"The streets are empty, as always, but they're coated in pure untrodden, unspoiled white, and somehow that changes a lot. And it's a nice change. The city seems simply asleep, instead of just plain dead."

I thought that entire part was particularly beautiful. :)

Haha, I'm laughing so hard at the idea of these stink bomb/firecrackers right now. I'm pretty sure that's Rio? :D (I'm leaving comments as I read along so I haven't found out yet.) Haha, her holding a bag in her lap with one in each hand just amused the hell out of me.

Rio's overly-girly apartment makes me want to vomit. But it's so very much like her -right down to the frills and stars and stickers! *snorts* I'm very curious about her mother now too - I wonder if you're going to make up a story for Rio's mother to explain this, or if it'll be like it is in Spiral and we just never know?

Great job. Looking forward to reading more, but for now, it looks like I've caught up with this story. :D

What's this - Mushy is catching up on his reading? What? Lies.

"She's spread out on the sofa once more, and her too-short skirt is riding up very very high again. Kousuke tries not to look. And tries not to look as though he's looking. Ryouko doesn't seem to notice."

ROFL! Kousuke... =') Heck, I don't even care about looking at girls that way, but if that happens in front of me, I can't NOT look.

Wow, I remember one time trying to write something post-apocalyptic years ago, and I had the main character raiding houses with groups of friends. It was always a lot of fun writing about it, too, because you could go into detail. Because of that, I can't help but put some mental images of the places I had for that story in my head when reading this, so I imagine them raiding the same houses for goods and water.

Haha, turning clothes pink! My mom did that once, only it was my bedding. A few years ago, I bought a white blanket, and my mom decided to wash it with a maroon blanket I had... D:

I love the way Ryouko is sticking by Kousuke's side all the time, and even sleeping with him. It's adorable. And more wild animals? Really? xD Haha!

I really love the way you described Kousuke's pains, and not only that, but the emotion as well. Very good job.

I saw a couple of typos - one was that you had closing quotations inside a period, when it ought to be after. But I don't know if you want that sort of thing or not. -shot-

Really good chapter. Very sweet Kousuke and Ryouko moments. You are definitely not shipping them. Obviously. ;P

I'm usually not a huge fan of post apocalyptic stories but I love it here! I'm glad I came across your spiral story, their are so few of them! This alternate reality version is also usually something I try to avoid to (weird considering I'm a sci-fi fan) but again I love yours! Never would have thought to put the world of Spiral into this! It's awesome!

Please update soon! :D

we're getting there, we're getting there! i can hardly wait for kanone to make his appearance, to tell you the truth, which of course includes eyes. what really made me giggle was the whole glittery stuff around rio's furniture, i didn't remember that and it was very unexpected and yet so highly plausible for someone like her. good job, as always!
lots of luv
adina.

Hey, Rio now has top billing! Now there are three! See you soon.

That is sweet. Ketchup fight. Just wondering, are the others going to show up in this fic? See you soon.

Yeah, Kousuke would say that. Nice set up. See you soon.

Yeah! They aren't related in this fic! I was PISSED when they were in the Manga. But this is a great fic! I'm on edge when I read this. See you soon.

Ack, I'm so sorry to hear about your laptop! I hope it can be fixed soon. I miss talking to you already! I also think on fanfiction's limited categories sometimes - I did that the other day while updating the categories on one of mine.

Anyway, onto the actual story here. xD

It's pretty freaky. There's a lot of interesting developments in this chapter that have me anxious to find out what else is going to happen. I wonder where exactly this virus came from, and I wonder about how many wheels are turning in your head to write this brilliance. ;)

I feel terribly for Kousuke though - particularly when you mention the size of his house and the fate of his parents and what he had to do. It's a lot for a preteen to go through, but I wonder just what else is going on. This chapter seemed to give a lot of awesome background, and at the same time, it also brought up a lot more questions.

I love that he already knew Ryouko, and that she attempted to like about him on that one little thing. But it seems that now that she's found an ally, she seems happier, and that's actually quite cute. I'm just a Kousuke x Ryouko fan, that's all. xD

I look forward to more, but I hope your poor laptop can be revived soon. =(

ah, perfection in itself. you know i love you for this chapter. it's so sweet, but disturbing and cynical in the same time, still reminds me of camus and his 'la peste', and overall nice flow of words and facts - but i'm repeating myself. yes, i'll only talk about the chapter now. keep'em coming, hun!
oh, and good luck with your laptop...

that last line cracked me up!!xD)) i for one would love to live in district 5. i like that it uses an experimental metropolis because that leaves open-minded crack i mean ideas get to be used!

oh, my dear, you make the sun shine over here! (i can't believe i'm talking in rhymes again)
of course lousy me still hasn't replied and i prolly won't today or tomorrow either, ahaha... back to your fic. there's no use repeating myself, is there? oh! there is? okay then! i still laugh myself off the chair at the last line, it's perfection in the purest form, and i'm happy you went ahead and uploaded the prologue. it's good you did, really. alright, i don't really have too much to say right now, just wanted to drop you a line or two and keep an eye on your baby-monster. oh, and i love the summary! the last line reminds me of something, though i can't quite grasp it...
anyway! let's see how this baby will develop...

The last line had me laughing. You did a very good job with the prologue. Hope to see more chapters soon. :D

I LOVE IT. Okay, just to say, this is a brilliant, and bone-chilling start. I love that you have a postapocalyptic feel going on, though I'll just say I actually really love mecha so your promise to exclude them is more like an "aw, well that's okay..." from me. Haha.

Okay, it was short, but it did what any prologue should do. It started the story, and like I said, it was bone-chilling - at least, the part about the decline in population. I'm now very giddy to see what happens next, because this is really a teasing start. I've tasted all the goodness of it and I want more. Holy crap, I want more. And I know I'll have more. I love that you've taken Spiral on a scifi theme (which I was going to do too, if I ever got around to that Xenosaga crossover haha) - so obviously, this is pleasing to my eyes. Not just in concept, but your writing as well. You couldn't pull of just any concept if you couldn't write it. I have a feeling you've teased around and mentioned a fic like this before, but you never let on - I know you've mentioned having to do lots of research on one of your fics. Anyway, I look forward to reading more (obviously) and I couldn't help but notice under characters it said "Kiyotaka N. and Yaiba M." - so now I'm even more giddy than I already was.

Your summary also amuses me. "Too bad they both have a weird sense of humor" - and with the last line in your story, I have a feeling this will be a VERY fun fic.