Earthquake Catfish

The next day,

"Akihi Yu, come with me for a moment."

"Okay."

The homeroom teacher came over in person to call him. Akihi Yu, who had been getting ready to eat his lunch, froze for a moment, though he already had a pretty good idea why.

"Akihi, don't be nervous."

"Just answer whatever they ask."

When the teacher opened the door to the small meeting room,

sure enough, two female police officers in uniform were sitting inside.

One was a short-haired officer who looked like she had only just graduated. She still had the bookish air of a student, and a hint of anxiety in her eyes. The other was a more mature officer, much more composed and capable. It was obvious she was the one in charge.

?

Putting on an appropriately "surprised" expression, Akihi Yu froze in the doorway. He only moved when the mature officer stood with a smile and gestured for him to come in.

"Akihi Yu?"

"Please, come sit down."

"Oh, okay. Sure."

Like an ordinary student unexpectedly confronted by the police, Akihi Yu sat stiffly in front of the two officers, then glanced instinctively at his homeroom teacher.

"Teacher Yuanzhu, don't worry. We won't give your student a hard time."

"Could you give us some privacy?"

The two officers could tell at a glance that the teacher cared a great deal about this student.

That was hardly surprising. The student in front of them, Akihi Yu, was handsome, his uniform neat, and he practically radiated the air of a "good student." They had also learned that he excelled academically. Any normal teacher would like a student like that.

Especially at a public school full of delinquents.

"All right."

With the police asking, the teacher could only nod, leave the small meeting room, and close the door behind him.

"Then, let's begin."

The two officers took out a voice recorder, along with a pen and paper.

"Akihi Yu, do you know Yamamoto Yagi?"

As expected.

"Yamamoto?"

"Yes, I know him."

Akihi Yu froze for a moment, then nodded. After a brief hesitation, he continued,

"But Yamamoto hasn't been to school for three days."

"That's exactly what we're here to investigate."

The mature officer cut him off, firmly taking control of the conversation.

"Akihi, when was the last time you saw Yamamoto?"

"In the boys' restroom on the third floor."

"Here's what happened. Because of my family situation, I recently became a target of bullying by some classmates."

There was no need to hide any of it. Akihi Yu calmly recounted everything he had gone through, speaking without resentment or anger, only a faint trace of helplessness.

What was there to hold against the dead?

Still, the trouble Yamamoto had left behind was a bit of a nuisance.

"...That's what happened. I shoved them aside and ran out of the restroom, where I happened to run into the class monitor, Iori Ichika."

After briefly describing what had happened that day, Akihi Yu hesitated before asking,

"Did something happen to Yamamoto?"

That was a perfectly natural reaction. If the police had come all the way to question him, it had to be something serious.

After all, the police in this country handled more than thirty thousand missing-person cases every year, and in eight out of ten cases, the missing person turned up on their own within a week.

The rest... were found much later in places like Aokigahara, Tojinbo, or along train tracks; or they fell into the hands of the yakuza and vanished without a trace. It had only been three days. Given the speed at which the police here opened investigations, they shouldn't have started looking into it this quickly.

The two officers exchanged a glance but didn't answer Akihi Yu's question.

"Akihi, thank you for your cooperation."

The mature officer stood and extended her right hand.

"Oh, there's no need to thank me."

He shook her hand, marking the end of the conversation.

Yamamoto was a nobody. The real problem had to be those three gang members.

Standing in the hallway, Akihi Yu watched the two police officers leave below and rubbed his chin.

Those three gang members were affiliates of the Broken Tooth Gang. That was why the police were investigating so actively. In fact, they were the very reason Akihi Yu had decided to make the Broken Tooth Gang his first target.

It seemed the police still had more than enough manpower.

Lowering his eyes, Akihi Yu headed back to class. At the same time, two crows silently spread their wings and flew from the rooftop.

"Senpai,"

"Why are we investigating a delinquent who's only been missing for three days?"

In the departing police car, the young officer couldn't help asking.

Her name was Kawai Mai. She had just joined the Adachi Ward police this year and held the lowest rank, a patrol officer.

People went missing all the time in this country!

Especially delinquents like Yamamoto. It was perfectly normal for them to spend ten days or half a month at a friend's place without contacting their parents.

"It's different."

The mature officer at the wheel gave a slight shake of her head.

"Yamamoto is connected to the Broken Tooth Gang. Apparently, the gang is tied to a major case that's shaken the country."

Although she was called "senpai," the mature officer, Fuji Seiko, was only a senior patrol officer. She had no idea what was really going on. She was nothing like Iori Ichika, a top student who had passed the civil service exam for Class I and been parachuted straight into an assistant police inspector's post. After graduating from high school, she had spent five years working her way up to senior patrol officer—the ordinary person's path to promotion.

"Next, we're heading to Imperial Sakura School to ask Akihi Yu's younger sister about the situation."

?!

The crow perched on the police car tilted its head, a flash of red in its eyes.

"Imperial Sakura School... I'm so jealous."

Kawai Mai crossed her fingers, her face full of longing.

"Graduates from there can go straight on to take the Class II national civil service exam—"

Rumble~~

???

A violent tremor suddenly surged up from below. The police car... no, every vehicle on the road lost control.

One car after another skidded across the concrete, carving twisted black marks into the road! The sounds of brakes, crashes, horns, and sirens rang out all at once!

"Ah, Senpai! What is—"

"An earthquake?"

Earthquakes were nothing unusual in this country, or in Tokyo.

Tokyo experienced forty perceptible earthquakes a year. Magnitudes four and five might not be an everyday occurrence, but they were hardly rare.

"Look out!"

Shouting a warning to her junior, the mature officer wrenched the steering wheel and drove toward a fire hydrant at the roadside.

Thud!!

With a dull impact, the police car slammed into the hydrant.

The warped hydrant stopped the car, trickling water into the street.

"Cough, cough."

A few seconds later, the doors were pushed open. The two officers unfastened their seat belts, shoved away the airbags, and climbed out of the wrecked car.

"What is the Meteorological Agency doing? How could they miss such an obvious earthquake?"

The young officer's cap had vanished. She rubbed her shoulder as she complained.

That emergency stop had nearly snapped her neck.

"Earthquakes aren't that easy to—"

The mature officer had only gotten halfway through her sentence when she froze.

Because—

Rumble!!

As the violent shaking continued, a building beside them suddenly bulged upward. Cracks spread across its walls like a spiderweb.

The next moment, the human-made structure crumbled like a biscuit!

"What... is that?!"

Dust poured down like a waterfall. Amid flying chunks of stone and debris, a gigantic monster poked its head out of the wreckage.

It was a black, fish-shaped monster with an enormous, flat head. Two rows of sharp teeth showed in its open mouth, and two long "whiskers" writhed like giant pythons. On its back was a... vermilion torii gate wrapped in a white shimenawa?

"Get out of the way—"

The mature officer had just snapped out of her shock and shouted a warning to her junior, but it was already too late.

Thud!

A piece of building debris came hurtling over and struck the young officer on the head.

As blood sprayed, the young officer collapsed without a sound.

???

"Mai... Damn you, monster!"

Seeing her adorable junior lying in a pool of blood,

the mature officer was overcome with rage. Without a second thought, she drew her pistol.

The investigation, the rules, the consequences—none of it mattered.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Just die!

The bullets flew and all hit their target.

Yet the monster that had burst out of the ground didn't even look at her.

Its hill-sized body fell forward, crushing a building like a biscuit with a deafening crash. Then—

The fish-shaped monster twisted its body and began to "sink" into the rubble, as if it were swimming through water.

"Monster! Monster, you—"

Her most powerful weapon had been useless. The mature officer lowered her gun, her anger trapped in her chest as her hands trembled.

Was she supposed to pull out her baton and fight a monster the size of a hill?

Psssh,

Just then, a hissing sound came from the rubble.

Invisible gas stirred the dust, forming a swirling trail.

A natural gas line?

Before the mature officer could react, everything in front of her suddenly lit up.

Boom~~~

A spark suddenly flared,

igniting the leaking natural gas and transforming into a blazing skull?

"Ke ke ke ke ke ke~~"

Amid a piercing laugh, the enormous Flame Skeleton stretched out its "body," forming bony arms and legs.

"What... what kind of monster is this now?"

She reflexively raised her pistol again. The wave of heat hit her, leaving her mouth instantly parched as her hair dried out and began to singe. Her identity as a "police officer" was the only reason she was still standing there, but what good did that do?

Bullets had done nothing to the "big fish." Would they work on a skeleton that was obviously made of "flames"?

Just as the mature officer was despairing, a white fog surged toward them.

What was this?

The fog came on so suddenly, like a rolling curtain, swallowing the city, the roads, and the buildings whole.

Then, a "figure" walked toward them.