered.

The Japanese man looked mildly disappointed.

"I was hoping for something more impressive."

Kaguya moved instantly.

The katana flashed once through the corridor.

The injured Secret Service agent’s body separated cleanly at the waist before collapsing onto the floor in two pieces.

Blood spread rapidly across the concrete.

The President staggered backward.

"You’re not human."

The man smiled slightly wider hearing that.

"No," he admitted calmly. "Not anymore. Now there’s only three of us here now. And my patience is running thin. If you want to live, you’ll give me access to your nuclear arsenal."

The President stared at him silently for several seconds.

Then unexpectedly, he laughed.

"You stupid son of a bitch."

The smile on the Japanese man’s face faded slightly.

The President continued.

"You slaughtered my staff."

He pointed weakly toward the dead officials scattered across the hallway.

"The Secretary of Defense is dead."

Another finger.

"The nuclear authentication teams are dead."

Another.

"The command officers are dead."

His breathing remained uneven, but there was still defiance in his eyes now.

"You came all the way into one of the most secure military facilities on Earth just to butcher the only people who could’ve helped you."

For the first time, the Japanese man’s expression changed slightly.

Not anger.

Annoyance.

The President noticed immediately.

And smiled weakly.

"You don’t know how it works, do you?"

Kaguya slowly turned her head slightly toward the President now.

The remaining infected around the corridor twitched restlessly but did not attack. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

The President continued speaking despite the blood soaking through his side.

"Nuclear launch authority isn’t a damn password you type into a computer."

He coughed painfully.

"It requires verification chains. Authorization codes. Multiple command structures."

Another weak laugh escaped him.

"And congratulations. You murdered most of them."

"Yeah, that’s just in the movies. I believed that there is a backup," the Japanese man said calmly.

Then he smiled again.

"And I was right."

The President’s expression slowly hardened.

The Japanese man raised one hand slightly toward Kaguya without even looking at her.

"Kaguya."

The woman immediately moved.

She stepped through the blood-covered corridor silently before stopping beside one of the mutilated Secret Service corpses lying near the wall.

Beside the body rested a black reinforced briefcase stained heavily with blood.

The nuclear football.

The President’s eyes widened slightly.

"No..."

Kaguya picked it up effortlessly before walking back toward the Japanese man. Blood dripped quietly from the bottom corner of the case as she stopped beside him.

The man rested his hand casually on top of it.

"You see," he said softly, "before all this began, I consumed one of your staffers."

The President froze.

The Japanese man smiled faintly watching the realization spread across his face.

"He tasted terrified, by the way."

Kaguya remained silent beside him while holding the briefcase.

The man continued calmly.

"When we consume humans, we inherit things."

He tapped the side of his own head lightly.

"Memories. Knowledge. Skills."

The emergency lights flickered again across the corridor.

"And that unfortunate little staffer knew quite a lot."

The President’s breathing slowly became heavier.

The Japanese man crouched slightly closer now.

"He knew about continuity of government procedures."

Another smile.

"He knew about emergency protocols."

Then his eyes narrowed slightly.

"And most importantly... he knew the President always carries the nuclear football nearby."

The President stared at the black briefcase in horror.

Around them, the infected remained disturbingly quiet while blood continued dripping slowly across the corridor floor.

The Japanese man straightened again.

"You Americans really built beautiful weapons."

Then he nodded toward Kaguya.

"Open it for him."

Kaguya stepped forward immediately and placed the briefcase directly in front of the President.

The surviving leader of the United States looked down at it silently.

Even now, even after everything, the nuclear football still looked strangely ordinary.

Just a black reinforced case.

Small enough to carry.

Simple.

Yet inside it rested the ability to erase nations.

The Japanese man looked at him calmly.

"Open it."

The President slowly looked upward again.

"If I refuse?"

The smile disappeared from the man’s face instantly.

Behind him, several Hunters slowly emerged deeper from the corridor shadows.

Blood covered their elongated limbs while pieces of military uniforms still hung from torn flesh.

The message was obvious.

The President looked back down at the football.

His hand slowly reached toward the lock.

Then stopped.

"You said there were three of us left," the President muttered quietly. "You. Her. Me."

The Japanese man nodded slightly.

"Yes."

The President slowly looked around the blood-soaked hallway filled with mutilated corpses.

"And yet somehow I’m still the only human here."

The man smiled faintly again.

"That’s because you’re useful."

For several seconds, the President remained still.

Then finally, he unlocked the case.

CLICK.

Kaguya stepped back silently while the President slowly opened the nuclear football.

Inside rested secured communication systems, authentication materials, sealed launch verification documents, emergency protocol folders, and strategic command interfaces.

The Japanese man looked genuinely fascinated.

"This is what I’m going to use to erase every force on the Earth that will counter me."