Facade (manga/webcomic)

Prologue

When you hear the word, "apocalypse", what comes to mind?

Maybe you think of zombies, of massive natural disasters, maybe even colonies of survivors killing each other to survive. Maybe you even think of there being no hope of life returning to normal. Maybe you think of militarily-run cities rising from the ashes and children being forced to kill each other for the upper class' entertainment.

Well, this world I live in is sort of different and sort of similar.

Rather than having been destroyed by natural disasters or the zombie apocalypse, my world was destroyed by a nuclear fallout. Well, I suppose it wasn't completely destroyed by the fallout, but just over 1150 years ago, a nuclear weapons researching facility exploded. The cause was unknown, as all records and workers were destroyed by the blast.

The fallout devastated what used to be North America, and to humanity's utter surprise, the blast opened a rift in the earth. From this rift came countless animal-like spirits, known as Remnants. Humans divided into four separate Sectors and in the vast wilderness between the four sectors, Remnants thrived.

However, the Remnants and the majority of the human race remained divided, as humans chose to hunt Remnants for sport and sustenance.

After while, some Remnants decided to fuse with human hosts to protect themselves, creating a new race of Remnant-human hybrids known as Afflicted and Blighted. Afflicted possess the shape of humans, the abilities and immortal bodies of Remnants, and are hunted for money and glory in my Sector. Blighted, however, are accepted by humans as they lack supernatural abilities, and their 'disease' cannot be spread to others unless it's genetic.

I happen to be the child of an Blighted and a human. In addition to that, rescuing an Afflicted amnesiac resulted in a huge 180° turn that changed my live forever.

This is not some floosy love story, nor some stereotypical, shounen-anime-esque sci-fi fantasy story. This is the story of several idiots trying their damnedest to prevent the true apocalypse from occurring, all while being guided by some nutty, masked agender kid with the ability to manipulate dreams and reality.

I never asked for this, but I'll be damned if I refuse the chance for one hell of an adventure.