Surviving Death

00: Prologue

It was the year 2043.

"MOVE!"

I shoved her to the ground and we rolled behind a collapsed brick wall just as bullets rained down on the spot where we had been, throwing up a momentary veil of dust.

I was supposed to turn 51 in a few weeks.

"Shit! I think I broke it," she cursed and cradled her arm before wincing, "Ugh… Definitely broken."

But that was not to be.

Replacing my empty handgun into my hoister, I reached for the blade hidden in my right boot and looked over my temporary barrier to see one, two, three men covered in grunge and speaking in their native tongue.

At the time, we were at war…with the world.

One of them kicked at the rubble and spat something possibly derogatory.

It was unfortunate, indeed horrific, what we humans had done to our beloved Earth…

The other two merely shook their heads and gestured around them.

…until everything finally spiraled out of control: global warming, coastal floods, extinction…and so much more.

Without taking my eyes off of them, I whispered to the young woman beside me, "Ammo?"

"…Two bullets," she grunted after tying a sling around her arm and cocking her pistol, "How many?"

"One short," was my answer as I breathed deeply and readjusted my grip, "Get ready."

There was no vocal answer but I knew that she was prepared and so I clenched my hand around the hilt of my knife before darting through the dust and–

"Gurk!"

–running my weapon into his throat, spinning to use his corpse as my shield as bullets came flying at me.

One grazed my left shoulder and the other against my right hip but, two distinct bangs later, the sound of two bodies collapsing alerted me of their fall and I threw away my temporary shield, swiftly retreating to her side.

Three more deaths were added to the billions who had died already.

"Mission complete," she chirped weakly as she patted the bag of supplies around her hips, "Let's head back. It's almost dusk anyway."

I glanced up at the cloudy sky that rarely lifted nowadays and raised a brow at her, making her snort and bump her better shoulder against mine in jest.

"You know what I mean."

And I did.

Because the world had simply changed too much with so little growing naturally and so many people dying from starvation, from dehydration, from disease and infection…if not by one another.

Sheathing my weapon, I helped her up to her feet and she huffed, "Technically, I should be helping you, granny."

"Shut it, brat," I returned easily with a half-smirk, "You're just jealous that I can pull off these moves when I should be crippled, yo."

How many lives had I taken? How many killers, scholars, thieves, athletes, rapists, youths had I murdered without much thought? How many more did I have to take before this nightmare ended?

Sticking to the shadows and softening our steps, we began making our way back to our station and steadfastly ignored the blood on the floor, the limbs and bodies strewn about, the death and horror that constantly surrounded us.

Ignore it…lest guilt consumes.

A chill ran down my spine and I saw it from the corner of my eyes before I grabbed her, throwing us to the side as–

BOOM!

–a deafening explosion ruptured my right eardrum (can't hear…!) but we had to keep moving or else–

BOOM!

–another would get us because we were surrounded by obstacles and these were bombs that could easily rip us apart and then–

BOOM!

–there was light (blindingly bright) and heat (burning my legs, my sides, my arms) and smoke (in my lungs, in my face, all around) and we crashed into the dirt.

Pain flared throughout my body and I tried coughing out the blood in my collapsed lungs, tried gasping in that precious air, tried reacting but–

Numbness was quickly setting in and I could barely make out her coughing form as my vision blurred (where are my glasses?) into a tie dye of colors and I just felt so tired.

–everything was fading and all I could think was,

Death count plus one, huh...

GN: Okay, so, after reading who-knows-how-many self-inserts, OCs, reincarnation-fics, etc. and then watching Sengoku Basara the anime along with a few Let's Plays, I felt compelled to try my hand at this style with this particular fandom. It won't be particularly long, 20 chapters at most, and this is different from my usual works but I hope you'll enjoy it regardless. :)

Some things to know beforehand:
1. Although this is a self-insert, the "me" portrayed here isn't really me since (i) the world's not completely screwed over at this point in time, (ii) I'm imagining how I'd be like in a war-torn future, and (iii) this is fiction so a lot of things will end up being idealized.
2. I won't be following canon religiously. If anything, I'll probably end up butchering it since this will follow "my" route. In fact, think of this as an in-game scenario in which "I" will be completing mission objectives, overcoming "bosses" and eventually ending with the fight against Nobunaga.
3. I borrow a lot of concepts from things that I've read, especially from Naruto, so that's why certain things will seem familiar.

Disclaimer: I own "myself" and this fanfiction but nothing else.