As Expected of Disaster-Prone Japan

Yukino's face remained expressionless; her clothes and wounds were healing at a leisurely pace, and she would be back to perfect condition by tomorrow.

"That was a fierce battle! You must have had a tough time. Hmm, would you like a cup of coffee?"

Rio pointed to the small pot beside her.

"No, thank you. I'm going back to take a shower now."

Yukino shook her head in refusal.

"Alright. Go and rest for a while. But things haven't been peaceful lately, so be prepared to go into battle at any time."

"Knew."

Yukino nodded.

After she finished speaking, she turned and left.

As she took a step, she transformed back into her half-human form, her ice-blue hair gradually turning black.

"The main body! Come and take a look at this data."

"Yes, yes, coming, coming."

Yukino, Rio, sighed and stood up to walk towards the person who had spoken.

As Yukino, she turned slightly and glanced at everyone in the room.

All of these people were dressed the same.

Even their faces and body shapes are the same.

... They're all Rio Futaba.

Even though Yukino had seen it many times, she still felt that the scene was truly strange.

She glanced at it and then strode away.

After leaving the core control room, Yukino went straight back to her room.

Her room is exactly the same as the apartment she lived in during high school.

The familiar feeling brought her some comfort, but it also reminded her of her homeland, which had been turned into a demonic realm.

... How long ago was that?

Because of her frequent jumps between numerous timelines, Yukino's sense of time has long been completely disrupted.

It seemed like a long time had passed, yet it also felt like only a moment had gone by.

With a heavy heart, Yukino went to the bathroom, first putting her kimono inside her body, then taking off her undergarments and underwear, quickly washing her body before getting into the bathtub.

The time she spent soaking in hot water was a rare moment of comfort for her.

The hot water soaked into the newly healed scars all over her body, creating an itchy sensation.

... The complete transformation into Monster body granted Yukino a high degree of regenerative ability.

She closed her eyes in the warmth, the brutal scenes of war she had just experienced flashing through her mind.

---A shattered city, a vast land, and endless monsters.

---Superhumans, soldiers, and civilians are all struggling desperately, with the battlefield spanning both the Spirit Realm and reality.

---Blood, severed limbs, death...

For every enemy soldier who falls, the enemy gains a new monster; it's a natural disaster with almost no end in sight.

"... Indeed, humanity has its limits."

She murmured.

The demons' offensive was so fierce that it would be very difficult for humans to survive on their own.

Faced with the choice between life and death, no matter how much Yukino wanted to be human, she was forced to become Monster.

Unlike Ayase, she doesn't have the Slaughter Prison skill that excels at group attacks, nor does she have the ability to escape like Kirino.

In the midst of a series of fierce battles, she realized that she was just an ordinary person who had received the legacy of the Snow Woman, and that if she did not become Monster, most of this legacy would be wasted.

To survive, to achieve her ideals, she had no choice but to become inhuman.

Yukino soaked in the water for a long time with her eyes closed.

She had experienced many separations and deaths; the war she had just witnessed was merely one of them, and the faint sadness quickly faded away.

When Yukino her bath, her body had fully recovered.

After changing into her everyday clothes, she went out of her room to the kitchen and cooked something to eat.

There was food available outside, but she didn't want to get it.

She's more interested in the process of cooking than the result, which allows her to focus on it and not worry about other things.

After dinner, she read a novel for a while before falling asleep.

Actually, Yukino doesn't really like sleeping because her past experiences are too profound and always appear in her dreams.

This time is no different.

She dreamt of Haruno, whose eyes grew increasingly heavy with worry during those months when the dark clouds had not yet dissipated.

"Yukino- chan, you and the others should leave. Go to Great Hua, or somewhere even further away."

Why? If you're leaving, won't you come with me?

"I..."

She dreamt of the moment when Japan Administrative District turned into a demonic land.

"Ughhhhh---"

"Monster! Help!"

"Mother---!"

"Gurgle---"

"Roar---"

On the bustling streets of Tokyo, the screams of humans mingled with the strange roars of monsters.

And the sounds of chewing could be heard incessantly.

A black vortex of fear and hatred devoured the sky and the earth; the Demon Realm swallowed the Japanese Archipelago in just a few hours.

This is the beginning of the world's collapse.

"..."

After a light two-hour nap, Yukino's condition returned to normal in all aspects.

The nightmare, which arrived as expected, made her unwilling to sleep any longer, and she walked straight out of the room.

The Takamagahara Base was very empty, with only Yukino, Rio, and a few others living there.

The base doesn't need extra manpower because Rio has the ability to create clones; she alone can handle all the maintenance work and can also perfectly coordinate in combat.

Incidentally, the Takamagahara Base, after being modified, became a massive weapon of war, a powerful tool capable of traversing between the Spirit Realm and reality.

... However, these days weapons that can traverse the Spirit Realm are not uncommon.

Faced with the threat of the Demon King, the collective human consciousness also launched an automatic counterattack, channeling its power into humanity. The survivors now possess some special abilities, and the things they create can naturally travel between the two worlds.

Even so, they could only barely hold off the endless monsters.

In the current M Worldline, humanity has lost most of Earth's territory, leaving only four settlements: Great Hua, Great Britain, the America, and Egypt. The remaining humans are desperately holding on in the Spirit Realm and the real world, locked in a long stalemate with the demons.

The situation is dire, but in reality, no large-scale wars have occurred in the M Worldline in recent years; the real battlefields have shifted to other world lines.

This resulted in Yukino and the others frequently having to travel.

Yukino arrived at the lounge, a place where people gather when they have free time.

When she arrived, she saw Shizuka Hiratsuka drinking, Ayase huddled in a corner.

She asked, "Teacher Hiratsuka, what's wrong with Ayase?"

Shizuka Hiratsuka said casually, "Oh, Ayase? It's nothing, the world she was in charge of has fallen."

"..."

"Then at the last minute she brought back Sakurajima Asa... Hey, at least listen to what the other person has to say!"

Yukino left quickly before she could finish speaking.

Shizuka Hiratsuka grumbled and gulped down her drink, but she wasn't really angry; instead, she felt sorry for Ayase and Yukino.

After all, what she just said wasn't a good thing...

Section 645, Chapter 601: As expected of Japan plagued by disasters.

After leaving the Heavenly God, Shuya went straight home.

His words did not dispel his doubts; on the contrary, they made the situation seem even more serious.

Puberty Syndrome is certainly a problem, but its underlying causes are clearly more worthy of his attention.

--- Strange Arts are indeed a double-edged sword; they are excellent for causing destruction.

The power of the collective human consciousness is too immense. Even with powerful figures throughout history attempting to restrain it, rigid seals can never overcome the cunning of the human heart. (The idiocy of the Fox God, who recklessly uses forbidden techniques, is actually quite rare.)

After listening to the Heavenly God's words, Shuya couldn't figure out what he could do.

He recalled the Heavenly God's last words.

As far as He knows, the main force behind the doomsday prophecies is a group of people who call themselves doomsday believers.

These people are called believers, but they are not actually members of any religious sect.

The definition of this name is very broad; anyone involved in advancing the prophecy can call themselves a doomsday believer.

This is merely a convenient pretext for action, and also a label to gather people's will.

They act very secretly and don't easily reveal their faces, otherwise they might be attacked by righteous masters.

But even if they were extremely secretive, gods of the Heavenly God level still had some knowledge of their composition:

The first type consists of ordinary, Strange Arts practitioners of supernatural abilities who, for their own reasons, covet the power of the collective human consciousness and secretly cause trouble.

The second category consists of troublemakers within the Earth Federation. These individuals are found throughout the Federation, but given that the Federation has not yet genuinely supported the prophecy, they are not in the majority.

The third category consists of highly skilled individuals who lost loved ones in world wars. They intend to exploit the moment when the collective consciousness of humanity falters to perform forbidden arts, achieving goals such as resurrection of the dead.

The fourth category consists of remnants of the defeated forces and nationalists who perished in the World Wars. The remnants are mostly descendants of royalty, while the nationalists are simply those who dislike the Earth Federation and want to turn it back into individual countries. To put it bluntly, these people are also ambitious.

The fifth category is ordinary people who have been brainwashed. These people are... purely tools for the categories mentioned above, and can basically be ignored. However, there are quite a few of them, and their combined power is considerable.

The above five categories represent the visible composition of Doomsday cult members; it's hard to say who else might be involved in the clandestine activities.

In addition, there are many undecided people who might join at any time.

After all, there are no tests for doomsday cultists; you can say you are one and do it if you want.

These people sound evil, but so far they've only been spreading rumors and haven't done anything truly evil.

Although Puberty Syndrome occurs in Japan Administrative District, Shuya bears more responsibility for this, so it's really not their fault.

... Of course, this is only the current situation.

The Heavenly God had made this very clear to him: if the doomsday cult really succeeded, no one could predict what would happen.

It's possible that the collective human consciousness didn't react, and nothing happened.

There's always a chance of a crisis breaking out; nobody can say for sure.