"Hey,"
"Has the subway in Arakawa Ward been shut down again?"
On the train, Amame Ei glanced at the alert on her phone and tilted her head.
"Who knows? Maybe it's an aftershock from yesterday's earthquake?"
The "culprit" in question shrugged with his eyes closed, looking completely unconcerned.
"Yesterday wasn't like this, though..."
Amame Ei quickly covered her mouth, nearly letting something slip. If it weren't for "Xiao Yie," they would've thought the earthquake in Arakawa Ward was all there was to it, too.
Though even the information Nagisa Kazuha had heard from her parents was a cover-up.
"Nao, what are you looking at?"
"Study notes."
With two beautiful girls pressed close beside Akihi Yu, everyone in the carriage cast him envious looks.
The three of them were on a train to Imperial Sakura High School after classes.
As for worrying that beautiful girls might attract train perverts—
What era was that, anyway?
There had once been plenty of lecherous men on trains in Japan.
But as reports of such behavior spread and the issue escalated until it became a "national disgrace,"
the Metropolitan Police Department cracked down hard. The price of getting caught was "social death," and such incidents had nearly vanished.
If a schoolgirl identified you as a "train pervert," it was practically the same as being convicted on the spot. Even if it went to court, the chance of losing was as high as ninety-seven percent. Then you'd be pressured to quit your job, your personal information would be exposed, and society would cast you out completely.
So every salaryman in the carriage had both hands raised to the straps, wishing he could write "I'm sexually impotent" across his face.
They were already exhausted from work every day. They didn't dare hope for some youthful romance on the train. All they expected was to be framed and extorted.
They weren't that pretty boy—
Countless envious, jealous, resentful gazes swept over Akihi Yu.
But while Akihi Yu rested with his eyes closed, he was also remotely controlling a battle far away.
BOOM!
An armor-piercing shell slammed into the Earthquake Catfish's forehead.
The tungsten-alloy warhead pierced straight through the giant black fish's flat head, then burst out through its "back" and lodged in the building behind it.
The enormous Earthquake Catfish continued swimming forward without noticing a thing, chasing after an armored patrol vehicle. Watching it all through the cameras, Director Takeya and the others silently considered the situation before issuing another order.
"Use shaped-charge rounds."
As the Earthquake Catfish pursued the Type 87 Armored Patrol Vehicle, a Type 16 Maneuver Combat Vehicle rotated its turret and took aim at the swimming creature.
BOOM!
BOOM!!!
Flames belched from the gun barrel. At the same time, the Earthquake Catfish's enormous body jolted, and a "flame" erupted from its other side.
No, that wasn't a "flame." It was a metal jet fired at 9,000 meters per second!
Unlike the armor-piercing shell, which had simply punched through, the shaped-charge round caused far more terrifying damage. But the enormous Earthquake Catfish only grew more ferocious. It abandoned the Type 87 Armored Patrol Vehicle and lunged toward the Type 16 Maneuver Combat Vehicle instead.
"As expected,"
"This 'supernatural creature' has no vital organs like internal organs or a brain."
After a string of tests, most of the commanders had figured out the situation. Its body wasn't particularly tough, so—
"Use HESH rounds."
It was regrettable, but they couldn't let this Earthquake Catfish rampage any longer. Even if this was only Arakawa Ward, it was still Tokyo!
To deal with all kinds of situations, the First Division's armored units had brought a wide variety of shells. They had even prepared the "outdated" HESH rounds. A Type 16 Maneuver Combat Vehicle across the street came to a stop and quietly took aim at the Earthquake Catfish.
BOOM!!
Smoke belched from the barrel, and a massive fireball swallowed the Earthquake Catfish in an instant.
In modern armored warfare, tanks didn't usually erupt into towering fireballs with each hit, as they did in movies. That only happened when the ammunition rack was struck and detonated.
Armor-piercing shells were kinetic-energy rounds. Their high-strength alloy warheads punched through defenses by brute force—in short, they were "physical attacks" that relied on overwhelming force.
Shaped-charge rounds used the explosion of a shaped charge to form a metal jet that pierced armor. They could be thought of as "magic attacks."
HESH rounds, on the other hand, used plastic explosive to generate shock waves when detonated against an armored plate.
The resulting overpressure spalled fragments from the armor's inner surface, killing the crew inside and damaging equipment. They could be thought of as "shock attacks."
At the same time, HESH rounds could also be used as high-explosive shells!
The scene after a HESH round detonated was spectacular. A cloud of smoke and dust billowed over ten meters into the air, as if they'd suddenly arrived in the war-torn Middle East.
This kind of attack was largely ineffective against modern armored vehicles clad in composite armor and covered in Explosive Reactive Armor. Often, it resulted in "all smoke, no damage."
But against the supernatural creature known as the Earthquake Catfish, it was fatal!
Shrapnel flew in all directions through the explosion. The mass of reddish-brown wood chips was all that remained of the torii gate that had once stood on its back.
Impressive.
On the train far away, Akihi Yu couldn't help admiring the sight as he controlled his avatar with his eyes closed.
The power of modern weapons was on par with a Jonin's.
If Akihi Yu had been there in person, he would've been blown to pieces long ago.
But the supernatural being the Japanese police called the "Earthquake Catfish" was merely a creation of his ninjutsu.
If it was destroyed, he could just make another one.
"Did we get it?"
In Nishio-gu Town, Arakawa Ward, an observer inside an armored vehicle stared at the center of the explosion as smoke rose. Meanwhile, the powerful figures at the Metropolitan Police Department watched the screen tensely.
As the dust gradually settled, it revealed half of a broken torii gate and rubble scattered across the ground.
Phew~~
"Looks like we won."
Director Takeya pushed up his rimless glasses and finished his declaration of victory. Then the image before him abruptly changed.
"ROAR!!!"
A sound like a train horn turned into a deep, resonant bellow.
A huge silhouette suddenly shot up into the sky from the center of the explosion!
"The Earthquake Catfish?"
"It survived? No, it's gotten stronger?!"
That thought flashed through the minds of almost everyone who witnessed the Earthquake Catfish.
The black fish had been barely ten meters long before. Now it had grown into a gigantic monster twenty meters long!
Twenty meters might not sound like much. But an ordinary heavy truck was only six meters long, and even the massive flatbed freight trucks with twelve wheels, nicknamed "hundred-ton kings," were only seventeen meters long.
Most classic fighter aircraft were around twenty meters long. But unlike those "slender" fighter planes, the Earthquake Catfish was clearly short and fat.
Raising its head from the center of the explosion, the Earthquake Catfish slammed its body down onto the street.
RUMBLE!!!
Visible ripples of force spread into the ground. The entire battlefield shuddered violently, like a drum being struck rapidly and repeatedly! Vast stretches of concrete road, trees, and paving stones were hurled into the air by an overwhelming force, shattering into a churning cloud of smoke carrying dozens or even hundreds of tons of rubble.
Earth Release: Earth-Splitting Palm
Under the ceaseless tremors, countless spiderweb-like cracks snaked across the surrounding buildings as they shook violently. Finally—
The structures built by human hands could take no more. Steel beams twisted out of shape, and earth and stone poured down in a thundering cascade, like a raging waterfall, unleashing countless aftershocks.
Good. It had leveled up!
Akihi Yu had just stepped out of a subway station in neighboring Bunkyo Ward. His gaze sharpened.
Unlike other techniques, such as Fire Release and Lightning Release, which were so flashy they were practically impossible to hide,
Illusion Technique was silent, defeating enemies with a mere thought. Earth Release could burrow underground and be used freely beneath the ground.
Under the intense pressure of fighting the military, Earth Release had been the first to break through to Chunin level, unlocking every C-rank Earth Release technique!
Great!
He'd gained a wealth of new ninjutsu, giving him even more options.
As he walked toward Imperial Sakura School with Class Monitor Nao and Amame Ei, Akihi Yu rapidly searched through the new techniques in his mind. At the same time, he controlled the now larger Earthquake Catfish to survey the Self-Defense Force units lying in disarray.
It was time to strike back!
Inhale—
The giant fish opened its mouth and drew in a deep breath.
Exhale—
Countless tiny stones shot out through its massive teeth. They expanded in midair, transforming into boulders the size of millstones, then fell under the force of gravity.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!
Earth Release: Rock Swarm Cannon Technique
Boulders rained down in a dense barrage, like stones hurled from medieval trebuchets.
But once the numbers reached a certain point, even the most advanced steel tanks would fall beneath such a dense "rockfall."
Machine guns were smashed into pieces, autocannon barrels bent, and even the main gun barrels warped beneath the pounding boulders. The entire First Division of the Self-Defense Force was routed on the spot.
This wasn't any normal clash between two armies. It was an ambush with "no intelligence," "no preparation," and "no plan." Faced with an increasingly powerful Earthquake Catfish, they had no way to fight back. All they could do was cower inside their armored vehicles and cling to life.
No, there was still one option.
"Attack helicopters, fire air-to-ground missiles!"
Things had come to this. Director Takeya gave the order, his eyes bloodshot. The command was completely "beyond" his authority, but there was no time to worry about that now.
Beneath the attack helicopters flying at higher altitude, missiles screamed toward the even larger Earthquake Catfish below. A single missile was powerful enough to reduce an ordinary building to rubble. Even a heavily reinforced concrete structure would struggle to withstand repeated bombardment. But—
"How can this be?"
"Damn it, does it have an immortal body?!"
"Hey, are we fighting Antaeus?"
In the Metropolitan Police Department's operations room, Brigadier General Thomas watched the screen. Missiles repeatedly wounded the giant catfish, only for it to "dive" into the earth and emerge again completely unharmed. He couldn't help speaking up.
Antaeus,
the giant in Greek mythology, son of Gaia, goddess of the earth, and Poseidon, god of the sea.
Legend said that Antaeus possessed immense strength and was invincible as long as he remained in contact with the earth.
Later, Heracles discovered Antaeus's secret and lifted him into the air, preventing him from drawing strength from Gaia. Then he strangled him to death.
"So how do we make this fish leave the ground?"
In response to Brigadier General Thomas's question, the chaotic operations room fell silent.
"I believe..."
The Chief Priest from Yushima Tenmangu spoke up again.
"The torii gate carried on the Earthquake Catfish's back may well be a barrier sealing its power and demonic nature."
"Now the Earthquake Catfish is not only stronger, but also more aggressive."
"Then what are we supposed to do?"
Director Takeya abruptly turned his bloodshot eyes toward him.
The Metropolitan Police Department had evacuated the residents nearby immediately.
But the scene was already a complete mess. Never mind the Self-Defense Force's casualties—how were they supposed to explain this to the public?
A counterterrorism operation?
Even terrorists would've been terrified!
"Director Takeya, you should focus on figuring out how to stop this supernatural creature."
Brigadier General Thomas's words brought the Metropolitan Police Department director back to his senses.
On the surveillance screens, the Self-Defense Force had already given up fighting. The gigantic Earthquake Catfish seemed to have lost interest as well, and suddenly plunged into the ground.
The next moment, its massive body emerged from a park several streets away.
Then it sank into the soil again, just like—
"The Earthquake Catfish is moving rapidly underground!"
"Its target is..."
"Bunkyo Ward?!"
Before you continue